GoneTrending

In mid-August, an unprecedented supply of AMC shows made their Netflix debut en masse. These included Kevin Can Go F**k Himself (which probably won’t receive a third season) and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (which will definitely receive a second, third, and fourth season because fans cannot get enough of unwashed Norman Reedus).

Then there’s Dark Winds, which has stood as an underappreciated gem for two seasons on AMC with a third season on the way. The series is produced by Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin, and of course, “Winds” has to be in the title because even when GRRM doesn’t mean to troll his impatient readers over Winds of Winter, it still happens. I’m getting off track here because Dark Winds is a damn fine crime drama based upon Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee book series about 1970s Navajo cops investigating violent deeds in a remote area near Monument Valley. What they witness could transform their own spiritual beliefs, and the show is a sleeper hit for AMC that is now sitting on a weekly edition of Netflix’s Top 10 English-language TV shows.

Importantly as well, the show is penned by Native American writers and as AMC has noted, “More than 90 percent of the production team on both sides of the camera for season two were Indigenous.” Season Three is on the way, as mentioned, so a logical question follows.

When Will Dark Winds Season 3 Premiere On AMC?

AMC hasn’t revealed a precise release date for the show starring Zahn McClarnon and Jessica Matten, but back in Fall 2023, the network did renew the series with “a target premiere date in early 2025.” And a week ago, George R.R. Martin added that this season would drop “soon,” but you surely know how he is with dates. As a result, it’s best to go with AMC’s version.

Sounds like early 2025!

Eden has a lot going for it. For one thing, the survival thriller has a fun, based-on-a-true-story premise: a European couple in the 1920s escape to a quiet life on an island in the Galápagos archipelago, only for their solitude to be interrupted by unwanted outsiders who are “capable of theft, deception, and worse.” Also, it’s a movie directed by Ron Howard that doesn’t have the words “hillbilly” or “elegy” in the title. That’s a big plus.

But Eden‘s biggest draw is the cast: there’s Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby as the married couple, as well as Ana de Armas, Sydney Sweeney, and Daniel Brühl as the late arrivals. If I was on an island and had to choose between spending time with any of those five or Wilson the volley ball, it would take me half a second to decide. Cast Away? More like get away from me, Wilson.

de Armas plays a character calling herself “The Baroness” who gets escorted around the island by “two devoted lovers” (Felix Kammerer and Toby Wallace). “Having this crazy threesome relationship, and being a woman of opposites — either she’s sweet and tender and fragile and nervous and scared, or she’s absolutely crazy and dangerous,” the John Wick Presents: Ballerina actress told Vanity Fair about her character. “It was kind of finding that limit: What was the craziest I could get? How far could I go?”

She went pretty far:

Several scenes took days to get right, including a spectacularly disastrous dinner gathering. It finds de Armas’s Baroness hosting and holding court, trying to negotiate terms for the way everyone can live in harmony—while slyly asserting her power in the new dynamics. The sequence involves violence, singing, and some creative food play. “That scene was the scariest thing I’ve ever done,” de Armas says. “It was kind of like a chess game. We spent three days shooting that.”

Eden premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7. There’s no theatrical release date yet.

(WARNING: Spoilers for Power Book II: Ghost will be found below.)

It’s been two months since the last Power Book II: Ghost episode aired, and I don’t think I can go much longer without one. Thankfully, the second half of season 4 is set to return on September 6 and officially conclude its mid-season break. With that, viewers like myself will reconnect with Tariq and Brayden as they look to navigate back to the top of the drug world while also staying clear from the wrath of Noma who discovered that the duo is back on the streets moving product.

Elsewhere, we’ll catch up with Diana, who is pregnant with she and Tariq’s first child. Monet is still trying to bring her family back together, but she and Dru got wrapped up with the NYPD while Cane continues his role as Noma’s sidekick. Now that you’re up to speed, here’s what to expect for episode six.

When Does Power Book II: Ghost Season 4, Episode 6 Come Out?

The sixth episode of Power Book II: Ghost season four, titled “Devil’s Playground,” will arrive on September 6. The episode will be available on Friday, 9/6 on the STARZ app starting at midnight EST/PST. The episode will later air on the STARZ TV channel that same day at 8 pm ET/PT. A synopsis for “Devil’s Playground” can be found below:

Tariq and Brayden must find a way to get back in Noma’s good graces. Diana is faced with stepping further into the game or risking her family’s safety.

You can also watch a teaser for Power Book II: Ghost season four, episode six below:

‘Power Book II: Ghost’ season four, part in now streaming on the STARZ app Season four, part two debuts on September 6.

After the release of Joker in 2019, it became a popular internet trope to refer to things that substantially altered your life as your own personal “Joker” moment. Memes, tweets, viral videos… the Joker effect was real. Then Joaquin Phoenix won an Oscar, which seemed to validate the need for more Joker. But did we need more Joker? Well, now we have more Joker. What are we going to do with more Joker? Add music!

Joker: Folie à Deux is Todd Phillips’ follow-up to the 2019 drama, though it doesn’t seem like it will have the same type of magic that captured (and puzzled) audiences with the first installment. After debuting at Venice Film Festival, critics are conflicted on what to make of the sequel, even with the star power of Lady Gaga.

The film takes place two years after the fatal events of Joker. Arthur Flack is now a patient at Arkham State Hospital where he meets Lee, and the two embark on a musical love story rooted in a shared delusion. But from the sound of it, the delusion might be the movie itself. At least we got an Industry cameo.

The movie seems to be receiving the most criticism for not having much to say (or sing, for that matter) despite the lengthy 2 hour and 18 minute runtime, which might not give Gaga enough time to have her own A Star Is Born moment. At least she has a new record to look forward to after this!

Here’s what critics are saying:

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair:

A swooning criminal romance Folie à Deux is not. So what is it? It is not insightful about mental illness nor criminal tendency. It barely articulates what it is to fall into obsessive love. The politics of the film are too lazy and inexact to even qualify as libertarian. Mostly, Folie à Deux plays as a middle finger to anyone who sought something meaningful in it. I won’t spoil anything specific, but I will say that the ending of the film—which is the first time anything truly happens in the whole movie—is bound to enrage even the most die-hard of Joker believers.

David Ehrlich, IndieWire:

“Folie à Deux” does not give the people what they want. On the contrary, it actively courts the disappointment of its own fandom in order to articulate how cruelly Arthur is co-opted by the fantasies of the collective unconscious — lost in a dream that his followers want to have for themselves. That’s all well and good for a meta-sequel that isn’t afraid to alienate its target audience, the problem is that Phillips doesn’t give the people anything else instead. His film is bold enough to deny expectations (and smug enough to savor the growing dissatisfaction that it creates in return), but not remotely thoughtful enough to offer something more interesting in their place.

Kyle Anderson, Nerdist:

Neither Joker film is uplifting, but the people who got a perverse power fantasy out of the first one will likely feel disappointed by the sequel. There’s actually a weird element of Passion of the Christ to Joker: Folie à Deux. But with way more smoking. I’m not even entirely convinced the twisted love story aspect works the way they wanted it to.

Owen Gleiberman, Variety:

“Joker: Folie à Deux” may be ambitious and superficially outrageous, but in a basic way it’s an overly cautious sequel. Phillips has made a movie in which Arthur really is just poor Arthur; he does nothing wrong and isn’t going to threaten anyone’s moral sensibilities. In fact, he actually blows the only good thing that ever happened to him — winning the love of Lee’s Harley Quinn — because he denies the Joker in himself. He’s now just a singing-and-dancing puppet clown living in his imagination. Is that entertainment? Audiences, I suspect, will still turn out in droves to see “Folie à Deux.” But when it comes to bold mainstream filmmaking, it’s the scolds who are having the last laugh.

Alison Willmore, Vulture:

Joker: Folie à Deux is Arthur’s movie, and Arthur just isn’t that interesting, despite how much effort Phoenix puts into rendering the character in exquisitely anguished mental and sunken-chested physical detail. In the film, Arthur is a void onto which others project what they want to see.

Phillips can’t seem to pinpoint what Arthur is either. He positions him as deeply unwell at certain times, and entirely aware of and responsible for his own actions in others, sometimes culpable, and sometimes a helpless victim. Mostly, Arthur is acted upon, even when he thinks he’s seizing control — a punching bag for the world and, more importantly, for the director, who subjects the character to so many indignities that he actually stops being pitiable and starts resembling the punchline to a very long, shaggy joke. By the end of Joker: Folie à Deux, that joke feels like it’s on us.

Martin Tsi, Collider:

Phillips had one job, which was to recreate the jittery cringe of the original Joker to capitalize on the commercial and awards successes. A middling courtroom tale and half-baked musical is not the kind of victory lap anyone wants. Your best bet is to go rewatch The People’s Joker and pretend this never happened.

Siddhant Adlakha, IGN:

The worst thing about Joker: Folie à Deux is its unfulfilled potential. It begins with the promise of a novel approach to the Joker and Harley Quinn, placing them in a world where the opposite of cruelty is musical romance. Unfortunately, the DC sequel gets bogged down by a lengthy courtroom saga, which not only keeps the dazzling Lady Gaga away from the spotlight, but centers the movie entirely around its own predecessor, without doing or saying anything new.

Joker: Folie à Deux opens in theaters on October 4.

If there’s one thing you know about Faye Webster besides her music, it’s that she’s a hardcore yoyo enthusiast. Now she’s taking it to the next level: Today (September 4), she announced the Faye Webster YoYo Invitational.

The one-day event is set to go down on September 28 at the Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley, California. Per a press release, it’s “a special event that will see a dozen of North America’s best Yoyo masters showcase their skills in a no-rules, no-limitations exhibition of their best tricks and routines.” Webster is also set to perform “a short solo set” (with “maybe even some special guests,” the release teases.

An artist pre-sale for the event starts on September 5 at 10 a.m. PT, while the general on-sale begins September 6 at 10 a.m. PT. Find more information here.

In a 2021 interview with Uproxx, Webster explained how she first got into yoyo, saying, “I just got one for Christmas, just as like a sh*tty stocking stuffer. It was right before we went on tour, so I just brought it not thinking that I’d actually use it every day. It wasn’t really until I found other players online and connected with them and actually saw what it could escalate to. That’s when I realized how fun it is.”

She also noted, “When you compete in competitions, you have to perform to music. Depending on what division you’re competing in, there are different lengths for different songs. It’s been really cool at competitions to see what songs people will choose. When I was at the World Yo-Yo Contest in 2019, I literally made a playlist of songs that I heard people perform to. I was put onto some really cool music and I feel like when people do perform to music, it’s kind of like this synchronized swimming feeling.”

Peel Dream Magazine sounds just like a dream. On each record, ringleader Joseph Stevens takes a stab at a new style. Whereas he dabbled in the enveloping walls of lush shoegaze on previous records, Rose Main Reading Room finds the Los Angeles artist delving into the string- and marimba-heavy baroque-pop so meticulously arranged on Sufjan Stevens’ Michigan.

No matter what era of music Stevens draws from, he pulls it off with aplomb. You’d think he’s been making sublime chamber-pop for decades given the masterful craftsmanship he flaunts on his new album. As a Peel Dream Magazine fan, you can only feel excited to hear whatever it is he tackles next.

Ahead of the record’s release today, Stevens sat down with Uproxx to talk about Sufjan Stevens, his cooking talents, and being inspired by his brother in our latest Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

Repeating. Melody. Organ. Warm.

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

As pop music that prioritized harmony. And as music that was sometimes experimental in ways that aren’t obvious.

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

Oh god. One contender might be my brother Alek. He’s a fantastically talented musician and one-time composer who ingrained me with this love of rock n roll, experimental modern music, and artistic cred that resulted in my personal outlook on songwriting. Another one would be a former manager I had at a restaurant I worked at in New York named Alexis Georgopolis (who releases music under the moniker “Arp”). He’s a really talented songwriter, producer, and DJ who has worked with labels like Mexican Summer. We would talk about music a lot and I feel like he cemented this appreciation I’ve developed for arty ’90s/Y2K stuff as well as library and production music. Also, maybe Paul McCartney would be a contender.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life and what was it?

I can’t pick just one. Best dinner was in Reston, Virginia – my Uncle Tom’s Easter dinner at their house. It was an Italian braised beef dish called Manzo Brasato. He’d serve it with polenta that had fontina in it as well as homemade pesto. Best breakfast was in St. Simons island, Georgia – this incredible little spot that made their own biscuits, sausage, and pimento cheese. Best lunch ever was on tour in France at the home of this promoter that we stayed with. His wife made us this French macaroni and cheese type-of thing with ham in it. It was served with salad and Gowerstemiener. Honorable mention goes to a bunch of Sichuan restaurants I’ve eaten at in the San Gabriel Valley near LA, and maybe a ramen spot I went to in Tokyo.

Tell us about the best concert you’ve ever attended.

Turnip King, Wild Yaks, and Lodro at a DIY space that used to be on top of the Jefferson L in Brooklyn called Cheap Storage (the building is still there). It was my birthday and I went with my partner and some friends. It was snowing outside and we hung out on the roof for a bit. Turnip King absolutely melted my mind. I was completely smitten with them.

What song never fails to make you emotional?

“Holland” from Sufjan Stevens’ Michigan. It’s absolutely insane and destroys me.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

“United States”

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

Many, many punk houses all across the East Coast and Midwest and just bizarre experiences with complete strangers. Maybe it was once with an old band, we stayed at a house in Cincinnati, Ohio that was actually fine by most measures, but it didn’t have any heat, and this was during a particularly cold storm in the absolute dead of winter. I ended up sleeping in this empty bed with all of my clothes on, plus my winter coat and hat under the covers, and it was still profoundly cold as if I was sleeping naked outside. It must have been 20 degrees below zero or something.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform and what’s the city you hope to perform in for the first time?

Austin always and forever. Such a magical place and the people there are really kind to us. I hope to play in Minneapolis some day. I’ve heard it’s amazing and that’s a region of the country I’ve never really visited.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Go to a DIY show.

What’s one of your hidden talents?

I’m really into cooking and I think I’m pretty damned good at it.

If you had a million dollars to donate to charity, what cause would you support and why?

Helping to rebuild Palestine after this insane war. Also, I learned once that some of the most impactful charities are ones where people in very poor parts of the world are given tools that offset the fixed costs of starting farms or small businesses. I’d want to learn more about that.

What are your thoughts about AI and the future of music?

I actually do scoring work outside of Peel Dream Magazine, and I’ve often thought about how simple it would be for AI to just write music for ads and movies. That will definitely put a lot of people out of work one day. Regarding bands making records and stuff, I think it’s already worked its way into music with the use of sample libraries and loops (for example, Logic has a ton of “intelligent” drum loops that you can give directives to and get unique performances out of). But that being said, humans are going to keep being the only ones who can authentically comment on the human experience in any meaningful way, and I believe “real art” will continue to be the main kind of art moving forward.

You are throwing a music festival. Give us the dream lineup of 5 artists that will perform with you and the location it would be held.

In this moment . . . Slow Pulp, Terry Reily, Alex G, Bitchin Bajas, Jessica Pratt – it would be a very eclectic music festival. It would be held inside at a 600-capacity venue because I don’t really like outdoor music. It would take place in some cozy part of the country where there’s a massive snowstorm going on outside. Maybe a mountain town in Montana during the dead of winter. And it would have an awesome artist lounge where we’d all get tons of backpacks and stuff as well as amazing food.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on social media?

Bacons.bits – the guy with the cigar and “music career” advice. I think he’s really corny but I can’t stop watching him.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

I don’t have any tattoos!

What is your pre-show ritual?

I don’t really have one, but I will say if possible, I like to find some kind of weird little thing to do by myself, like walk around. I also enjoy zeroing in on people who work at venues and either just observe them or make small talk with them (security guards, stage hands, etc). I like feeling connected to the jobs surrounding tour and live music; it takes me out of my own bullshit and grounds me.

Who was your first celebrity crush?

The red-head mom who tries to seduce Edward Scissorhands in that chair.

You have a month off and the resources to take a dream vacation. Where are you going and who is coming with you?

I’d take my wife to El Paso and show her all of the Mexican restaurants we (the band) hit up when we pass through there on tour. Then we’d drive around Texas and up the middle of the country and stop at a bunch of swimming holes, nature preserves, and BBQ joints.

What is your biggest fear?

That everyone hates me and I’m terrible.

Rose Main Reading Room is out 9/4 via Topshelf Records. Find more information here.

During the final date of her residency in Munich, Germany, over the weekend, Adele announced that she’s taking a break from music. There are 10 shows left this fall in Las Vegas, but “after that, I will not see you for an incredibly long time,” the “Easy On Me” singer told the crowd. She explained that she’s “spent the last seven years building a new life for myself,” including raising a kid and getting engaged to sports agent Rich Paul, “and I want to live it now. I want to live my new life that I’ve been building and I’ll miss you terribly.”

Whether that “incredibly long time” is five months or five years remains to be seen, but if anyone can take an indefinite hiatus from music and come back bigger than ever, it’s Adele.

Is it crazy to say that we take Adele for granted? You and I and everyone else on planet Earth has heard “Hello” and “Someone Like You” and “When We Were Young” 30,000 times each, usually in grocery stores or Target or while walking around the mall. It’s gotten to the point where something as titanic as “Make You Feel My Love” (the modern-day “All Along The Watchtower” where it’s surpassed the Bob Dylan original in popularity) is a comforting, familiar white noise. But after learning about Adele’s break, I — as the meme goes— sat my ass down and listened to 21 for the first time in years. When I heard the controlled cracks in her voice in “Rolling In The Deep” or the soaring chorus of “Set Fire To The Rain” like it’s 2011 all over again, I was reminded why Adele is arguably the most successful singer of the past 15 years.

Adele’s career achievements defy belief. In 2008, she released her debut album, 19, which has only gone eight times platinum. Yes, “only,” because her follow up, 21, has moved over 31 million copies worldwide. It was the top-selling album in both 2011 and 2012 — and the decade. 21 is one of only two albums released since 2000 on the list of the 30 highest-selling albums of all-time. The other? The Beatles’ 1. If your success is being favorably compared to The Beatles, you’re doing something right.

Adele returned in 2015 with 25, which sold a record 3.38 million copies during its first week of release in the United States. That, more than any other statistical achievement in her career, is the one I find the hardest to comprehend. That opening week is nearly one million more than the previous title-holder, *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached. It’s difficult for an artist these days to sell one million total copies of an album.

But Adele has always been an artist out of time. She’s an old school diva, in the most complimentary sense of the term, during an era that favors relatability over vocal prowess. But she’s also a uniquely glamorous goofball, someone who enjoys playing with a t-shirt cannon as much as she does performing with an orchestra. It’s this dichotomy that makes her fascinating as a person, a singer, and a celebrity, even if she would bristle at the use of the word.

Adele has long been outspoken about her uneasy relationship with being famous and the drawbacks that come with turning something you’re good at — in her case, singing the word “hello” like no one ever has before — into your career. “My hobby became my job,” she said in 2021. “Fame scares me.” In a separate interview from that year, she told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, “I think it’s hilarious that I’m an artist for my f*cking job. But celebrity comes with it, and I’m not out for that. I don’t like being a celebrity at all.”

Suddenly, her “incredibly long” break sounds long overdue, especially with the health issues she’s had with her voice. And it comes with a rare advantage: Adele has already accomplished so much in her career — the sales, the streaming numbers, three-fourths of an EGOT (all that’s missing is the Tony) — that she can release new music only if she wants to.

Besides, it’s not like Adele is disappearing from her day job for good. She’s taking time for herself and for her family (she’s also expressed interest in script reading). It was four years between 21 and 25, and six years between 25 and 30, and both of those breaks turned out well. “I just went back to real life, because I had to write an album about real life, because otherwise how can you be relatable?” she told The New York Times about one of her pauses in recording new music and touring. “If I wrote about being famous — that’s f*cking boring.” Adele is a lot of things, but boring isn’t one of them. She ought to take all the time she needs.

Halsey has been teasing a new album lately, but now we finally know exactly when it comes out.

On social media today (September 4), Halsey shared the cover art and release date for the album, declaring that The Great Impersonator is set for release on October 25. They also wrote, “I made this record in the space between life and death. And it feels like I’ve waited an eternity for you to have it. I’ll wait a bit longer. I’ve waited a decade, already.”

In a teaser video shared in August, Halsey said:

“I really thought this album would be the last one I ever made. When you get sick like that, you start thinking about ways it could have all been different. What if this isn’t how it all went down? 18-year-old Ashley becomes Halsey in 2014. What if I debuted in the early 2000s? The ’90s? The ’80s? The ’70s? Am I still Halsey every time, in every timeline? Do I still get sick? Do I become a mom? Am I happy? Lonely? Have I done enough? Have I told the truth? I spent half my life being someone else. I never stopped to ask myself: If it all ended right now, is this the person you’d be proud to leave behind? Is it even you?”

The Great Impersonator Album Cover Artwork

The Great Impersonator is out 10/25 via Columbia Records. Find more information here.

Here we go again.

The release of Doechii’s debut mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal has cemented the ascent of a brand-new rap superstar. Unfortunately, it also resurrected a tired, misogynistic conversation among rap fans – one that seems to resurface every time a new woman in rap asserts herself with a lyrics-forward project or a virtuoso demonstration of wordplay.

Ironically, it’s often the most enthusiastic fans of the new kid on the block who resuscitate the decrepit discourse that pits women in rap against one another. In their rush to praise an exciting young talent, they often end up downplaying the past accomplishments of dozens of artists in the sisterhood of hip-hop and denigrating the efforts of their newfound faves’ contemporaries and peers.

But don’t get it twisted; women have always been rapping — and if you think otherwise, you haven’t been listening.

Alligator Bites Never Heal rightly has fans uplifting Doechii’s rap skills. All across social media over the weekend, rap fans have extolled the Florida rapper’s delivery and gift for wordplay. Songs like “Bullfrog,” “Boiled Peanuts,” and “Denial Is A River,” have fans proclaiming that Doechii’s project isn’t just a stellar debut worthy of Doechii’s label, but is also one of, if not the best rap projects of the year.

However, as they’ve become more profuse with their praise for Doechii, some have become dismissive of her contemporaries. In one example, a fan wrote, “It’s time we celebrate the females in hip-hop who actually can RAP RAP and not the others.” Another wrote, “Doechii is an example of what REAL female hip hop should sound like.”

What these posters and others are really saying is evident in what they’re NOT saying. What “female hip-hop” should be, to coin a popular phrase, is demure, buttoned up, chaste — the opposite of the “others” who “can’t” RAP RAP. By the way, what a horrid way to segregate women and suggest that such classification is also somehow inferior to “default” hip-hop, which, per this phrasing, means “men.”

It’s no secret that the success of sex-positive rappers — like GloRilla, Latto, Megan Thee Stallion, or Sexyy Red (all of whom have released projects this year) — bothers lots of men. These women don’t submit to social standards based on men’s preferences; they encourage women to get their own or turn the tables on men seeking transactional relationships. They turn the male gaze against itself. “If you want some of this,” they say, “You’re going to pay for it.”

Here’s the thing, though. It’s not just them. Rappers like Lola Brooke, Rapsody, and Tierra Whack have also released projects this year preaching self-determination. Please Don’t Cry, Rapsody’s fourth album, foregrounded the North Carolina rapper’s learnings from therapy; Tierra Whack’s World Wide Whack addressed the survivor’s guilt of fame. They all embraced wordplay and delivery and breath control and performance — as did projects from Baby Tate, Flo Milli, and more.

Criticizing rappers like Glo, Latto, and Meg for “sexy” content, only to ignore the “thoughtful” releases from Brooke, Rap, and Whack proves that it’s not about the “right” kind of hip-hop for those fans who do so — it’s about putting women down. It’s about proving them inferior to male rappers — all of whom rap about the same stuff, just from a male perspective — by moving the goalposts.

The sad part is that women have been dealing with this since hip-hop’s inception. MC Lyte — who has a new album coming out this month, by the way — was criticized for being too masculine, but contemporary group Salt N’ Pepa were equally criticized for sexual content. Lil Kim and Foxy Brown were derided for raunchy raps, but Missy Elliott was demeaned for not conforming to beauty standards. Eve, Da Brat, and Trina all fell somewhere along the spectrum, earning attention and album sales for their skills, only to be forgotten anytime the opportunity arose to frame women in rap as one of two dichotomous “types” that were both somehow unappealing.

Those who complain about the “style” of the Cardi Bs and Meg Thee Stallions against the “substance” of Rapsody and Doechii, ironically spend way too much time focusing on the style and overlooking the substance of all of them. These women don’t fit neatly into boxes; Rapsody and Doechii both rap extensively about sex and Doechii’s worn her fair share of risqué fits — including nothing at all in one music video.

Meanwhile, songs like Latto’s “S/O To Me” or Meg’s “Hiss” prove the versatility of women who lead with their looks. While it’s great that so many people are catching onto the talent displayed by Doechii, that talent isn’t as isolated or singular as some have made it out to be. There are plenty of women rapping with plenty to say, and a wide array of ways to say it. There always have been, and there’s more than enough credit to go around.

Charles Barkley has been talking about retiring from TV for almost as long as he’s been on TV. The Hall of Famer long insisted that he would call it quits from TNT when he turned 60, but instead inked a massive 10-year deal with the network just ahead of his 60th birthday.

That deal coincided with Shaq, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson all re-signing with Turner, locking the Inside the NBA crew into long-term deals. Apparently, that was done with the upcoming NBA media rights negotiations in mind, as Warner Bros. Discovery was hoping that having the beloved show committed to sticking around for most of the next deal would help their cause in keeping the NBA. As we now know, that wasn’t enough and negotiations between the league and network fell through with TNT apparently balking at the NBA’s initial asking price in the exclusive negotiating window, then getting outbid by NBC for the B-package. TNT attempted to save a piece of the pie by exercising matching rights on Amazon’s package, but the NBA quickly denied that was a full match as that goes well beyond the financial element.

As a result, the future of Inside is up in the air, although Barkley and TNT have announced he won’t be leaving the network and will continue doing the show, in some form, beyond the 2024-25 season. Barkley has no clue what that looks like — and says TNT doesn’t either — but wants to keep his friends employed as long as possible, which is why he says he’s not following through on his promise to retire after this season. As he tells it, it’s the second time he’s put off retiring at the request of TNT, insisting to Bill Simmons he was really planning to ride off into the sunset at 60, but they asked him to stay through the negotiations.

“So my original game plan was to retire at 60. They’re like, you gotta stay til the new deal is done. And I’m like ‘F***,” Barkley said.

“Cause they needed you for the negotiations,” Simmons followed up.

“Yes, but little did I know they were gonna f*** that up,” Barkley said with a laugh. “And I was like, you guys been great to me, I’ll stay for two more years. Next year was supposed to be my last year, and I was gonna walk off into the sunset. It’s gonna be interesting cause I have zero idea what we’re gonna do.”

Barkley went on to explain that TNT said they haven’t figured out exactly what the show will look like after next season, as they don’t have the NBA and would need to pay for highlights, but he wants his friends to have jobs so he’ll stick it out. That said, he doesn’t seem tremendously confident in the WBD leadership to get it right.

As for the retirement claims, Simmons told him point blank he didn’t believe he was going to retire, and I tend to agree. Barkley loves to talk, as evidenced by how often he does various radio spots and podcasts (like this one), and it’s not like he’s hurting for time on the golf course doing the show once a week during the season. However, I do believe that’s one of the reasons he stuck to his guns when it came to not going to another network, because ESPN and even Amazon and NBC would likely have wanted him on air more often than he is accustomed to at TNT, where he keeps busy during March Madness and the Playoffs, but is otherwise on just Thursdays.