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(Spoilers for Season 3 of The Boys will be found below.)

The Boys keep on doing the thing, meaning that they’re somehow managing to stun their audience after last week’s “Herogasm,” which has been called the show’s best episode. Other than featuring a Supe orgy and confirming that The Deep can’t give up the octopus obsession, the episode culminated in a knock-out, throw-down fight between Homelander, Soldier Boy, Butcher, and a naked Hughie. The whole rivalry between the unfrozen Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and Homelander (Antony Starr), two “great whites” who are warring over the whole concept of a Compound V “upgrade,” led to that climactic battle, but this week, it led somewhere else.

During the final moments of “Here Comes a Candle to Light You to Bed,” The Boys dropped a stunning twist that actually makes too much sense. Homelander was apparently test-tubed from Soldier Boy’s sperm, meaning that — you guessed it — we’ve got a figurative Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker realization (from The Empire Strikes Back, obv) in the making. Of course, there’s also plenty of other, quieter revelations (including Black Noir’s past), but yes, there’s every reason to believe that Homelander’s pitch-black soul will finally crack in half when he gets a load of this.

And let’s just say that viewers were stunned, too. What does this say about Butcher’s plan regarding Soldier Boy being the only one who can defeat Homelander?

Could Homelander and Soldier Boy actually team up, and can anyone survive the resulting mess?

The Boys‘ is currently streaming on Amazon, and next week’s the Season 3 finale.

After a hot start to the 2021-22 season, the Chicago Bulls tapered off as they dealt with some key injuries and entered this offseason considering some changes. Their main priority was getting Zach LaVine back in the fold as star hit unrestricted free agency, and for a brief moment it seemed he might see what else was out there for him on the market.

However, the Bulls came correct with their contract offer to the star and as free agency opened, LaVine agreeing to a 5-year, $215.2 million contract to stay in Chicago was reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic. Charania added that LaVine’s deal includes a player option on the final year.

LaVine is coming off of back-to-back All-Star campaigns in Chicago, taking a leap as a scorer both in volume and efficiency, averaging 25.8 points per game on 49.1/40.4/85.1 shooting splits over the last two seasons. With LaVine back in the fold, the Bulls attention now shifts to what else they can do to upgrade the roster around LaVine and DeRozan, with the expectation being they’ll try to bolster their frontcourt, either in a splash move that sends Nikola Vucevic out, or in a smaller addition to bring a bit more defense and rim protection to the roster.

Chicago will hope that Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso can get healthy for a full season and they can take a step forward as a contender in the stacked East, with LaVine as the centerpiece and now being paid like it.

Wiz Khalifa is a businessman — he has his own weed brand, Khalifa Kush, as well as HotBox, a collaboration with the virtual restaurant brand NextBite.

Now, Khalifa is launching with a naturally occurring psilocybin and mushroom wellness brand called Mistercap in collaboration with the Canadian company Red Light Holland. In the Netherlands, they’re working on magic truffles and hope to launch home-grown, non-psychedelic mushroom kits in the U.S., Europe and Canada by the end of the year.

“We’ve been working with Wiz Khalifa and his team to collaborate and create a brand that encompasses our joint belief for the affordable and equitable access to naturally occurring psilocybin responsibly,” Red Light Holland’s CEO and director Todd Shapiro said in a statement. “Wiz Khalifa is a global icon with tremendous reach who is uniquely positioned to help us spread the message and end the stigma surrounding psilocybin while focusing on mental health and wellness.”

He added: “When we launch the MISTERCAP products, including the MISTERCAP website, social media channels and merch – we plan on launching BIG TIME – so stay tuned, because Wiz Khalifa x Red Light Holland together are not afraid of shaking things up and making some much needed helpful noise. Together we are demonstrating that mushrooms are important, the future and can be very sexy!”

R. Kelly has been found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering in a federal trial and sentenced to 30 years in prison, but the judge in the case apparently wants to take more proactive steps to keep Kelly from backsliding upon his release. In addition to the long prison sentence, Judge Ann M. Donnelly has ordered R. Kelly to receive treatment for “an unspecified sexual disorder,” according to TMZ.

Additionally, after his release, Kelly must avoid all contact with minors unless the minor’s family member is present or in a therapeutic setting with a responsible adult chaperone. Finally, Kelly faces five years of supervised release at the end of his prison sentence. Prosecutors originally recommended more than 25 years of prison for the disgraced singer due to the threat they feel he presents, so Judge Donnelly has certainly gone above and beyond.

US attorneys likely believed that such a sentence is warranted because of both the evidence that came to light during the trial and the decades of alleged misconduct in which Kelly engaged according to witnesses. While his 1994 wedding to a then-17-year-old Aaliyah was widely-known, in the years since, Kelly was accused of child pornography and keeping women and girls in a “sex cult,” manipulating or outright abusing them to keep them compliant.

Kelly faces another trial on child porn charges in Chicago next month. He plans to appeal his conviction.

Drakeo The Ruler might be gone, but his legacy lives on. While he wasn’t yet a household name when he died late last year, Drakeo’s impact has become more evident every day in the months since through the rappers he influenced and the music he left behind. A prolific artist who released music almost as quickly as he created it, Drakeo’s got enough banked verses to keep posthumous releases flowing for the foreseeable future.

One of those verses appears on “Heartless,” a song from fellow LA rapper Bino Rideaux‘s newly released mixtape, Sorry 4 Tha Wait II. A sequel to the original 2019 Sorry 4 Tha Wait tape, the follow-up came out today via Do What You Love Records and Def Jam. Bino certainly qualifies as one of the rappers who carries on Drakeo’s torch, embracing an independent, DIY ethos and blending old school and contemporary LA sounds in his music.

In addition to Drakeo, Bino’s new tape also includes appearances from more of the Los Angeles area’s main attractions, including rising Compton rapper Kalan.FrFr, Roddy Ricch, another Hub City native, and Ty Dolla Sign, the unofficial heir to Nate Dogg’s hook crooner crown. You can check out “Heartless” above, the full tape here, and the video for “If You Ever” below.

The Golden State Warriors lost one of the unsung heroes of their run to an NBA title in the early hours of Friday morning when it was announced that Gary Payton II is headed to the Portland Trail Blazers. Right around midday on Friday, it was reported that another important piece of the puzzle is leaving the team to pursue a new opportunity.

According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, Otto Porter has made the decision to head back to the Eastern Conference, where he is slated to join the Toronto Raptors. Haynes reports that Porter will receive a 2-year deal from Toronto, the team in his wife’s hometown, that includes a player option on the second year.

A former third overall pick by the Washington Wizards, Porter has spent time the last few years with the Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic, and the Warriors. He carved out a nice role in San Francisco as someone who can hit shots, play pesky defense, and keep the ball moving in the team’s ultra-egalitarian offensive structure. He earned Warriors coach Steve Kerr’s trust in a big way, as he got inserted into the team’s starting lineup for the final three games of their NBA Finals campaign against the Boston Celtics.

Porter averaged 8.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game on 46.4/37.0/80.3 shooting splits in 63 games with the Warriors last season.

Earlier this week, a rumor went viral that Elvis star Austin Butler punched Ezra Miller during a confrontation at a Tokyo bar. Turns out the whole thing never happened. According to now-deleted tweets from a pop culture publication, Miller had approached Butler after spotting him at the bar. The rumored encounter went south when Miller started shouting at Butler, which would be par for the course for The Flash actor who’s been the subject of numerous reports of erratic and allegedly violent behavior. However, this time, Miller is in the clear after TMZ did some digging and debunked the rumors:

Sources close to Austin tell TMZ the incident never happened, and Austin never even stepped foot in a pub during his time in Japan as the initial claims suggested.

Not to mention, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department tells TMZ they have no record of the incident.

Those rumors were quick to gain traction, in part due to Miller’s documented history of concerning behavior. On the same day the now-debunked Tokyo story went viral, Miller was the subject of a lengthy feature in Variety, which broke down the numerous allegations against the troubled star. For the first time, the young woman who Miller was captured on video choking and slamming into the ground in Iceland has shared her side of that encounter, and another woman in Germany has come forward with allegations of Miller terrorizing her after she asked the actor not to smoke in her apartment.

“I’m a maker of planets,” Miller allegedly told her. “Tobacco is sacred.”

(Via TMZ)

Back in mid-May, Denzel Curry stirred the pot by expressing his disappointment in Drake’s Certified Lover Boy and Kanye West’s Donda, tweeting, “Donda and CLB could’ve been better yall n****s rich and got the greatest musicians at your disposal.” Not only is Curry not backing down on that take, but in a new Spin interview, he actually doubled down by going into more detail about what he meant.

Citing Take Care and If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late as example of the sort of Drake level of quality he hopes for with a new album, Curry said:

“I was looking forward to Drake’s album, ’cause Drake always got something. But then, when you get them albums, you’re like, ‘What the f*ck are you doing?’ […] We don’t even really need to talk about Kanye West, it’s Kanye West. But for them to go out and go against each other and make that subpar work with the resources they have. These are the same producers it’s hard for me to reach out to because they don’t see the return. You’ve got all these resources and y’all made subpar albums. I had limited resources and I made a great one. That shouldn’t happen.”

Read the full feature here.

After releasing four albums in two years, indie royalty Sufjan Stevens said it was time for him to take a break. In 2020, he collaborated with Lowell Brams for Aporia and then released the solo effort The Ascension, and then last year he unveiled the solo album Convocations followed by his joint project with Angelo De Augustine called A Beginner’s Mind.

Now, Stevens (who turns 46 today, by the way) is finally back, this time with new versions of “Fourth Of July” from his sprawling 2015 opus Carrie & Lowell. The heartbreaking ballad has always been a fan favorite, and these renditions dig into the sadness and haunted texture, sounding more stripped-down than ever. The opening lyrics continue to be some of the most powerful first lines of a song: “The evil it spread like a fever ahead / It was night when you died, my firefly.”

Stevens’ label’s website Asthmatic Kitty offered an explanation for this generous release: “The song has recently had a resurgence with listeners — which may speak to a deep national grief and sense of loss. As we head into this Fourth of July weekend — a US holiday marked by war (and death) — let us reflect on what it means to live in fullness in the face of death.”

Listen to the April Base version above and the Dumbo version below.

You never know what’s going to happen on a cruise ship… but there’s a good chance it’s going to be bad. You might have to quarantine for two weeks after over 600 people tested positive for COVID; you might go through the middle of a hurricane; you might be surrounded by poop; or you might be involved in a multi-floor brawl at 2 a.m. with dozens of other passengers over an alleged threesome.

Fox News (finally, some good journalism from Fox News) reports that “an all-out brawl that broke out between dozens of passengers aboard the Carnival Magic cruise ship was sparked over allegations of cheating while on the trip.” An onlooker, Theresa James, claimed that the fight started in the wee small hours of the morning “on the ship’s fifth floor, where a dance club and casino are located. An alleged threesome between passengers had upset their significant others when they learned of the rendezvous.”

Beer bottles were smashed, and a woman may have been cut during the chaos… The brawl lasted about an hour, according to [James], and took the parties involved from the fifth floor to the ship’s first floor, which James described as a huge distance. She said the altercation wasn’t physical the whole time, and an estimated 60 people may have been involved.

“Ignorant fools acting stupid,” James added.

The New York City-bound ship was near the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge (which connects Brooklyn and Staten Island) at the time of the brawl, but “it is so far unclear if the incident took place within International Waters or will fall within New Jersey jurisdiction or NYPD purview,” according to People. Yes, there’s video:

No charges have been filed yet.

(Via Fox News)