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Megan Thee Stallion’s new album, Megan, has arrived — but not without some difficulty for the Houston rapper. In a recent livestream, Meg shared how a major obstacle emerged just days before the album’s release, forcing her to extensively re-record one song, “Otaku Hot Girl,” to remove references to one of her favorite anime.

She said on Tuesday, June 25, her team got an email from the anime’s production company, requesting the removal of a sample from the show, as well as several character names from her lyrics. “They said, ‘Actually, I need you to take out the names of the characters that’s in the show’,” she recalled. “That is the whole song. That makes the song make sense. They said, ‘You could either do this — you could have the music clearance or you can have the name clearance.’ The music is what’s really important to me, but the names really tied it all together.”

Ultimately, she re-cut the song in a makeshift studio just before going Live on Instagram, telling fans, “I really hope y’all think this sh*t sound fire, ’cause I had to jump through eight million hoops to get this sh*t. Once y’all hear the sample, y’all are gonna know why they was giving us a hard time. This is a very big production company, so for them to even say yes — and I be cussing and sh*t — like I said, I’m grateful. I’m not complaining. I really wanted this sample. I really wanted to do it, so I’m doing everything I got to do to keep it. But change the names? Change the names the day before the album out? That was nuts.”

Even though Meg did not reveal the name of the anime or production company… it’s pretty obviously Jujutsu Kaisen, a show with which she’s already got something of a history. The beat, by Bankroll Got It, interpolates the show’s theme song, while Adam McArthur, the voice actor for the main character, Yuji Itadori, declares, “I like a tall woman with a big ass, like Grammy winner Megan Thee Stallion.” The show is licensed in the US by Crunchyroll and Viz Media, and is one of the more popular properties being licensed by the companies.

The line reading used in the song is not actually spoken in the show. Although Yuji does assert his fondness for statuesque women, the example given in the show is Jennifer Lawrence (who technically qualifies by Japanese standards, I guess). Fans online rewrote the line to pay homage to Thee Stallion’s love for anime and fitting physique, then convinced McArthur to re-read the line with the Meg reference. It’s kind of a shame we might not get to hear the original verses and see how she used the names of the characters to tie it all together, but it is cool to see the continued crossover between hip-hop and anime.

[This post contains spoilers for episode 5 of The Acolyte]

Manny Jacinto played one of television’s all-time great goofballs on The Good Place. But since lobbying a Molotov cocktail while yelling the last name of Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles, the actor has mostly been in more “serious” movies and shows, like Top Gun: Maverick and Nine Perfect Strangers. It would be nice to see Jacinto play a doofus again (maybe in Freaky Friday 2!), but at least he’s finally getting his flowers.

Jacinto’s Qimir is one of the breakout characters from Disney+’s Star Wars series The Acolyte, especially after the most recent episode (last chance if you don’t want to be spoiled).

Episode 5 revealed that Qimir is actually a Sith Lord, but more importantly, look at those arms! Even his former The Good Place co-stars are impressed. In response to an X user who wrote, “The himbo from the Good Place becoming the hottest man alive was definitely not on my bingo card,” D’Arcy Carden, who played Janet on the NBC sitcom, confirmed, “it was on mine.”

Carden isn’t the only one.

Jacinto’s training for his big fight scene has also gone viral. As it should! He worked on it for four months. “This was the first time I really got to dig into something with so much action and really make use of my dance background,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “We worked on everything. We did boxing, we worked on kicks, we worked on all the choreography. It was tough. They conditioned my body so that I could get through this five-person fight scene.”

To paraphrase a Good Place meme: Manny Jacinto on The Acolyte? Don’t mind if I do.

The Acolyte streams on Disney+ with new episodes on Tuesdays.

Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.

Whatever you might be into, each month brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody. Some stand out above the rest, naturally, so check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of June below.

Johnny Cash — Songwriter

In 1993, Johnny Cash recorded a set of songs at LSI Studios in Nashville, and they were ultimately shelved. Now, they’ve been revamped with new arrangements (The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach plays a guitar solo on one song, for example), and you can own them on vinyl.

Get it here.

Sufjan Stevens — Seven Swans (Deluxe Edition)

Seven Swans is Stevens’ fourth album and one of his most beloved. It’s also 20 years old now, and Stevens has dropped quite the deluxe vinyl edition to celebrate. The record doubles as a zoetrope, meaning that when you play it, you’ll be able to actually see an animated swan flapping its wings. Sufjan may be often associated with albums about states, but this set from that same era is one of his best.

Get it here.

Margo Guryan — Words & Music

1960s singer-songwriter Margo Guryan had a slow burn, ultimately becoming a cult favorite starting in the ’90s. Those who have finally caught up now have a new 3LP box set to enjoy, and it comes with 16 previously unreleased recordings.

Get it here.

Monsters Of Folk — Monsters Of Folk (Deluxe Edition)

Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, and M. Ward was a mind-blowing supergroup in its day, and now the band’s self-titled album is getting another moment in the sun. This new deluxe edition comes in various multi-color vinyl editions and some previously unheard bonus tracks.

Get it here.

Joni Mitchell — The Asylum Albums (1976-1980)

The late ’70s is a memorable era in the Joni Mitchell oeuvre, and that’s commemorated in a new box set. It includes the albums Hejira (1976), Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter (1977), Mingus (1979), and the live album Shadows And Light (1980), all of which have been freshly remastered. As Joni prepares to perform live again this summer, this is the ideal collection to prepare for these live events.

Get it here.

Spiritualized — Songs In A&E (Reissue)

Fat Possum’s Spaceman Reissue Program continues with another fresh Spiritualized release. This time, it’s Songs In A&E, which has been freshly remastered and comes with new album cover art for this edition. Pretty much every Spiritualized album is a must-own for fans and collectors alike, and this new pressing is the ideal way to hear this 2008 classic.

Get it here.

Charli XCX — Brat

Just like the stark green cover art, Charli XCX went simple but effective for the vinyl pressing: It’s black, but slightly translucent. If you’re fine straying from the green, there’s also a pretty striking red picture disc edition available.

Get it here.

Animal Collective — Merriweather Post Pavilion (15-Year Anniversary Deluxe)

Merriweather Post Pavilion was an era-defining album, and it’s somehow been 15 years since then. Animal Collective is celebrating with the project’s first-ever pressing on color vinyl, as a 2-LP in Translucent Green and Bluish (Get it? Like the song!).

Get it here.

Los Campesinos! — We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed (Vinyl Me, Please Reissue)

We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed locked up a slot as one of Vinyl Me, Please’s records of the month for July and it’s a beautiful celebration of the MySpace era. As tends to be the case with VMP releases, this new edition comes pressed on perfectly colored vinyl and comes with carefully considered listening notes.

Get it here.

Paul McCartney & Wings — One Hand Clapping

A press release describes this project as “one of music’s most mythical live albums,” and it’s finally available to the masses. The album consists of live studio sessions from 1974, which have now been properly mixed, making it a substantial upgrade over the bootlegs that have been circulating for years.

Get it here.

Linda Ronstadt — Cry Like A Rainstorm – Howl Like The Wind

The iconic singer’s late-’80s offering comes back to vinyl for the first time in years. This 140-gram translucent blue vinyl pressing features one of Ronstadt’s most iconic hits, the Aaron Neville duet “Don’t Know Much,” as the beloved New Orleans icon features throughout the collection. This album was massive in its time, selling over three million copies, and shines a light on a particularly fruitful creative moment from Ronstadt.

Get it here.

One of the stranger moments in recent NBA history came when the Los Angeles Clippers hosted the Houston Rockets back in 2018, the first time that Chris Paul played the Clippers in L.A. after his time with the team came to an end. The long and the short of it is that, after a game that got a bit testy, Paul allegedly used secret tunnels at the Staples Center (it was not called Crypto.com Arena yet) to get the Rockets to the Clippers’ locker room, where a fight nearly broke out.

It’s a famous moment for plenty of reasons, most notably an all-time great Inside the NBA segment about it. And while we’ve had some people speak about it over the years, a recent appearance DeAndre Jordan made on Paul George’s podcast went into more detail than we’ve ever gotten about the whole thing.

Jordan, who was on the Clippers at the time but could not play in the game due to a sprained ankle, simply said “a lot of it’s true” about the ordeal, then dove into the emotions around the game and some of the trash talk that the two teams engaged in throughout the game. In particular, he pointed out two unnamed players (Austin Rivers, who was on the Clippers, and Trevor Ariza, who was on the Rockets) who got a little too riled up during the game, which boiled over after it ended thanks to the hallways work in the building.

“You know how the hallway is, the visitor’s side,” Jordan told George. “If you walk through the back, you can get to the Clippers locker room. So, I’m sitting at my locker … and then all of a sudden, I see the homie from the Rockets right here, and I’m like, ‘What you doing, bro? You can’t be up in here.’”

As Jordan tells it, Ariza said he was looking for someone, then went “I’m looking for that motherf*cker right there.” While he tried to make sure Ariza — who he knew — left and tried to push him out of the locker room, he eventually made quite the realization.

“When I pushed him out to the hallway, I see the whole Rockets team,” Jordan said. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, sh*t.’ I’m like, this ain’t for me! You know what I mean? I’m like, ‘Bro, what y’all doing?’ ‘No, we just want to talk to so and so, we just wanna talk to him!’ We’re like, y’all not talking to him. All 15 of y’all wanna talk to him? No, that’s not happening.”

Jordan said, after turning around, he saw his whole team, with one unnamed player holding a weight in their hand. Security eventually came in and got everything sorted out, and while it’s a great story from Jordan, I do wish he could have told it to Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal.

Last night (June 27), Donald Glover (AKA Childish Gambino) took to Instagram to surprise his fans: He shared a photo of two tickets to an IMAX screening of A Quiet Place: Day One and wrote, “Bando Stone trailer is coming tonight @imax.” Sure enough, a trailer for Glover’s Bando Stone And The New World movie aired in IMAX theaters last night.

It hasn’t been officially shared online yet, but fan-shot recordings have made the rounds online. The two-minute video starts with Bando Stone (Glover’s character) wandering around an empty post office before heading to an also-empty convenience store. There, he encounters a character played by Jessica Allain, who holds a gun in his face. Stone reveals he’s a famous singer, and later, he joins Allain’s character and a young girl (perhaps Allain’s daughter or sister). From there, the three try to survive in a post-apocalyptic world full of dangerous giant creatures.

In April, Glover shed some light on his upcoming plans. One of them is a soundtrack album for the Bando Stone movie, which he dubbed the “final” Childish Gambino album. He also announced Atavista, an album that has since been released.

Check out the Bando Stone And The New World trailer above.

Music plays an important role in the Beverly Hills Cop movies. The soundtrack for 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop hit No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 thanks to popular singles like “The Heat Is On” by Glenn Frey, “New Attitude” by Patti Labelle, and, of course, “Axel F.” That’s how cool Axel F. himself, Eddie Murphy, was in the 1980s — he could turn a instrumental track from a German composer into an honest-to-god hit. But Murphy is still plenty cool these days, and for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, the fourth film in the franchise and first in 30 years, he enlisted Lil Nas X for “the best song of all time.”

On “Here We Go!,” Lil Nas X offers a warning: “Tell them boys you better hide, tell them lay low / Tell them play it safe ’cause we don’t play at all / Tell them boys you better move.” Later, he sings, “There’s a boy inside me and one day he’s gonna go / Somewhere that nobody’s ever ever been before.” The song was written by Lil Nas X, as well as Raul Cubina, Mark Williams, Jarrod Morgan, and Harold Faltermeyer, whose “Axel F” is used as a sample.

You can listen to “Here We Go!” above

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, which also stars original cast members Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot and newbies Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, and Kevin Bacon, debuts on Netflix on July 3.

Apple TV+ is crushing it in the suspense-filled thriller series department. Currently, Jake Gyllenhaal is under the legal microscope in Presumed Innocent. Rebecca Ferguson recently went back underground for more of Graham Yost’s Silo adaptation of the Hugh Howey books. And Idris Elba intended to make a limited series that feels like a panic attack (only in an airplane instead of The Bear‘s kitchen), but the people wanted more, so he’s making a second season and stepping back into the shoes of a ground-level negotiator whose skills come in handy in the not-so-friendly skies.

What can we expect from more Hijack? Let’s talk it out.

Plot

As viewers will recall, Hijack is a seven-hour series that rolls out in real-time mode during a flight out of Dubai. Elba portrays Sam Nelson, an experienced negotiator at ground level who finds himself putting those skills to the test when assailants take over the plane. A few unbelievable twists and plot holes — including plane wifi that worked well (!), the bear-jacking of the financial market being a believable motive, and Sam reentering the plane for a final clash with a villain — required suspended belief occurred in this sleeper series that had a admittedly silly ending. Yet overall, the story felt high-octane and fist-bumping enough that the show became an adrenaline-filled, word-of-mouth success.

Also, let’s face it: nobody really goes to popcorn movies expecting airtight logic, and this was a show that went well with plenty of microwaved popcorn in a home theater. Additionally, Sam (Idris Elba, actually) had swagger that the audience could not resist. All ingredients for the recipe of streaming success.

Now, the setting of second season could end up being very different because Elba is not only the leading man but also an executive producer on this series, and he declared, according to Variety, “I just don’t want to put him on another hijack.” Hopefully, this won’t make like Speed 2 and choose a cruise ship as the method of transportation.

Apple TV+ is staying quiet on plot specifics, but in a press release, Elba promised that the next trip would be worth the price of admission:

“I was floored by the overwhelming audience response after season one. It’s top secret what new situation unfolds for Sam Nelson but I can assure you we will bring the high octane back!”.

You heard him, and Idris Elba wouldn’t steer us wrong.

Cast

Idris Elba will be back as Sam Nelson. At present, we don’t know whether Archie Punjabi will reprise her counterterrorism officer character or if Max Beesley will provide a ground-level investigative perspective again. The nature of this story means that Elba could be otherwise accompanied by a whole new set of actors and characters, but Variety has reported some new names including Clare-Hope Ashitey, Karima McAdams, and Christian Näthe.

Release Date

Apple TV+ hasn’t announced a release date yet, but we would bet on early 2025.

Trailer

The streaming service did unveil a look at the close quarters involved with shooting on a real plane. Claustrophobia City.

Back in March, we reported on Sydney Sweeney being the betting favorite to play a Bond Girl in the next James Bond movie (which also requires someone to play, y’know, James Bond). It’s three months later, and Sweeney is still the likeliest choice, although she has some new competition.

According to odds posted on Gambling.com, the Anyone But You actress (+150) has a 40 percent chance of joining Halle Berry, Ursula Andress, and Honor Blackman (as the iconic Pussy Galore) in the 007 universe. But she’s followed closely by Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan (+175) at 36.4 percent and The Bikeriders accent-haver Jodie Comer (+200) at 33.3 percent.

Honestly? Of the three, Sweeney and Coughlan are talented, but I think Comer would be the best pick. She showed on Killing Eve that she can hold her own in a fight, and she can borrow some costumes from the show, too.

Here are the 10 favorites to play the next Bond Girl:

Sydney Sweeney
Odds: +150
Probability: 40 percent

Nicola Coughlan
Odds: +175
Probability: 36.4 percent

Jodie Comer
Odds: +200
Probability: 33.3 percent

Kaya Scodelario
Odds: +300
Probability: 25 percent

Michelle Keegan
Odds: +350
Probability: 22.2 percent

Dua Lipa
Odds: +400
Probability: 20 percent

Marisa Abela
Odds: +500
Probability: 16.7 percent

Ana de Armas
Odds: +550
Probability: 15.4 percent

Zendaya
Odds: +600
Probability: 14.3 percent

Florence Pugh
Odds: +600
Probability: 14.3 percent

Dua Lipa played a Bond Girl type in Argylle… I think? I never actually watched it after seeing the trailer 45,085 times. But it sounds right.

James Bond 26, as it’s currently known, does not have a release date.

(Via Gambling.com)

The Boys are having a raging good time through this fourth season. Only kidding — those vigilantes are actually pretty darn miserable (other than Kimiko), but the fans are having fun, and that’s why showrunner Eric Kripke keeps delivering each week. Over the past few chapters, we’ve seen a twisted homecoming, and a surprisingly bittersweet family moment from this past week will propel Hughie into the coming storm.

Five episodes have rolled out in this season thus far, and you might be wondering how many more are left before the wait for the final season.

How Many Episodes Are In The Boys Season 4?

A total of eight episodes will fill this season each Thursday with the season finale arriving on July 28. From there, the second season of Gen V, which is currently filming, will pick up the torch between seasons. The series did go back into rewrites following the accidental death of Chance Perdomo, who portrayed Andre Anderson. Additionally, the franchise is working on developing other offerings, potentially including The Boys: Mexico, but do not forget that the animated appetizer, Diabolical, still exists for the taking, in cause you want to see the visual nightmares that The Boys cannot quite pull off onscreen. And considering what the show has dared to put onscreen thus far, that’s quite an accomplishment.

Following the release of Megan, Megan Thee Stallion is a trending topic on X (formerly Twitter). One of the most talked-about songs on the album so far is “Down Stairs DJ.” No, it’s not about a person with turntables in the basement. You know what it’s about and it’s wildly NSFW.

These are Meg’s lyrics from the chorus (via Genius):

“Ayy, I love my p*ssy and my p*ssy love me
Play with her for a lil’ while, then fall asleep
Asked the jeweler, ‘Can you make a crown shaped like a V?’
‘Cause the b*tch is a queen and she need a lil’ bling
Two fingers give me peace, switch hands, finna cheat
Then I sleep in my own wet spot in the sheets
N**** can’t stress me if he can’t sex me
Finna get lockjaw tryna impress me.”

Other select lines from throughout the song include, “Me, myself, and I, and a rose / Ebony, lezzy, XVideos,” “How I got this sh*t looking, lathered up, no soap,” and, “Ayy, ready, player one, fight / Arcade mode ’til the batteries die / Way I’m finna nut, let the CPU decide / Faithful to myself ’cause I do myself right.”

Listen to “Down Stairs DJ” above.

Megan is out now via Hot Girl Productions. Find more information here.