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As you might have heard, Game of Thrones had a lot of issues in its final season, from pacing to character motivation to the episodes being too dang dark. “The Long Night,” in particular, was dubbed “one of the most expensive missed opportunities in the history of television” due to how difficult it was to follow the action. Excuses were made, with director Miguel Sapochnik explaining the darkness was an intentional choice to mimic the “feeling of claustrophobia, anxiety, and at times frustration” that the characters were facing. But the only frustration most viewers felt was from having to squint.

It might be worth checking out “The Long Night” again, or maybe even a full series re-watch: every episode of Game of Thrones (including the good ones!) has been remastered on HBO Max ahead of the August 21st premiere of House of the Dragon.

Tom’s Guide reports that “HBO Max added the entirety of Thrones in 4K UHD quality. And it’s not just sharp, either. The seasons are presented in HDR 10, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos. That means you’ll see all eight seasons of Thrones with high contrast and strong colors. And it’ll sound immersive.” (The 4K-quality episodes are not available to stream on every device, including PS5s for some reason, but you can find the list here.)

That should help the too-dark issue. Daenerys going full girlboss? That’s a tougher fix.

(Via Tom’s Guide)

King Princess’ (real name Mikaela Straus) new album Hold On Baby dropped last week and it was something Foo Fighters die-hards were surely paying attention to, as the late Taylor Hawkins plays drums on “Let Us Die.” King Princess brought the song to TV last night with a Tonight Show performance, during which she found a simple way to honor her collaborator.

After Jimmy Fallon’s introduction, the first shot of the performance was of the kick drum, which had “TAYLOR” printed on it. From there, Straus and her band put on a dynamic and rocking performance of which Hawkins would have been proud.

Straus recently told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about working with Hawkins, “In between takes, we’d FaceTime and he was just so kind. […] He was just saying he loves playing drums. And to hear that from somebody who’s lived such a life that, at his age and playing for as long as he has in so many different bands and his own projects, for him to just love to play the f*cking drums, that to me is just what we should all strive to be: Somebody who does not lose that love of their instrument.”

Watch King Princess perform “Let Us Die” on Fallon above.

Chance The Rapper is only 29 but given that his debut mixtape, 10 Day, came out when he was just a teenager in 2012, he’s been rapping for a long time. All the while, Chance has been dealing with fans/haters saying he’s “fallen off,” that he’s not as good now as he once was. In a recent interview on Breakfast Club, he offered a passionate response to that.

Charlamagne Tha God asked how Chance deals with online criticism, specifically mentioning that a common theme is people saying he “fell off.” Through smiles, Chance replied:

“Man. I don’t know. To me, it’s like, I could do one of two things: I could either agree with it, or I could live my life, right? If I agree with it, then that means the Breakfast Club fell off, ’cause y’all don’t have people that fell off sitting in your chair, I don’t think, usually. And so I feel like I gotta stay on my path. N****s was saying I fell off when I was in high school! I made four mixtapes! N****s was telling me in high school, ‘Your last tape was better!’ I’m like, ’N****, I’m 15!’ But it’s like, man: I can joke about it, but it is tough, but it’s like, I don’t know, what can I say? Tell people that my feelings are hurt? Like, I don’t know.

The best thing that I could do is like… man, when I get up with Vic [Mensa] and we just go and we just write and we just make sh*t, it’s so undeniable: I’m so good at rapping! I’m sorry I keep saying that, but it’s just like, at this point, I got to just put the words on the screen because motherf*ckers really loving that sh*t. It gives people goosebumps. So I’m like, I could listen to people that think about artists like they’re f*ckin’ Pokémon cards, like these commodified trading cards. It’s like, ‘Oh, you’re f*ckin’ 2K rating just went down.’ F*ck them n****s! These n****s is lame as hell! They never been on! If I fell off, at least I was on, you know what I’m saying?”

Watch the full interview below, with the talk about falling off starting at around 41 minutes into the video.

Earlier this year, Kendrick Lamar dropped Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, the follow-up to his critically-acclaimed Damn. The album was polarizing, with some thinking it was his greatest work yet, while others were not into it at all. The rapper, though, has stayed quiet since the release.

Today, GQ shared an in-depth interview with the album’s producer, Mark “Sounwave” Spears, in which he discusses the way he and Lamar “knew this album was going to be a tough listen.” “It was beyond rough,” he told the interviewer about working on the LP during the pandemic. When asked about if they had to work remotely, he said, “This was the toughest and longest creative process for me. We didn’t necessarily have everyone come to us; we traveled.”

When asked about creating the sonic palette, he explained, “It’s always going to be different with every artist, but Kendrick, he’s very specific. He knows what he wants and even when he don’t know what he wants, he knows what he wants, if that makes sense. Comparing him to anybody else is night and day. We lock in and for weeks just create ideas. And maybe nothing comes from it or maybe a whole album comes from it.”

He continued, “Like I said, this is probably one of the toughest creative processes imaginable creating this album. We went through so much: starting in early 2019 we lost Nipsey, and then less than a year later we lost Kobe. For me, creatively, that hurts. It took a lot out of me. And then a few months later, what happens? We get locked down. Pandemic.”

Read the full interview here.

In July, DJ Khaled announced God Did, his thirteenth album, the follow-up to 2020’s Khaled Khaled, which featured 21 Savage, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Big Sean, and more. But he didn’t release a single alongside this announcement, and he didn’t offer a tracklist, or even a release date. However, today he unveiled some more information.

In a new Instagram post, DJ Khaled revealed that God Did is arriving on August 26th. The first single “Staying Alive” is out this Friday, August 5, and will feature Drake and Lil Baby. Read the full caption below.

“DJ KHALED FEAT. @champagnepapi @lilbaby #STAYINGALIVE ANTHEM AND VIDEO THIS FRIDAY AUG 5TH

#GODDID
ALBUM DROPPING AUGUST 26TH 8/26 !
Win with us…or watch us win
PRE-SAVE THE ALBUM NOW! LINK IN BIO!”

In November of last year, DJ Khaled teased this song during his own birthday party, letting the crowd know that a new collaboration with Drake was in the offing. “I got some new music with Drake coming out real soon,” he said. “This sh*t sounds crazy too. The vocals are in!” In 2020, the pair also worked together on the track “Popstar,” which also featured Justin Bieber, so this isn’t their first time working alongside one another.

You might remember Mark McCloskey. He was the unhinged lawyer who, along with his wife Patricia, brandished firearms at BLM protesters marching through their gated St. Louis community. They faced felony charges, but pleaded them down to misdemeanors. Mark was immediately hailed as a new GOP star. He and his wife made video appearances at that year’s wild Republican National Convention. Mark was so emboldened that he ran for Senate. Well, anyway, sometimes dreams, they simply don’t come true.

As per The Daily Beast, in the Republican primary held on Tuesday, McCloskey nabbed a mere 3% of the vote. That means he came in a distant fifth. Besides, the race was already dominated by one even more out-there candidate, who also lost.

Like McCloskey, Eric Greitens — the state’s former governor, who resigned in disgrace in 2018 — released a campaign video in which he toted big guns. Unlike McCloskey, Greitens went so far as to fantasize about using them to hunt RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only. Greitens came in third, with only 19% of the vote, with the nomination going to the state’s attorney general, Eric Schmitt.

The general public is notoriously fickle and easy to forget. So it goes with McCloskey, who thought he could ride a deranged public outburst into a position making laws in D.C. Instead, his law license was suspended indefinitely, and an appeal was shot down back in June. Let this be a lesson that pointing guns at people later revealed to be unarmed won’t make you a superstar, not even with the Republican Party.

(Via The Daily Beast)

The greatest to ever sit behind a microphone and take listeners on a journey throughout a baseball game died on Tuesday. The Los Angeles Dodgers announced in a statement on their Twitter account that Vin Scully, who spent 67 seasons calling games for the team before his retirement in 2016, passed away.

“We have lost an icon,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said in a statement. “The Dodgers’ Vin Scully was one of the greatest voices in all of sports. He was a giant of a man, not only as a broadcaster, but as a humanitarian. He loved people. He loved life. He loved baseball and the Dodgers. And he loved his family. His voice will always be heard and etched in all of our minds forever. I know he was looking forward to joining the love of his life, Sandi. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family during this very difficult time. Vin will be truly missed.”

Scully began his time with the team in 1950, when the Dodgers will still based out of Brooklyn. He joined them when they moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and continued to call their games until he decided to end his career when he was 88. While Scully called NFL games and golf tournaments during his career, and did national baseball broadcast for a period of time, he’ll forever be known for lending his voice and unparalleled storytelling to the Dodgers.

Scully’s final game came on Oct. 2, 2016, the team’s regular season finale against the San Francisco Giants. At the conclusion of the game, Scully said the following to the loyal listeners as part of his final sign off: “You and I have been friends for a long time, but I know in my heart that I’ve always needed you more than you’ve needed me, and I’ll miss our time together more I can say. But you know what? There will be a new day, and eventually a new year. And when the upcoming winter gives way to spring, rest assured, once again, it will be time for Dodger baseball. So this is Vin Scully, wishing you a very pleasant good afternoon, wherever you may be.”

Even before he recorded a violent and disturbing campaign ad in which he hunted RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only, with shotguns, Eric Greitens was bad news. He used to be the governor of Missouri…until he resigned in disgrace following a flurry of disturbing accusations, including sexual misconduct. But if you were worried he’d wind up in the Senate, don’t worry because he got his butt handed to him in the primary.

As per NBC News, Eric Schmitt, the state’s sitting attorney general, handily clinched the Republican nomination for the Senate seat soon to be vacated by GOP lawmaker Roy Blunt. His predecessor in his current role was no less than macho man Josh Hawley. His positions aren’t much better. He wants to overturn the Affordable Care Act, he’s been against public health restrictions during the pandemic, he’s against protecting LGBTQIA+ people from workplace discrimination, and more.

Still, at least he doesn’t openly fantasize about hunting down people he disagrees with for sport. As of this writing, The New York Times reports that Schmitt has nabbed 46% of the Republican vote, while Greitens came not in second but in third, with only 19%. Schmitt will now face the winner of the Democratic primary, which will either be Trudy Busch Valentine or Lucas Kunce. Thus comes the end of a bizarre GOP primary, which featured such highlights as Donald Trump having to choose which Republican Eric to endorse, only to go with…both of them.

(Via NBC News)

While there were some uninspiring moments during the 2022 NBA playoffs, the first round matchup between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Memphis Grizzlies was highly entertaining. Eventually, the Grizzlies prevailed, in part by making fewer mistakes than the Wolves.

Minnesota standout Anthony Edwards is seemingly baffled by what transpired. In fact, he recently spoke to Zion Olojede of Complex and indicated a belief that the Wolves “handed” the series win to Memphis.

“Man, I feel like we handed it to them, man. It was like taking candy from a baby, and they took the candy,” Edwards said. “We had every game won, man, and I don’t know what happened. I don’t know what happened.”

This is not hard to believe, especially when considering the factors in play during the series. Game 3 is the shining example when the Wolves blew two different 25-point leads before losing a pivotal contest. On the whole, Minnesota held a halftime lead in the majority of games during the series, and the Wolves were mistake-prone throughout the contest.

It wasn’t as if Memphis was a fully playoff-tested team when the series began, but the Grizzlies did benefit from a young Minnesota team that may not have been quite ready to win a series like that. Of course, the future is bright with Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, and the newly acquired Rudy Gobert on board, and expectations are sky-high for the Wolves this season. Beyond that, Edwards is always candid and refreshing in his public comments, and this is an example of that.

In June, Drake released Honestly, Nevermind as a surprise, and it received a wide range of reactions. Now he’s unveiling the music video for the track “Sticky.”

Directed by Theo Skudra, the video opens with a massive crowd hyping up Drake as he walks onto the stage. It then follows him in cars, parking lots, airports, clubs, and even on boats. The words “Free YSL” appear across the screen for a brief moment, referring to the ongoing racketeering case against Gunna’s label that has Gunna, Young Thug, and 28 other members hit with several federal charges.

Shortly after unleashing the LP, the rapper mentioned on a radio show that he has lots more projects that will be arriving soon. “Me and Kenzo have a book coming out this year. Yeah, we have a book coming out this year, a poetry book. So I hope you guys tune into that, too, because that’s going to be some sh*t.” He added, “I got another Scary Hours pack coming, too, in a little bit. Maybe not, like [laughs]… maybe not right now; I need you to just take this [Honestly, Nevermind] in right now. But I have a Scary Hours, I’m gonna slap some head tops off with a Scary Hours pack.”

Watch the video for “Sticky” above.