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February 22 was a big day for Kanye West. Not only was it the supposed release date for his new album, Donda 2, but he also held the latest stadium listening event for the album in Miami, Florida just as the second episode of the Netflix documentary about him, Jeen-Yuhs, went live. Fans have a lot of Kanye content to sort through, but one of the earliest points of discussion to emerge from the new documentary episode revolves around Kanye’s first big solo hit.

After putting in several years at Roc-A-Fella Records as a hit-making producer, Kanye was ready to show the world that he could also be a hit-making rapper in his own right. However, after being signed as an artist, he felt that he was losing momentum after the near-death auto crash that left his mouth wired shut while he recovered. Those experiences formed the basis of his breakout single, “Through The Wire,” which sampled the Chaka Khan classic “Through The Fire” and introduced Kanye as an artist that deserved to be taken seriously.

However, before he put it out, he wanted the seal of approval from some of his peers, which included Pharrell Williams of The Neptunes — whose reaction upon hearing the single for the first time has tickled fans on Twitter. As Kanye finishes playing the song’s second verse, Pharrell, apparently overcome with his impression of Kanye’s final bar, simply walks out of the studio to collect himself. When he returns, he still seems in disbelief that Kanye not only spit such a heartfelt verse, but did so with his mouth wired shut (as a bonus, the version played in the footage contains the rough vocals, which Ye re-recorded later for the version that eventually hit retail).

“That sh*t is phenomenal,” he praises. “You’re one of my favorite artists… and I only heard two records. You’re gonna make it, and when you make it, keep the same perspective. Still keep the same hunger.” While it’s arguable whether Kanye has managed to do that over the past few years, it’s still an intriguing, eye-opening look into what was undoubtedly a defining moment for the then-young producer-turned-rapper.

During the bizarrely scheduled 2020-21 NBA season, the All-Star break actually fell in the middle of the shortened campaign. That isn’t unique in league history but, oftentimes, All-Star weekend and the general hiatus lands a bit later in the basketball calendar, and that applies to the 2021-22 season. In fact, each NBA team has appeared in at least 57 games, with some pushing above the 60-game mark in the first half of the campaign.

What does that mean? Well, the second half of the calendar isn’t quite as long as one might think. That brings urgency to postseason chases in both conferences, with playoff-caliber teams facing real urgency. At the top of the Eastern Conference, eight teams are within seven games of the No. 1 spot, and the top seven teams are separated by only five total games. That creates uncertainty when attempting to forecast playoff matchups, and the difference between the No. 1 seed and landing in the play-in tournament isn’t nearly as substantial as it seems.

Out West, the Phoenix Suns lead the pack by 6.5 games which, by proxy, is larger than the gap between the No. 1 and No. 7 teams in the East. After that, however, the races become much closer, both for a top-four seed and home-court advantage in the first round and at the play-in level. In fact, several teams (Pelicans, Kings, etc.) are openly pushing to reach the play-in, and there are legitimate stakes at the bottom of the playoff push.

With 25 games or fewer remaining for every NBA team, the margins are slim this time of year, and the league will resume regular operations with games on Thursday. To that end, our DIME power rankings are back for another run to glance at the upcoming second half.

1. Phoenix Suns (48-10, Last week — 1st)

The Suns are very clearly in the driver’s seat at the All-Star break, but challenging times could be on the horizon. Chris Paul is out for 6-to-8 weeks and, while Phoenix is set up to weather that in the standings, no team wants to be derailed by that kind of injury. Provided Paul can return at full strength for the playoffs, the Suns will be just fine, but it isn’t a total given that this well-oiled machine will churn the same way without one of its engines.

2. Golden State Warriors (42-17, Last week — 2nd)

The Warriors have the second-best profile. The Warriors are also operating below the baseline they established early in the season. Both can be true. Steph Curry’s eruption in the All-Star Game might be an indication of what’s to come, but all eyes are on Draymond Green and when he can return to anchor the defense and unlock the offense with his playmaking.

3. Memphis Grizzlies (41-19, Last week — 3rd)

Memphis is generally viewed as a team that is ahead of schedule, but the Grizzlies are here now. Memphis is a top-five team in the league in record and net rating, and and Ja Morant is a bonafide superstar. The Grizzlies didn’t make an all-in move before the trade deadline, leaving this roster to its own devices, but anything short of a top-three seed would feel like a disappointment after this start.

4. Miami Heat (38-21, Last week — 5th)

The Heat sit tied atop the East at the break, and that perch comes after seven wins in eight games to close the first half. Miami’s expectations are sky-high after the move to add Kyle Lowry in the offseason, but skeptics about Miami’s depth (including yours truly) have proven wrong. Now, the question is just how high the ceiling is for the Heat as things grind toward the finish.

5. Boston Celtics (34-26, Last week — 4th)

If you glance at the standings, it will seem ludicrous to have the Celtics as a top-five team. A deeper look reveals that isn’t the case. For one, Boston has the best net rating (+5.4) in the NBA. For another, the Celtics lead the entire NBA in both net rating and defensive rating since the calendar flipped to 2022. Lastly, the Celtics made a swift move to add Derrick White at the deadline, and Boston can pair two shot-creating wings (Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown) with an elite defense. That’s a scary formula.

6. Chicago Bulls (38-21, Last week — 7th)

Quietly, Chicago’s defense has cratered in 2022, with the Bulls giving up more than 1.15 points per possession. Fortunately, DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and a potent offense has covered up for it to solid overall results, but can Chicago right the ship on defense? It would help to have Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, but there are systematic questions on defense for a team that prominently features DeRozan, LaVine, and Nikola Vucevic together. Regardless, the Bulls are in a tie with the Heat for the top spot, and they’ve greatly exceeded expectations.

7. Philadelphia 76ers (35-23, Last week — 8th)

The Sixers overhauled things at the deadline and, coming out of the break, there should be a chance to peek at what’s to come. James Harden changes things on both ends of the floor, with questions about how it will work alongside Joel Embiid. Then again, the Sixers effectively swapped Seth Curry and Andre Drummond for Harden and Embiid might be having the best season in the NBA, so it’s not hard to see those questions answered in such a way that Philly is dangerous come playoff time.

8. Milwaukee Bucks (36-24, Last week — 9th)

As much as the Bucks have earned this No. 8 ranking, they might be the most trustworthy team in the East. Per Cleaning The Glass, Milwaukee’s trio of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, and Jrue Holiday have outscored opponents by nearly 14 points per 100 possessions when playing together. That dominance speaks for itself and, of course, the Bucks are still the champs. The questions linger about health, though, and that particularly pertains to the still-absent Brook Lopez.

9. Utah Jazz (36-22, Last week — 6th)

Utah is 30-14 when Rudy Gobert plays this season. That is a lot closer to preseason expectations for the Jazz, with Utah visibly cratering while Gobert was sidelined. Metrically, the Jazz have the second-best net rating (+6.9) in the NBA behind Phoenix, and that also might be closer to what would be expected. Does that mean Utah is flawless? Definitely not, as a porous defense and shaky assist percentage are fairly frightening. The Jazz shouldn’t be dismissed, though, and they know as much as any team that the playoffs are what matters.

10. Denver Nuggets (33-25, Last week — 11th)

The Nuggets would be terrifying if they had Jamal Murray. The Nuggets would be terrifying if they had a healthy version of Michael Porter Jr. available. Heck, the Nuggets are terrifying when they have Nikola Jokic on the floor, no matter who is playing with him. Denver is more than 20 (!) points per 100 possessions better with the reigning MVP on the court, and the Nuggets are pretty good because he’s on the team. No one wants to play Denver in the playoffs if they get healthy.

11. Dallas Mavericks (35-24, Last week — 12th)

It’s an arbitrary endpoint, but the Mavericks are 20-7 in the last 27 games with a net rating of +8.3. The offense has been very good, but the defense has been elite, and Dallas closed with six wins in seven games before the break. The Mavericks have the inside track on a top-six seed and, with Luka Doncic in the mix, Dallas is a threat to any opponent.

12. Toronto Raptors (32-25, Last week — 13th)

The Raptors are out of the top six in the East right now, but only by a half-game. Toronto is playing at a high level, as evidenced by an 18-8 record in the last 26 games, but the question is whether they can keep up this pace. The Raptors have three of the top four players (and five of the top 13) in the NBA in minutes per game, and depth isn’t exactly a strength. If they can avoid disaster, this is a difficult team to prepare for and a team that is well-coached and prepared.

13. Cleveland Cavaliers (35-23, Last week — 10th)

Cleveland entered the break on a sour note with back-to-back losses, but that shouldn’t scare anyone too much. Those were losses to the Sixers and Hawks and, while Atlanta isn’t fantastic this season, Cleveland ran into an offensive buzzsaw in that game. The Cavs are still tied with the Bucks and Sixers in the East standings, and this is a team with a real chance at a top-four seed. It’s a remarkable story.

14. Minnesota Timberwolves (31-28, Last week — 15th)

Minnesota should really be a bigger story on a national scale. The Wolves are second only to the Cavs in improvement from last season, and Minnesota is a solid No. 7 in the West with a chance for more. Top to bottom, Minnesota probably has more talent than Denver, the team the Wolves are chasing, but they will need to find a consistently impressive level to make the necessary run to avoid the play-in.

15. Atlanta Hawks (28-30, Last week — 17th)

Since MLK Day, the Hawks are 11-5 with a +5.4 net rating. Does that mean Atlanta is turning the corner? We’ll see, but the Hawks can at least bank on the fact that they just did this a year ago. As noted above, however, the runway is a lot shorter this time around, and the Hawks are looking up at eight quality teams in the East standings before mentioning that they are also tied with the scuffling Hornets. If nothing else, Atlanta can take solace in a legitimately elite offense and the notion that even a below-average defense will make a huge difference in comparison to a dreadful one.

16. Brooklyn Nets (31-28, Last week — 16th)

The Nets are 24-12 when Kevin Durant plays. The Nets are 7-16 when Kevin Durant doesn’t play. Beyond the clear reality that Durant is elite, it is also a reminder that Brooklyn has very little to bank on when Durant isn’t around. Kyrie Irving is only eligible to play in a handful of games the rest of the season, and we’ll see what Ben Simmons looks like. Other than that, it is a waiting game until Durant can return.

17. L.A. Clippers (30-31, Last week — 14th)

Paul George has appeared in 26 games. Kawhi Leonard has appeared in zero. Somehow, the Clippers are still a .500 team on paper, and Ty Lue is doing yeoman’s work. Along with Denver above, the Clippers would be scary if pieces returned, but they are frisky as it is.

18. Portland Trail Blazers (25-34, Last week — 21st)

Portland closed the first half on a four-game winning streak, and that is notable on many levels. The Blazers have a two-game lead for the No. 10 seed, even as they clearly aren’t prioritizing the present. There is no reason Portland couldn’t keep up this pace, albeit slightly reduced, by leaning on Anfernee Simons, Josh Hart, and Jusuf Nurkic, and the urgency to lose games for lottery purposes isn’t as prominent with a pick from New Orleans coming.

19. Los Angeles Lakers (27-31, Last week — 22nd)

All-Star weekend was dominated, at least in some ways, by LeBron discourse. Most of it was focused on what the Lakers didn’t do, but Los Angeles still has one-third of a season to make a run. They are still at least tangentially dangerous as long as LeBron is healthy, but Anthony Davis being out for a while stings.

20. San Antonio Spurs (23-36, Last week — 19th)

San Antonio clearly isn’t pushing for the play-in like the Pelicans and Kings are, and that was evident in deals that sent Derrick White and Thaddeus Young away at the deadline. In a crazy twist, though, the Spurs have a (very slightly) positive net rating for the season and, if that holds along with an uninspiring record, San Antonio would have the worst winning percentage in history. In short, things haven’t gone well in close games.

21. Charlotte Hornets (29-31, Last week — 18th)

For a long while, Charlotte was in the top five in offensive rating. Now that they aren’t, the Hornets are scuffling with nine losses in 10 games and a 3-10 mark without Gordon Hayward in the lineup. Candidly, it is hard to see Charlotte’s defense improving much, but they badly need to recapture the offensive fervor that carried them for most of the first half.

22. New Orleans Pelicans (23-36, Last week — 20th)

CJ McCollum has led the Pelicans in scoring in four straight games. That’s probably a good sign, even as New Orleans went 1-3. The Pelicans are fighting hard for the play-in, but New Orleans has a two-game deficit to make up. It would probably help if they had Zion Williamson, but that’s another story.

23. Washington Wizards (27-31, Last week — 24th)

It feels unbelievable that the Wizards are within one game of the play-in. With Bradley Beal out of the lineup, Washington isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire, but they are hanging on in comparison to Charlotte and Atlanta. Objectively, this isn’t a roster that is energizing, but getting a chance to peek at Kristaps Porzingis in a new uniform down the stretch could be interesting.

24. New York Knicks (25-34, Last week — 26th)

The Knicks have one victory in the month of February, and it came on the road over the Warriors. That embodies this bizarre season for New York, with the Knicks barely holding on to the fringes of the play-in race. Last season felt like an aberration. This season might be one, too. Regardless, it’s been ugly and it may not change in the next 23 games.

25. Sacramento Kings (22-38, Last week — 23rd)

The Kings are 2-2 since acquiring Domantas Sabonis, even if the last two games before the break went the wrong way. Sacramento is clearly pushing for the play-in but, in the big picture, what matters is the partnership between Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox, along with the development of Davion Mitchell. Can the Kings crash the play-in party? We’ll see, but they are pretty close to the mix for a team ranked No. 25 in the league.

26. Oklahoma City Thunder (18-40, Last week — 25th)

Oklahoma City is legitimately good on defense and legitimately brutal on offense. Being a top-10 team on one side of the floor is actually encouraging for a rebuilding club, but the Thunder will soon have to make decisions on young guys, if only because they have so many picks coming. Evaluation time is precious as a result, and the rest of the year is viewed through that lens.

27. Indiana Pacers (20-40, Last week — 28th)

If we’re being honest, the Pacers probably need to keep losing. Indiana famously hasn’t had a top-nine pick in three decades, and the Pacers could use an infusion of high-end young talent. On the other hand, any basketball observer would have to be intrigued by the potential to see Tyrese Haliburton, Malcolm Brogdon, and Myles Turner together, just to see how it looks. Throw in rookie Chris Duarte, and there is still an interesting foundation in place amid the chaos and losses.

28. Detroit Pistons (13-45, Last week — 30th)

Most of this week’s slate is focused on the future, but we have to acknowledge Detroit’s entertaining win over Boston to close the first half. Cade Cunningham is showing all the signs of the player he was billed to be, Jerami Grant is still on board as a strong veteran, and the Pistons do have pieces. The rest of the campaign should be focused on making things easy for Cunningham to develop and accumulating ping-pong balls.

29. Orlando Magic (13-47, Last week — 27th)

Per NBA.com, no team has given more of its minutes (50 percent in total) to rookies and sophomores than the Magic. That makes complete sense for a rebuilding team, and the results are mixed as a result. Orlando does have functional lineups to deploy when healthy, and the rookie season of Franz Wagner has been an unmitigated success. Now, it’s about seeing what this group can do and remembering the pending returns of Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz.

30. Houston Rockets (15-43, Last week — 29th)

The Rockets have the NBA’s longest active losing streak and the only statistical profile in the league that features bottom-five units on offense and defense. Does that actually matter for right now? Probably not. Houston does have real young talent, headlined by noted dunk contest participant Jalen Green, and they have vital development time coming. That might not jive with the presence of Eric Gordon and Dennis Schroder on this roster, but there should still be plenty of minutes to go around, and the win-loss results don’t matter. It’s all about next year and the year after that.

It all started with the date: February 22, 2022. Apparently, Kanye West is a big fan of numerology — or at least, saw some significance in the rarity of the date he chose to target for the release of his new album, Donda 2. From there, it seemed he did everything he could to enhance the spectacle of this one-of-a-kind calendar occurrence. He announced that, instead of dropping his album to DSPs, it would only be available via his $200 stem player device. He announced another big stadium concert, this time in Miami, Florida, to showcase the album. Of course, the question of whether the album would be ready by the date in question loomed large over the proceedings, and as much as an hour in, fans watching the livestream via Twitch or the stem player website wondered whether even the songs he performed were finished.

The concert picked up where the last one for the original Donda left off, with a replica of his mother’s house going up in flames, and like the previous concerts, this one was a hybrid, somewhere between performance art and listening session. Again, Kanye stood in the center of the stadium, surrounded by a huge ensemble of models or dancers (although, they didn’t really “dance” per se), this time clad in all-black with those bizarre galoshes he’s taken to wearing of late. The floor of the stadium was flooded. The light was dim and moody. He was joined once again by a variety of guests, including Jack Harlow, Migos, Playboi Carti, and someone Twitter informs me is named Burberry Erry (a Google search expands this to Erik Arteaga, a skater and “style influencer” who was apparently a beneficiary of the late Virgil Abloh). The songs themselves harped on his ongoing divorce from Kim Kardashian and the struggles of co-parenting (some, at least, self-inflicted, as we saw from his Instagram activity earlier this month).

On Twitter, a big point of discussion was the ongoing sound issue that caused up to a second of delay between the video and audio. While some delay is usually to be expected in big room situations like this — fans even debated whether Dr. Dre actually played the piano during his Super Bowl halftime show performance — this was something else altogether. It’s hard to tell how much was due to the livestream and how much was due to in-arena sound troubles, but when Kanye tossed his mic into the pool of water at the end of the show, many attributed it to his frustrations with the technical glitches. But those were perhaps to be expected — a lot like the lukewarm critical reception of Ye’s last few projects, these snafus could be mitigated if he just spent more time on the craft and less on trying to make a big show.

The big takeaway is the sense that, for better or worse, this is who Kanye is now. The spectacle is paramount to the music, and the music is just an excuse to roll out some new merch or have another art performance that reveals less and less what Kanye wants to say about the world. Instead, Kanye wants us to know what he thinks about the world in relation to himself, which is to say that he feels very slighted and put upon and persecuted because everyone else should be doing things his way. It’s hard to even argue with him because he’s got a stadium full of sycopha — ahem — fans who are willing to spend all those hard-earned Gap checks on anything and everything he does.

It’s impossible to tell whether Donda 2 even lives up to its predecessor because so much of the playback in Miami centered around stuff he’d already released and done in the last listening session. It wasn’t even the more pleasant stuff; what was the point of bringing back Marilyn Manson to once again stand beside him as “Jail” played, other than trying to recapture some of the tasteless shock value of the first time he brought out the accused rapist? The new stuff sounded mostly like the aimless, self-important noodling on the last one, with the exception of a handful of guest appearances from the likes of Migos, Fivio Foreign, and others, who sounded as revitalized as Kanye did lost.

If it sounds like I’m just kicking the man while he’s down — insomuch as someone who just sold out a stadium could be considered “down” — nearly every Twitter comment during the concert noted how he’d forgotten or never finished entire verses. Of course, because it’s Kanye, there were bright spots — throw Migos on some synthesized horns and magic will happen — but the performance itself felt dreary, maudlin, and sort of grotesque. We watched over the past few years a man muddle through some serious mental health issues, and last night, we were just as complicit as Kanye in valuing spectacle over anything else — even his humanity.

And yet, because it’s Kanye, there’s still the sense that this would all be worth it if the music were as inspired and dazzling and trendsetting and groundbreaking as his old material. He once set the direction for the sound of hip-hop with projects like 808s and Graduation; here, he was reduced to rehashing contemporary sounds. When Kanye and Drake played their Free Larry Hoover concert in Los Angeles last year, Ye lit up the venue with the dynamic hits that helped carve out his reputation as such a musical genius, while Drake let the crowd down with a plodding set full of the gauzy gray production that defined his most recent releases. This time around, it was Kanye who disappointed by doing the very same thing. In LA, Kanye gave us all hope that the Old Kanye was still knocking around somewhere in there; in Miami, though, he showed absolutely no signs that we’d ever see that Kanye again.

Street Fighter is one of the most famous fighting franchises ever. It, alongside the bloodier Mortal Kombat, revolutionized the fighting game genre and dominated arcades for over a decade. Even as the idea of arcades became a thing of the past in the United States, games like Street Fighter II were being regularly played on home consoles and in competitive local tournaments. In Japan, where the developer and publisher of the series Capcom is located, the series is still a mainstay in the thriving arcade scene.

All of this is to say that when a new Street Fighter game is announced, it’s usually a big deal. As such, when a recent countdown appeared on Capcom’s website with no indication of what it could be, fans speculated. While a new Street Fighter felt like a possibility, it never felt like a guarantee, especially since the series historically takes a long time to release new mainline titles with an eight-year gap between Street Fighter V and Street Fighter IV, and an 11-year gap between Street Fighter III and Street Fighter IV.

When the countdown on Capcom’s website finally hit zero, though, it revealed that it’s indeed related to a new Street Fighter. The next game in the franchise, Street Fighter 6, has been officially announced and teased. While we got no info for it besides a CGI cutscene featuring Ryu and Street Fighter V DLC character Luke, we can expect more info in the upcoming summer.

This is excellent news for fans of the fighting game genre. Street Fighter is always a great way to fight it out with friends, roommates, or in simple online battles, and with Street Fighter V introducing a story mode, we may even get a more expansive single-player campaign this go around. We’re eagerly awaiting more info in the coming months.

It’s no secret that Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy did not get along on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road. Despite having such an intense chemistry during the audition process, that the casting director crashed her car, things went south during the grueling production, and there was a palpable tension between the two. In Kyle Buchanan’s new book, Blood, Sweat, and Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, Theron finally opens up about the inciting incident that left her terrified of working with Hardy, and not in a “wow, he’s so intensely into his role” kind of way.

“I don’t want to make excuses for bad behavior, but it was a tough shoot,” Theron said in a new excerpt from Blood, Sweat and Chrome. “Now, I have a very clear perspective on what went down. I don’t think I had that clarity when we were making the movie. I was in survival mode; I was really scared sh*tless.”

According to camera operator Mark Goellnicht, the situation came to head when Hardy was, once again, hours late to a morning shoot. Theron, however, was in full Furiosa make-up and showed up on time. So when Hardy finally showed up, she confronted him about holding up production. Via Vanity Fair:

Eleven o’clock. She’s now in the War Rig, sitting there with her makeup on and a full costume for three hours. Tom turns up, and he walks casually across the desert. She jumps out of the War Rig, and she starts swearing her head off at him, saying, “Fine the f*cking cunt a hundred thousand dollars for every minute that he’s held up this crew,” and “How disrespectful you are!” She was right. Full rant. She screams it out. It’s so loud, it’s so windy — he might’ve heard some of it, but he charged up to her up and went, “What did you say to me?”

He was quite aggressive. She really felt threatened, and that was the turning point, because then she said, “I want someone as protection.” She then had a producer that was assigned to be with her all the time.

While Theron was provided with a female producer to check on her, she still felt “naked and alone” throughout the production after the incident. As for Hardy, he doesn’t deny his unprofessionalism.

“In hindsight, I was in over my head in many ways,” Hardy said in the excerpt. “The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced partner in me. That’s something that can’t be faked. I’d like to think that now that I’m older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion.”

(Via Vanity Fair)

Ahead of Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, rumors were circling that he’d have some new music to share before the show. And while that didn’t end up being the case, there have definitely been some recent advancements that give us a clearer picture of when the highly-anticipated follow-up to DAMN. is coming. Here’s what we know so far about the new Kendrick Lamar album.

Everything We Know About Kendrick Lamar’s Next Album

Kendrick Lamar hasn’t put out an album since 2017, when DAMN. debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. In August of last year, the “Humble” rapper issued a statement on his oklama.com website indicating that his next album would be “my final TDE album” and that he was indeed in the process of producing it. Then in October, his Spotify avatar changed for the first time since 2017, when DAMN. came out and fans were chomping at the bit. Then in November, as he was wrapping up his set at the Day N Vegas music festival, Lamar said “Vegas till next time! And when I say next time I mean very soon.” The plot thickens…

During Super Bowl Week, radio host Ebro Darden and his Rap Life Review co-hosts read a report that new music from the Compton raper was coming before the big game. And while it didn’t, a week later, the Milano Summer Festival in Italy announced that Kendrick Lamar would be performing and that he “will play the pieces of the new album, long-awaited by the fans.” Surely Lamar and his camp approved of that message. And if you need any further proof, last September, eleven new ASCAP song registrations popped up crediting “Kendrick Lamar” as the songwriter.

Perhaps the album has been done since September and Kendrick has been biding his time leading up to a big summer splash? We’ll find out soon enough…

I owe Lindsay Lohan an apology. The actress has been a part of my life since 1998, when she made her film debut in the Disney classic The Parent Trap, but it turns out that I’ve been pronouncing her name wrong this whole time. You probably have, too.

Lohan recently joined TikTok, and in her inaugural video, the Netflix Christmas movie star said, “Hey everyone, it’s Lindsay Lohan, and guess what? Now I’m on TikTok.” It’s maybe not the most exciting TikTok ever, but it made me realize that her last name is not pronounced “Lo-HAN,” which is how I’ve always said it, but “Low-en.”

Billie Eilish can relate.

“Have I been pronouncing your name wrong my entire life? I thought it was LoHAAAN,” one user commented on Lohan’s post. Another wrote, “Wait. Lindsey ‘LOWEN’?!? I’VE BEEN SAYING IT WRONG MY WHOLE LIFE?!?” One user even apologized, writing, “im sorry i’ve said your name wrong my entire life.”

Actually, I owe Lohan two apologies: the last name thing, and for what I told my friend after seeing Herbie: Fully Loaded in high school. “Herbie: Fully Loaded? More like Herbie: Fully Crappy” was an unnecessarily harsh review, I’m sorry.

You can listen to the correct pronunciation below.

(Via People)

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is either the best Zelda game or the worst. Okay, maybe that’s a little hyperbolic, but the discussion around the game almost always goes down that path. That’s because this is one of those games that took the established Zelda formula and made some major changes — Majora’s Mask is, in theory, one of the shortest games in the Zelda franchise. There are only four major dungeons and completing those four major dungeons is the only thing the player has to do to beat the game.

Where Majora’s Mask truly shines, however, is the side quests spread out throughout the world of Termina. There is maybe no game in the franchise besides Breath of the Wild full of the depth that exists in Majora’s Mask. There are plenty of side quests to keep the player throughout their journey and many of them have to be solved in creative ways using the game’s main mechanic, time loops. The player has three days to save Termina from impending doom, but they can reset back to the first day whenever they want using the Song of Time. This is also how the player will complete all the side quests, collect all the masks, and get an awesome reward at the end of the game.

This adventure is now available on the Nintendo Switch’s Online + Expansion Pack service. Anyone who wants to experience this classic, or maybe play through it for the first time, can now do so.

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Price: $50 (Yearly subscription)
Release Date: February 25 (2/25)
Genre: Third-Person Action/Adventure
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Rating: E
Where can I buy this: Only playable through Nintendo’s Online service
Single Player: Yes
Multiplayer: No
Early Access: No
Microtransactions: No

Olivia Rodrigo was one of 2021’s defining artists thanks to the strength of Sour, so naturally, fans are eagerly awaiting new music from Rodrigo. Well, now she’s offered an update on that front, revealing that things are progressing.

In a new Billboard interview, Rodrigo said, “I have a title for my next album and a few songs. It’s really exciting to think about the next world that’s coming up for me. I just love writing songs. I’m trying not to put too much pressure on myself. [I want to] just sort of explore and have fun right now.” She also noted her songwriting process for the new album has some differences and similarities to how she wrote Sour, saying, “It’s definitely a different experience writing a second album after having a debut that was so well-received. I still write so much of my music in my bedroom though, and I don’t think that experience will ever change. Writing songs will hopefully always be an outlet for me to process my feelings before anything else.”

She also said she’s once again collaborating with Dan Nigro:

“I absolutely love working with Dan. We have such a good groove together. We are always sharing ideas back-and-forth and have been carving out time to work together in the studio. The craziness of Sour being out in the world was something that really only Dan and I could relate to, and I think that has brought us closer together. I trust him so much and really enjoy the music we’ve been making.”

Check out the full interview here.

On Dec. 17, 2021, the Miami Heat picked up a 115-105 win over the Orlando Magic thanks in part to an unlikely hero: Max Strus. Miami seemed snakebitten earlier this season, ravaged by a collection of injuries and bouts of COVID, and space became available for lesser-heralded players to win them basketball games.

Strus, who had flashed his ability to score a handful of times during his tenure with the Heat, came off the bench and scored 32 points while connecting on eight of his 11 attempts from three. The next four games were much of the same — Strus racked up a few starts and kept scoring, and despite having his own stint in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, made his most emphatic statement yet that he has a role as a contributor on a team with championship aspirations.

“I think [Heat coach Erik Spoelstra] is one of the most unique coaches in the NBA for that reason,” Strus told Dime when asked about his coach’s tendency to let guys ride out hot streaks, regardless of their perceived role in a team’s hierarchy. “He’ll play anybody, at any time.”

The fact that Strus is even playing for an NBA team is a testament to a willingness to put his head down and work amid a rather unique path to the league. He wasn’t a blue-chip prospect by any means coming out of high school at Amos Alonzo Stagg in Chicago’s Palos Hills suburb — Chicago State University gave Strus his lone Divison I offer. Instead of going there, he spent two seasons at Lewis University in the Division II ranks before transferring to DePaul. Despite a pair of productive years with the Blue Demons, Strus went undrafted in 2019, ended up on a two-way with his childhood team, the Chicago Bulls, and two months into splitting time between the NBA and the G League, suffered a torn ACL.

It ended his season, but the far bigger issue was that Strus worried it might have ended his shot at playing in the league.

“I honestly was very scared and didn’t know where my career was going when I got hurt,” Strus recalls. “You never know with an ACL how you’re going to come back. And luckily, I got with the right people, the right trainers and staff that took care of my knee, and strength coaches and whatnot that helped me get back to where I was before. When you’re not established in the NBA, it’s hard to make a name for yourself and get chances.”

Making it in the NBA is hard. Making it as a 24-year-old without a ton of professional reps under your belt is even harder. Making it as that guy coming off of a potentially career-altering injury is, well, let’s just say you don’t see that every day. Being “scared of the unknown,” as Strus puts it, is only natural in that situation.

The good news for Strus is that his path helped him keep a level head. How big, really, is this sort of setback when Strus’ collegiate career started with him sitting on a bus with Lewis’ women’s team, getting shuttled on 10-hour rides from place to place so he could play a basketball game, all with the hopes that he’d eventually get a D-1 look?

“I think it gives me a good perspective to have of just being at all the places I’ve been, and all the stops I’ve had in my career, and all the challenges,” Strus says. “Honestly last year, I was just happy to be on a team and playing basketball again, and being healthy. When you’re out for nine months and can’t do anything with a knee injury, it really makes you think twice about the game and how much I missed it. Just having the joy in playing again and being out there with the team and being on the court again was enough.”

A call from the Heat came in the lead-up to the 2020 season. They wanted to get a look at him during training camp on an Exhibit 10 contract, which he parlayed into another two-way deal. He stuck with the Heat, showing some promise while getting time here and there during the league’s bizarre 2020-21 campaign, and after serving as a focal point of the team’s Summer League squad in Las Vegas — he says getting the chance to show off his ability to be a guy who can have the ball in his hands consistently after a year of being a role player was “the best decision for my career thus far” — put pen to paper on a two-year contract to stay in Miami.

Strus considers himself a hard worker. While he concedes he “probably” did not expect to be a guy averaging nearly 11 points per game and in the rotation for a team with NBA championship aspirations this early in his journey, he insists that this is how he saw his career playing out. Confidence and a strong sense of belief in his ability to one day be an NBA player are two things that never wavered as he worked his way back from his knee injury, all he wanted was an opportunity to show he could be that guy.

That didn’t necessarily mean being one of the guys who helped Miami navigate stretches in which more established names miss time, of course, but that’s certainly a good club to have in the bag. At DePaul, Strus was a 20-point a game scorer who served as the fulcrum of the team’s offense. The history of professional basketball is littered with guys who did not scale their game down after being the centerpiece of a college team, but coming into the league, Strus knew that possessing a dangerous jumper was going to be a way to stick around. If he could just hit those sorts of shots, maybe he’d eventually get the chance tap into the skills he developed earlier in his basketball playing career — he could put the ball on the deck and attack the rim, or kick it out to someone who got an open look off of his being aggressive.

And if (or more accurately, when) Bam Adebayo, or Jimmy Butler, or Tyler Herro, or Kyle Lowry, or anyone else on the Heat’s roster is in a groove, Strus is very aware that the best thing to do is to fill in gaps.

“I’m just here to do whatever our team needs,” Strus says. “We still have three superstars on our team, so I just got to figure out ways to help our team win, whatever that is on a nightly basis. It’s not gonna be scoring 20 points every night. It’s gonna be not scoring but playing defense, it’s gonna be rebounding. You just got to find out ways to affect the game and impact winning.”

Winning has been the norm in Miami this year. The Heat are 38-21, tied atop the Eastern Conference at the All-Star break with Strus’ old team, the Bulls. He heaps praise onto a pair of offseason additions with championship pedigrees, Lowry and P.J. Tucker, for seamlessly fitting into a locker room that brought back a number of key contributors from last year’s squad.

But more importantly, Strus thinks that the Heat are built to win due to everything that happens before and after they spend 48 minutes a night, 82 times a year, playing regular season basketball games.

“I think it’s our locker room, and our relationship with one another,” Strus replies when asked about how the Heat keep motoring in the face of injuries and illness. “We’ve kind of, since day one, we’ve all just been together and created a great environment. And obviously, winning helps with all of that, but I think we all really enjoy each other’s success, and there’s no BS behind that. We all genuinely do really care for one another and really want each other to succeed, and that’s contagious. And having that in your environment, it’s only gonna make each other better. I don’t see that going away anytime soon, it’s exciting and just gonna be way better for our future, and come playoff time, with everybody chipping in, everybody’s gonna have a role.”

He greatly values those relationships he’s been able to build in Miami — he calls it “pretty surreal,” for example, that he’s grown close to Butler, for whom he grew up rooting during his time in Chicago. (Yes, Strus says they have a “great relationship” and that Butler has “taken me in since day one,” even if they have been known to flip one another off during games.) As a young player still figuring out life in the league, Strus understands it’s important to learn as much as he can from the veterans around him as possible, and that while basketball is fleeting, the various relationships he’ll build up with other folks within the franchise will last forever.

As for what he wants to do while he’s in the league, Strus is keenly aware of how quickly this can all be taken away. He wants to be a consistent rotation player who, one day, becomes a consistent starter, all while continuing to improve his game. He wants to win, both because it’s the objective of everyone in the NBA and because he knows “everything else will come” after you have a reputation for being that sort of player.

That begins this year, and between the things he’s started to do individually and the success Miami has had collectively, he has reason to believe that reputation can be cemented by the time the season ends.

“I’m just gonna keep doing what I can to help this team win and hopefully make a super long run in the playoffs,” Strus says, “and know we’re bringing that trophy home.”