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Eminem Explains How Rapping Is ‘Therapeutic’ For Him

Drake dominated the music news cycle on Friday with the surprise release of Honestly, Nevermind, but last week was actually pretty stacked for new music releases beyond that. Westside Boogie, for example, turned in the excellent new album More Black Superheroes, one of the week’s best hip-hop albums. On Friday, Boogie popped into SiriusXM’s Sway In The Morning show to promote the album and the program also got a call from his Shady Records boss, Eminem himself.

On the program, Em spoke about how rapping is “therapeutic” for him and how that connects to More Black Superheroes. He said:

“I think that’s one of the great things about rap music is that, you know, you can put so much of your life in it, you know what I mean? […] It’s therapeutic and that’s how it’s always been for me.

But with this album, with this new Boogie album — the title, everything, is f*ckin… everything’s great. And it’s like, watching him just keep getting better and better and better is incredible, too. And he’s got so much of his life weaved in this album. You know what I’m saying? Like, I think that it’s therapeutic.”

Listen to the interview below.

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Al Pacino Had A Pretty Great Answer When Asked Which Actor Should Play A Young Version Of His Character In ‘Heat’

Heat wasn’t a monster hit when it arrived in the fall of 1995, but over the last 27 years it’s become one of the most beloved films for each of its legendary leads. Michael Mann’s epic crime film was the second to star both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro (after The Godfather Part II), but the first in which they actually got to share scenes. Now it’s got a new 4K restoration, as well as a forthcoming novel, Heat 2, which is both a sequel and a prequel, showing the younger years of its main characters. And if someone makes a movie out of that one, Pacino knows who should play him.

Pacino and De Niro — as well as producer Art Linson — were present at a premiere screening of the new restoration at this year’s Tribeca Festival. During the pre-film Q&A, moderator Bilge Ebiri (of Vulture) asked the burning question: Who could dare play the younger Vincent Hanna, Pacino’s sometimes unhinged LAPD lieutenant that loves big (or at least great) butts and he cannot lie?

“Timothée Chalamet,” Pacino exclaimed. “I mean, he’s a wonderful actor. Great looks.”

They also discussed the famous mid-film diner scene, in which Hanna and De Niro’s thieving Neil McCauley take a break from cat-and-mouse shenanigans and have a strangely therapeutic (though still tense) chat. They revealed it wasn’t as planned out as one might think.

“Al and I didn’t rehearse the scene,” De Niro told the crowd. “We just thought it was better just to do it.”

“I’ve often said to people who have asked me about working with him, ‘You can do anything with Bob.’ No matter what you do, he’s going to hear it, react to it and connect to it,” Pacino said. “That’s a real luxury to be with someone like that. Because no matter what you do, he picks up on it. He’s always there, at the ready.”

Pacino added, “I guess it’s somewhat like tennis. On your films, you gotta keep hitting the ball over the net, and it gets to the other person. It’s all a smooth rhythm that you get if you listen.”

Heat 2, which shows both the aftermath of the first film and the events leading up to it, will hit shelves on August 9, the same day as the original film’s 4K Blu-ray. Should a film version get greenlit, at least producers have one role cast.

(Via Variety)

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Report: Kenny Atkinson Decided To Stick With The Warriors And Not Become The Hornets Coach

For the second time this offseason, the Charlotte Hornets find themselves in need of a head coach. After deciding to make Golden State Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson their next coach, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports that something happened and as a result Atkinson will stick with the reigning NBA champions.

Wojnarowski further noted that Atkinson will be Steve Kerr’s top assistant.

There are a few logical replacements here for the Hornets, as Wojnarowski indicated their finalists for the position were Atkinson, Mike D’Antoni, and Terry Stotts. Wojnarowski went on to report that “Charlotte will have to restart process now,” although it is unclear if that means they will simply return to one of D’Antoni or Stotts, or if they will have to broaden their search even more. Whomever gets the job will inherit a team that went 43-39 last year and boasts one of the league’s brightest young stars in LaMelo Ball.

Keeping Atkinson is a big win for Kerr and the Warriors, as the team was already going to replace one high-profile assistant. In the midst of the team’s run to a title, the Sacramento Kings announced that Mike Brown would become their new head coach after spending six years on the bench.

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Davidson Will Retire Steph Curry’s Number Later This Year

Steph Curry‘s had quite a week. On Thursday, Curry led the Golden State Warriors to their fourth NBA championship in eight years and finally added a Finals MVP award to his jam packed trophy case. One day later and the university that played a major role in Curry becoming a household name announced that no one will wear the number 30 ever again.

During a press conference on Friday afternoon, Davidson athletic director Chris Clunie announced that Curry’s number will be retired, making him the first player in program history to earn that distinction. The program will hold a ceremony on August 31 to raise his number into the rafters, induct him into the university’s Athletics Hall of Fame, and give him his bachelor’s degree after completing it in May.

It wasn’t the only big news that came out of the Wildcat basketball program on Friday, as legendary coach Bob McKillop, who registered a career record of 634–380, announced his retirement after 33 years at the helm. Curry praised McKillop in the aftermath of the announcement.

Curry played under McKillop from 2006-09, a stretch that included the greatest season in program history. The 2007-08 Wildcats went 29-7, won all 20 games they played in the Southern Conference, and rolled through their conference tournament. The team was given a 10-seed in the NCAA Tournament and made it to the Elite 8, where they lost by two points to a Kansas team that went on to win a national title.

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Stephen A. Smith Responded To Skip Bayless’ Remarks About How He Joined ‘First Take’: ‘I Didn’t Lie About A Damn Thing’

The media world got a pretty unexpected beef this week when Skip Bayless more or less accused Stephen A. Smith of stabbing him in the back with his story of how he joined First Take. The gist: Smith went onto JJ Redick’s podcast and explained that Bayless begged him to join the show in an attempt to get the ratings up, which led to the show turning into what it is now.

Bayless responded to this on his podcast by calling it “recklessly inaccurate” and a “shocking fabrication.”

“With Stephen A as my partner, First Take would never touch the NFL Monday ratings that it hit in 2011 pre-Stephen A,” he said. “And I had taken First Take as far as I could? Seriously? I was just getting started, the rocket had just launched the year before in 2011. Stephen A, how dare you?”

Both guys are very much trained in the art of arguing others, but in the aftermath, Smith thought the best move was to try and diffuse the situation and take it out of the public eye. While he stressed he did not lie, Smith tweeted out that this is a misunderstanding and that he will address the matter with Bayless privately going forward.

While both of these guys are quite good at dragging things out in an effort to win arguments, this one does seem pretty done and dusted.

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Report: The List Of Teams Interested In Kevon Looney Includes The Hornets And Kings

Kevon Looney entered the 2022 NBA playoffs as a reliable but understated member of the Golden State Warriors’ roster and ended it as a crucial piece to their championship run. Looney, who the Warriors took with the No. 30 pick of the 2015 NBA Draft and has exclusively played for the team during his NBA career, averaged 5.8 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.2 assists in 20.4 minutes per game on the team’s march to a title, and was willing to do the dirty work that let everyone else succeed in their roles.

It couldn’t have come at a better time for the 26-year-old Looney, who is slated to hit unrestricted free agency this summer. According to Marc Stein, Looney’s expected to attract interest for a number of teams, with the center-starved Charlotte Hornets, who hired Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson to take over for James Borrego, and the Sacramento Kings — who made another Warriors assistant, Mike Brown their next head coach — among those with an eye on bringing him on board.

After playing a pivotal role in Golden State’s championship success, Kevon Looney’s forthcoming free agency will be monitored more closely than anyone might have imagined a month ago. Charlotte and Sacramento, soon to be coached by Golden State assistant Mike Brown, are among the teams said to be interested in signing Looney away from the Warriors, who spent nearly $350 million this season on salary and luxury tax for their championship roster. Looney more than outplayed the three-year, $14.4 million deal he just completed with his playoff productivity and is expected to generate no shortage of external interest.

The Warriors have long shown their willingness to pay whatever it takes to keep a championship contender together, even if that costs them a whole heck of a lot of money. Regardless, a number of teams seem ready, willing, and able to test that resolve for Looney this summer.

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How Steph Curry’s Crowning Achievement Commanded Everyone’s Attention

With just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter of a dominating Game 6 clincher, Steph Curry looked past Al Horford and toward history. Curry danced, sidestepped, jumped back, and bombed a three over Horford’s head to put the Warriors up 15 and secure the team’s fourth championship. As he sauntered back up the court, Curry clasped his hands and put them up to his head, letting all of TD Garden know it was time to put their title hopes to bed.

By the time Curry received his first Finals MVP trophy later that night, he had a more serious tone, acknowledging the pride he felt getting the MVP and winning a fourth title — but not before pointing out that he was listening the whole time, as many dug the Warriors’ grave. Postgame, Curry called out ESPN directly for claiming as recently as last August that the Warriors would win zero titles during the remainder of his contract. It only makes sense that as his game-sealing three over Horford swished through, Curry would make a show of that shot, the team’s return to the top, and the history of the moment.

He was a legend reaching yet another apex; an all-time great becoming greater. Wherever Curry was in the all-time conversation of the NBA that is defined by accomplishments, he soared above that in Boston on Thursday. With four titles, he is now level with LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal. He’s eclipsed the career count of Larry Bird and Dwyane Wade.

Maybe it appears obvious to praise a legend like Curry, or like he had no reason to find motivation in the “chatter” or what was done for entertainment on First Take. In a league that is defined by its eras and icons, Curry has come to define his — this title and, perhaps more importantly, his fist Finals MVP award are his crowning achievements. But recent NBA champions have been muddled into these lost months and years of sickness and loss. And even before that, we lost perspective, rarely pausing to identify greatness when it’s happening — our attention spans, particularly when it comes to what actually happens on the court, have only gotten shorter. We celebrate with a few days of tweets before the Woj bombs start back up, with all eyes turning to the trade rumors and free agency tidbits.

Yet the Warriors have always been a draw, from nearly the instant they came on the scene. And though his heterodox style as an outside-in combo guard ran counter to most of what had been popular in the league before him, Curry has always been the reason for the Warriors’ magnetism.

Like LeBron James, whose 2016 title feels like the last one to matter this deeply in the NBA consciousness, Curry has been a constant among the basketball watching public long before he ever participated in a professional game. We’ve been dazzled by the man for 15 years, since he was a baby-faced, mid-major stud spearheading a surprise run to the Elite Eight. His 54-point coming-out party at Madison Square Garden was nearly a decade ago. His first MVP came during the rookie campaign of his apparent number two, Andrew Wiggins. The double bang against the Thunder arrived when second-round opponent Ja Morant was just a high school junior.

We had gotten a little out of practice discussing Curry, understanding the way his gravity and selflessness makes the whole team work, appreciating that his game is not just about jump shots and shoulder shimmies. This run served as something of a re-education. There Curry was, doing his best to help frustrate Luka Doncic in the Western Conference Finals. Or in the championship round, scoring comfortably from all three levels and lifting up an offense that no longer had Kevin Durant or the best version of Klay Thompson, while Draymond Green needed several games to start to figure out how to make his presence felt on that end of the floor against the vaunted Celtic defense.

This time, Curry won with a refurbished Wiggins as copilot, putting on his best-ever Finals display at age 34. And in doing so, he certainly commanded our attention once again.

And while Green’s podcast and Jayson Tatum’s homage to Kobe Bryant snuck in as tiny snacks, basketball excellence really was the entree in the NBA conversation this month. With distractions at a minimum, Curry let his game do the talking. Even Celtics fans stuck around by the hundreds at the Garden to watch as Curry received his Finals MVP trophy, named after Boston’s first legend, knowing they were witnessing something special.

Not every legend is magnetic. Time strengthens ties. We grew up alongside LeBron, and his every move made news. We knew Kobe was hunting Michael Jordan, and that Jordan was changing the game that Bird and Magic Johnson redefined. There’s a natural fluctuation in what captures our attention, but one thing is constant: People care and tune in for the greatest players of an era. Curry, as we saw this year and have seen repeatedly over the years, is one such player.

Golden State once was an antidote to the superteam, the best example of this era of what happens when a franchise drafts well, develops well, and has everyone from the top down bought into what needs to happen to succeed. Then, with the signing of Durant, they joined those ranks and were only derailed by a mix of catastrophic injuries and Kawhi Leonard magic.

This year, they were Tiger Woods at the 2019 Masters, recapturing the magic that made them so great and seeing themselves ascend to the mountaintop once more. Over time, the Warriors have certainly attracted as much cynicism as they’ve repelled. But having beaten back all of the doubt around small jump shooters leading championship teams, Curry singularly breaks through it.

Curry reorganized the Xs and Os of basketball, redrew its geography, and redefined the size and style of excellence. He carried the defining franchise for an entire era of the league. As he toppled the Celtics, he had every right to be exuberant. The cynicism was gone, and his Warriors were back at the top.

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Tucker Carlson Had A Predictably Over-The-Top Response To Triumph The Insult Comic Dog Being Arrested At The Capitol

On Thursday, nine people associated with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert were arrested at the Capitol building. One of them was Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, which is to say its puppeteer and voice Robert Smigel. Details are so far scarce, but it appears the crew stayed later than they should have after two days of pre-arranged interviews on the Hill, getting busted in the halls unescorted and without IDs. It’s an unusual story, but you almost have to hand it to conservative commentators — Tucker Carlson included — for making much more out of it than there is.

As per The Daily Beast, Carlson used a portion of his show on Friday night to make an utterly false comparison between late night TV staffers filming comedy bits and…violent Trump supporters storming the building, leading to five deaths. Carlson — who has downplayed the events of Jan. 6, even airing a “documentary” series filled with out-there conspiracy theories — called what Smigel and crew did “an insurrection,” even claiming Rep. Adam Schiff “illegally gave CBS producers access to the Capitol,” which doesn’t sound remotely right. He also pointed out that they were charged with “unlawful entry,” which as he put it is “the exact same charge” awarded the Jan. 6 rioters.

He then joked that Smigel and team will spend a year-and-a-half in solitary confinement, like some of the Capitol rioters. Thing is, he wasn’t really kidding.

“Joking aside, how could they not be held for a year and a half in solitary confinement without being charged?” Carlson railed. “Because the precedent is in place. And how in the world can Adam Schiff, who spent the last year and a half eliminating the civil liberties of Trump voters on the basis of January 6, do the exact same thing and not face punishment?”

Carlson wasn’t the only one making a mountain out of a molehill. Fellow Fox News host Jesse Watters said, “We might have to have hearings. We might have to have our own committee to investigate this sort of CBS News breach of the Capitol.” He even accused Colbert of being behind “a conspiracy.”

Perhaps Fox News honchos are just making up for that time they aired an empathetic and humane segment about a trans teen, which wound up enraging some of the GOP.

(Via The Daily Beast)

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Bartees Strange Gives A Haunting Performance Of ‘Wretched’ On ‘Kimmel’

Bartees Strange’s new album Farm To Table is out now and to mark the occasion, the genre-hopping singer-songwriter appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform his new song “Wretched.” Toting his acoustic guitar and surrounded by his band, he played the soaring anthem with all verve of a multi-decade veteran.

The press release for Farm To Table noted that the album began as an Autotuned trap album, which Strange then reworked to fit his usual indie-rock aesthetic. “Where his 2020 debut record Live Forever introduced the experiences and places that shaped Bartees (Flagey Brussels, Mustang Oklahoma), Farm To Table zeros in on the people — specifically his family — and those closest to him on his journey so far,” it reads. “With his career firmly on the ascent, Farm To Table examines Bartees’ constantly shapeshifting relationship with life post-Live Forever. It also speaks to a deeper lore that says, don’t forget where you came from, and this album is why.”

Strange explained the inspiration behind “Wretched” on Apple Music, saying, “That song, in particular, is about how thankful I am for all the people who held me down when I did feel wretched. I think a lot of people second guess themselves when they feel it in their tummy — they second guess that feeling — but that’s the light. You gotta follow that. This song and this experience has really showed me the importance of doing that, so I plan to keep doing it.”

Watch Bartees Strange’s performance of “Wretched” on Kimmel above.

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Wendy Williams Was AWOL For The Final Episode Of Her Long-Running Morning Show

Since October of last year, the show at The Wendy Williams Show has gone on without its namesake star. The erratic, complicated, occasionally straight-up bizarre host has been absent since catching COVID-19. Since then health problems and other personal issues have kept her off-air, replaced by a string of guest hosts, including Sherri Shepherd, Michael Rapaport, Bill Bellamy, Leah Remini, and more. But when the show ended, it continued to do so without Williams herself.

Back in February, the company behind the show, which began in mid-July of 2008, decided that they were ending the show. It wasn’t a total cancellation. Instead, some of the same staff, including the showrunner and executive producer, would transition into a similar-but-different show hosted by Shepherd, to be called simply Sherri.

It was Shepherd who lorded over the final episode of The Wendy Williams Show, which made up for the absence of the show’s star by loading up on tributes and montages. The show even ended with one of Williams’ signature lines — “How you doin’?” — but recited by Shepherd and crew. Also present was the show’s very first guest: Vanessa Williams, who had this to say about the star:

She was real. She is real — she’s still with us — and she’s resilient. She’s a fighter and she’s real, she was down to earth, she said it like it was. She kept it 100 but she did it with fun. And she was articulate and funny and has all these weird ‘Wendyisms’ that we would grow to love and know. I’m really gonna miss the show and miss her presence. You know she’s unique.

Shepherd herself weighed in on the MIA star, saying, “there is nobody like Wendy Williams,” and claiming she “changed daytime talk with her unique take, her one-of-a-kind celebrity interviews, the signature ‘Ask Wendy’ segments and of course, y’all, her famous ‘How you doin’?”

Still, surely we’ll be seeing Williams again. After all, who else can get into fights with both Howard Stern and Aunt Viv from Fresh Prince?

(Via Deadline)