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The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Heis is not the direction many expected Rema to go for his second album, frankly because it’s such a sharp turn away from his debut Rave & Roses. The 2022 album was a massive success that brought Rema worldwide recognition and helped to place him at the pinnacle of modern-day afrobeats. It’s also home to “Calm Down,” the highest-charting afrobeats song in Billboard Hot 100 history.

These are the accomplishments that make the dramatic shift in sound that is Heis even more impressive. There’s no joy in playing it safe and with Heis, Rema proves that he has no interest in being conventional. An album like Heis is a risky move, as mixed reviews have proven it to be, but truthfully, it’s just the polarizing jolt that afrobeats needs.

While Rave & Roses is feel-good and bright, promoting good times and soundtracking what feels like a summer party, Heis is sinister, rebellious, and mischievous. It soundtracks all forms of chaos – from the exciting highs of a party to the stressful lows of a fight – to perfection. Think of the most thrilling scene from your favorite action movie; there’s a song on Heis that can replace it and capture the same energy.

Heis opens in an aggressive sprint with “March Am” as he emphatically chants “I dey march am” – a Nigerian Pidgin phrase that essentially means pressing forward and putting your foot on the gas. It closes with waning violin strums before steering into “Azaman,” a lavish account of riches and the pursuit of more. “Benin Boys” recruits fellow Nigerian artist Shallipopi for a tough-talking warning to enemies and a gritty reminder to the industry. “Ozeba,” an early fan-favorite from Heis, is an erratic and fast-paced declaration from Rema that promises to wreak havoc on the game on his way to the top. As one of one afrobeats’ top artists, this approach is necessary for the sake of keeping diversity and continued life in the genre.

What makes Heis so special is how deeply-rooted it is in the African sound and culture. Though the globalization of afrobeats has brought well-deserved attention to the genre, it has also led to its dilution as well. Rema spoke about this in a recent interview on Apple Music. “Everyone is chasing something that the whole world can enjoy,” he said. “I feel like with the success that has come, I feel like we’re listening to the voices of the world too much and we gotta listen to the voices back home to just keep our roots.” He continued, “This project is helping me bring back that essence, bring back that energy, and place a reminder not just for the fans, but for the creators.”

That reminder is necessary because the globalization of afrobeats happened without compromising for the sake of success. The genre in its purest form is good enough, exciting enough, and entertaining enough to reach opposite ends of the world. Afrobeats is at its best when the home continent, its culture, and its natural sounds are at the forefront of the creative process. This approach is also important as the genre becomes more and more of a mainstream entity. It’s up to the artists within afrobeats to preserve the authenticity of the genre as new listeners arrive to explore the sound and learn its values. The lessons learned will stick with these listeners, who may even become the new artists of the next generation. At the very least, a standard will be kept and upheld for any artist that enters the genre. It’s the preferable approach compared to others who said afrobeats has “no substance to it” because artists have “no real-life experiences” while promoting an album that diluted the afrobeats sound in favor of one that catered to the Western appetite.

Rema’s Heis is the talk of afrobeats right now, and it’s for all the best reasons. With “Benin Boys,” “Ozeba,” “Hehehe,” and other tracks leading the way, the intentionality that Rema put forth absolutely paid off. The hope is that other artists in the genre – from top artists like Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, Asake, Tems, and Ayra Starr to other emerging stars – take the baton from Rema to run off with his message and apply it to their own music. Asake seems to be doing this as he brought British rapper Central Cee to Nigeria for their “Wave” collaboration while Burna, Davido, and Wizkid can showcase this on their upcoming albums. The beauty of afrobeats must be preserved and it’s artists like Rema who will make sure that happens. The genre is perfect as is and so much success has been attained in its natural state. Heis, regardless of what it achieves in the world’s eyes in the short-term, should and will be remembered as one of the most important albums in afrobeats’ current era.

Heis is out now via Mavins Global Holdings Ltd/Jonzing World Entertainment/Interscope Records. Find out more information here.

You probably just stopped replaying Nicolas Cage’s memorable performance as Longlegs in your head, but Neon doesn’t want you to forget about this guy anytime soon, so there’s some more creepy Cage content to startle you once again.

In Longlegs, Nic Cage plays the titular killer who has both a satanic fixation and a knack for bursting out into song. Now, one of those songs can be yours to listen to in the comfort of your own home where hopefully Longlegs can’t find you. Hopefully.

Neon has released a new track titled “Fire Fire Fire, Hiss” which is described as “the last known musical recording by Dale Ferdinand Kobble (later known as Longlegs) before the voices took over.” The gritty rock track features Cage’s mumblings over some psychedelic guitar reminiscent of the movie’s time period. It’s not that surprising, considering Longlegs has his own Lou Reed poster hanging out in his lair.

The song begins with Cage reciting, “Mr. Downstairs at your door, on the radio, in my skull,” a reference to his friend “the man downstairs,” a.k.a. The Devil/Satan/ however you want to interpret it. It’s unclear who else played on the track, though the score from the movie was made by Zilgi, a.k.a. Elvis Perkins, director Osgood Perkins’ brother.

Check out the full song above.

In 2023, en route to their first championship as a franchise, the Denver Nuggets looked like a juggernaut in the playoffs. Their starting lineup was a buzzsaw, mowing down the opposition with their crisp execution and seemingly unflappable resolve, particularly down the stretch of games. Their bench, led by Bruce Brown, was able to tread water in non-Nikola Jokic minutes, which was more than enough to support the dominance of their starting and closing units.

This past postseason, there was something different about the way Denver looked. Their starting lineup, unchanged from the year before, wasn’t dominating in the same way. Jokic, coming off his third MVP season, was still great but wasn’t shooting the ball very well, and Jamal Murray, coming back from injury, struggled to find a consistent rhythm. With their two stars not at their best, the Nuggets were more vulnerable and, ultimately, collapsed in the fourth quarter of Game 7 against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round.

That they were ever even in that position was fairly remarkable to begin with, as they trailed in all five games of the first round against the Lakers, and got blown out of the water in the first two games at home against the Wolves. As Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who left Denver for Orlando this summer in free agency, explained to Draymond Green recently, even the Nuggets were shocked to have made it that far, saying the Lakers should have beaten them because they had “no gas.”

As KCP notes, the Nuggets made an aggressive late season push for the No. 1 seed, as homecourt advantage has meant more in Denver than any other NBA arena. However, coming off a championship run the year before, expending that much effort in March and April left the Nuggets gassed and they just didn’t have their legs for a repeat run. It’s also very funny how quickly and strongly Draymond Green agrees with KCP saying the Lakers should’ve won that series. Alas, the Lakers did not and then went into this offseason and promptly have done…nothing. The Nuggets, meanwhile, have also gotten worse by losing KCP and adding just Dario Saric and Russell Westbrook to the roster.

Although hip-hop as a genre is no stranger to the concept album as a format, there would be little resistance to the assessment that there’s been a bit of a drought of such projects over the past few years. As the industry seeks to game algorithms, chase trends, and otherwise appeal to contracting attention spans and expanding options for occupying that attention, there have been fewer rap albums looking to pushing the envelope, tell a story, or explore a specific theme.

New releases from Blxst, Eminem, Lupe Fiasco, and more may have broken that trend, bringing the rap concept album back in a big way in 2024.

First, let’s define a concept album, to determine just what criteria these projects have met and why there have been so few concept albums in hip-hop over the past few years. While there’s no objective consensus or definition, critics generally accept that a concept album “is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually,” which is usually accomplished through a narrative tying the songs together. For our purposes here, let’s think of something like Kendrick Lamar’s debut album Good Kid, MAAD City, which tells the story of a day in its protagonist’s life in the city of Compton.

A more recent, albeit overlooked, example would be Skyzoo’s The Mind Of A Saint, which recounts the events of the gangster television series Snowfall from the perspective of its lead character, Franklin Saint. A concept album doesn’t always need to tell a complete story, but in general, this is one of the easiest ways to recognize one and a common trait of the albums we’re comparing here. Relatedly, Skyzoo’s last project also exemplifies why it feels like there’s been such a dearth of such projects recently. Indie and underground rappers like Sky (and peers such as Ka, Open Mike Eagle, and Armand Hammer) have generally been the main ones pushing this format, so concept albums usually go overlooked and underrepresented in the mainstream.

Even Googling something like “rap concept albums 2020s” only generates a list 13 albums long… in a four-year span that’s seen hundreds of new albums released (yes, Google kinda sucks now, but it’s saying something that there are so few albums that could easily be recognized as concept albums since the pandemic). Among the modern crop of rappers, there was at one point a wealth of artists crafting projects around the exploration of a singular theme or narrative — Kendrick Lamar, Mac Miller, and Shabazz Palaces, were all artists who released concept albums I’ve covered here at Uproxx, but lately, there have been fewer and fewer of such projects in favor of 20-plus-track single-paloozas that make great party records or cruising records or “cleaning the house” records.

Which brings us to 2024 and the sudden explosion of albums organized around central narratives, such as Blxst’s debut, I’ll Always Come Find You, Eminem’s The Death Of Slim Shady, and Lupe Fiasco’s Samurai, all released within the last month. With I’ll Always Come Find You, Blxst explores themes of legacy, loyalty, and self-sufficiency through the story of Birdie, a young man who inherits a chauffeur car service when his father dies suddenly, and through the experience finds the life lessons that his patriarch imparted to him reinforced as he encounters fake friends, fair weather flings, and tough choices as he comes of age and accepts his responsibilities. The story is told both through skits that literally depict Birdie’s conversations with various characters, and through the topics of songs like “Too Many Friday Nights,” “Bad Idea,” and “Better Off Friends.”

Likewise, The Death Of Slim Shady relates exactly the tale suggested by its title, as Eminem describes how he came to create the mischievous identity that drove his early success — and how getting lost in it nearly cost him everything. Over the course of the album (so much so that he told fans how important it is to listen in order), Eminem examines the effects his alter ego has had on his life, wrestling with Slim directly on “Guilty Conscience 2,” and reflecting on darker potential outcomes on album closer “Somebody Save Me.” Of course, some fans have determined that the album works just as well in reverse order, ending with the demise of Eminem himself as Shady triumphs, while others perceive a cyclical nature to the battle between the two, with the album’s outro leading into its intro on repeat listens.

Then there’s Lupe Fiasco’s Samurai, which might have the most bugged-out theme of all. Described by Lupe as a tribute to Amy Winehouse, the album expands on a vignette from the documentary chronicling the late soul singer’s life. In a phone call with producer Salaam Remi, Winehouse shares an ambition for battle rap, metaphorically comparing the skill to the martial arts practiced by samurai warriors. Lupe turns the metaphor literal (metaphorically speaking), imagining an alternate history for Winehouse as exactly that: A battle-rapping samurai who manages to face down her demons rather than being consumed by them.

What makes this mini-explosion of concept albums notable is not just their proximity to one another, all dropping in the span of a few weeks, but that they are also coming from some of the biggest names in rap. Blxst is an exciting newcomer with plenty of appeal for younger audiences, while Lupe Fiasco is a respected veteran still closely tied to contemporaries like Drake, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar. Eminem, of course, is the biggest name in rap (especially for certain audiences) and his album has topped the Billboard 200 in a year in which the biggest hit so far is an aggressive battle rap aimed at the most prolific hitmaker of the past decade. And all that’s before you add in under-the-radar contributions like Heems’ Lafandar, Kyle’s Smyle Again, and Vince Staples’ Dark Times.

That these albums are seeing such heights of success opens the way for more rappers to get deep on future projects, expanding the boundaries of what hip-hop can and should be. While there’s plenty of room for party music and battle rap, there should always be a space for hip-hop’s high-art aspirations, too. And in 2024, that space has not only grown, it’s proving to be very fertile.

Grieving in the technology age is uncharted territory.

I’ll take you back to Saturday, June 9, 2012. At 8:20 a.m., my 36-year-old husband was pronounced dead at a hospital just outside Washington, D.C.

By 9:20 a.m., my cellphone would not stop ringing or text-alerting me long enough for me to make the necessary calls that I needed to make: people like immediate family, primary-care doctors to discuss death certificates and autopsies, funeral homes to discuss picking him up, and so on. Real things, important things, time-sensitive, urgent things.

At 9:47 a.m., while speaking to a police officer (because yes, when your spouse dies, you must be questioned by the police immediately), one call did make it through. I didn’t recognize the number. But in those moments, I knew I should break my normal rule and answer all calls. “He’s dead??? Oh my God. Who’s with you? Are you OK? Why am I reading this on Facebook? Taya, what the heck is going on?”

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Facebook? I was confused. I hadn’t been on Facebook since the day before, so I certainly hadn’t taken the time in the last 90 minutes to peek at the site.

“I’ll call you back”, I screamed and hung up. I called my best friend and asked her to search for anything someone might have written and to contact them immediately and demand they delete it. I still hadn’t spoken to his best friend, or his godsister, or our godchild’s parents, or a million other people! Why would someone post it to Facebook SO FAST?

While I can in no way speak for the entire planet, I certainly feel qualified to propose some suggestions — or, dare I say, rules — for social media grieving.

How many RIPs have you seen floating through your social media stream over the last month? Probably a few. Death is a fate that we will each meet at some point. The Information Age has changed the ways in which we live and communicate daily, yet there are still large voids in universally accepted norms.

This next statement is something that is impossible to understand unless you’ve been through it:

There is a hierarchy of grief.

Yes, a hierarchy. It’s something people either don’t understand or understand but don’t want to think or talk about — yet we must.

There is a hierarchy of grief.

Hierarchy is defined as:

1. a system or organization in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority, and
2. an arrangement or classification of things according to relative importance or inclusiveness.

What does this mean as it relates to grief? Let me explain. When someone dies — whether suddenly or after a prolonged illness, via natural causes or an unnatural fate, a young person in their prime or an elderly person with more memories behind them than ahead — there is one universal truth : The ripples of people who are affected is vast and, at times, largely unknown to all other parties.

A death is always a gut punch with varying degrees of force and a reminder of our own mortality. Most people are moved to express their love for the deceased by showing their support to the family and friends left behind.

In the days before social media, these expressions came in the form of phone calls, voicemail messages, and floral deliveries.

If you were lucky enough to be in close proximity to the family of the newly deceased, there were visits that came wrapped with hugs and tears, and deliveries of food and beverages to feed all the weary souls.

Insert social media. All of those courtesies still occur, but there is a new layer of grief expression — the online tribute in the form of Facebook posts, Instagram photo collages, and short tweets.

What’s the problem with that? Shouldn’t people be allowed to express their love, care, concern, support, and prayers for the soul of the recently deceased and for their family?

Yes.

And no.

Why? Because there are no established “rules,” and people have adopted their own. This isn’t breaking news, and you’re not trying to scoop TMZ. Listen, I know you’re hurt. Guess what? Me too. I know you’re shocked. Guess what? Me too. Your social media is an extension of who you are. I get it. You “need” to express your pain, acknowledge your relationship with the deceased, and pray for the family.

Yes.

However…

Please give us a minute.

We are shocked.

We are heartbroken.

Give the immediate family or circle a little time to handle the immediate and time-sensitive “business” related to death. In the minutes and early hours after someone passes away, social media is most likely the last thing on their minds. And even if it does cross their mind, my earlier statement comes into play here.

There is a hierarchy of grief.

Please pause and consider your role and relationship to the newly deceased. Remember, hierarchy refers to your status and your relative importance to the deceased. I caution you to wait and then wait a little longer before posting anything. This may seem trivial, silly, and not worth talking about, but I promise you it isn’t.

If the person is married, let the spouse post first.

If the person is “young” and single, let the partner, parents, or siblings post first.

If the person is “old” and single, let the children post first.

If you can’t identify the family/inner circle of the person, you probably shouldn’t be posting at all.

Do you get where I’m going with this?

In theory, we should never compare grief levels, cast the grief-stricken survivors into roles, or use words like status and importance. But maybe we need to at this moment (and for the next few weeks and months).

The “RIP” posts started hitting my timeline about an hour after my husband’s death, and I certainly didn’t start them. This created a sense of confusion, fear, anxiety, panic, dread, and shock for the people who knew me, too. What’s wrong? Who are we praying for? Did something happen? Did someone pass? Why are there RIPs on your wall and I can’t reach you? Call me please! What’s going on?

That’s a small sample of messages on my voicemail and text inbox. I had to take a minute in the midst of it all to ask a friend to post a status to my Facebook page on my behalf.

Your love and expressions of support are appreciated and needed, but they can also be ill-timed and create unintended additional stress.

The person is no less dead and your sympathy no less heartfelt if your post, photo, or tweet is delayed by a few hours. Honestly, the first couple of hours are shocking, and many things are a blur. Most bereaved people will be able to truly appreciate your love, concern, prayers, and gestures after the first 24 hours.

I’ve learned this from the inside — twice within the last four years. And I assure you that if we each adopted a little patience and restraint in this area, we would help those who are in the darkest hours of their lives by not adding an unnecessary layer of stress.

A few extra hours could make all the difference.

This article originally appeared on 05.07.19

Conan O’Brien might not seem like the jealous type, but he is also somewhat of a chaotic wildcard, so you never know what you’ll get with him.

In the latest episode of Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, the comedian was joined by Lisa Kudrow, whom he had dated from 1988 to 1993. Again, you never know what you’re gonna get with this guy!

Even though the exes remain friends, O’Brien admitted that at one point during their relationship, he was jealous of Kudrow’s Friends costar, Matthew Perry.

“You started doing that show and you called me up, and you were raving about Matthew and you were saying, ‘He’s so funny,’ and there was part of me that was jealous,” O’Brien told Kudrow. At first, O’Brien shrugged it off. “Like, I was, ‘Okay. I make you laugh pretty hard.’ And you were like, ‘No, you don’t understand. This guy’s really [funny].’” This is when his ego took a hit.

He added, “There was part of me that was like [jealous],” he said, but then admitted that once he saw Perry, he understood just how funny he was. “And then I was watching him and going, ‘Yep.’” Kudrow didn’t want to hurt her friend’s feelings, so she quickly confirmed that O’Brien is also “one of the funniest people I know,” but the pain was still there.

The two had been chatting about Friends , and Kudrow admitted that she had been watching more and more since Perry died last fall. “After Matthew died, I could start watching the show again because it wasn’t about me. It had to do with him for some reason.”

She admitted that, much like the rest of the world, she often gets sucked into Friends marathons. “There are marathons on, and I have spent, at times, since he died, all day long watching the show. Everyone is phenomenally hilarious to me,” she added. Hopefully that didn’t sting O’Brien too much. His episodes of The Simpsons are funny, too! That counts for something.

(Via EW)

Sunday’s episode of House of the Dragons is being review-bombed by the Helen Lovejoys of the world for featuring a soap opera-like same-sex kiss.

In the final moments of season 2, episode 6, “Smallfolk,” Rhaenyra (played by Emma D’Arcy) and Mysaria, a.k.a. The White Worm (Sonoya Mizuno), share a smooch after Mysaria reveals details about her past. Both House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones have featured far steamier scenes, but this unscripted kiss between two women (D’Arcy is non-binary, but Rhaenyra is identified as a woman) was apparently over the line for many conservative viewers. Why were they watching in the first place? Who knows, but they won’t be anymore.

“Smallfolk” is the show’s lowest-rated episode by IMDb user score with a 5.2 out of 10 (only two other episodes are even below an 8). According to Vanity Fair, the episode has over “35 percent one-star reviews on IMDB, which is equivalent to approximately 9,400 reviews. When filtered by the country, Saudi Arabia and Iraq emerge as the nations that have left the most one-star reviews, with 4,700 coming from Saudi Arabia and 545 coming from Iraq.”

The episode wasn’t a 10 out of 10, but it sure wasn’t a 1, either.

Review bombing the dragon show is definitely a great use of everyone’s time.

Now, to be fair, the one-star reviews could be unrelated to the kiss (the House of the Dragon subreddit is mad about other things), but that would be a mighty big coincidence. Maybe Aegon and Aemond will kiss in the next episode, and we can find out for sure.

(Via Vanity Fair)

DeMar DeRozan has found himself in the middle of one of rap’s biggest feuds in recent months. DeRozan received a shout-out from Kendrick Lamar in his track “Not Like Us,” then appeared on stage at The Pop Out before a cameo in the music video for the song. Considering it came out as part of Lamar’s feud with Drake, there were plenty of question that came up about DeRozan’s relationship with the Toronto rapper, as the pair grew close during his tenure with the Raptors.

While DeRozan already revealed that he’s had a lengthy relationship with Lamar and considers him “basically family,” the newest member of the Sacramento Kings made clear that he still views Drake as “my man” in an interview with Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee.

“Drake’s still my man, still my man, none of it changed,” DeRozan told Anderson. “It’s so easy to get overlooked and look at it for what it looks like, but at the end of the day it’s music, entertainment. Two of the biggest rappers in the world went at it from a competitive standpoint and they battled it out. That’s what you want to see as a fan: Kobe (Bryant) playing (Michael) Jordan 1-on-1 and see who wins, see the trash talking, and whoever wins out of that, you’re still going to have the debate, so that’s all that is.”

After spending the last three years as a member of the Chicago Bulls, DeRozan joined the Kings as part of a sign-and-trade this offseason. To make the deal happen, Sacramento gave the 6-time All-Star a 3-year deal worth $70 million.

You began as a relatively unnoticed Lifetime series that turned into an irresistible bingewatch after arriving on Netflix during a holiday season. Years later, Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) has cycled through multiple identities and several settings throughout four seasons, and although the most recent season fell prey to inertia, the show’s streaming numbers stayed strong enough (and fans of the series do include Ariana Grande) for Netflix to allow Joe’s story to come to a proper conclusion with a fifth season.

Of course, this series has moved seasons beyond the original source material (Caroline Kepnes’ same-named novel), and a blunt question now exists: should Joe die to bring a fitting end to his reign of terror? If there’s any justice in the TV world, yes, and given Badgley’s early horror at fans thirsting over a killer, he would likely support this development. Sure, Joe will likely get away with a few more murders before that happens, but let’s talk about what is actually known about how this “nice guy” will roll into his old-new town:

Plot

First, let’s go back to where it started for Joe (with a freak out):

And here’s how it’s going with fifth-season Joe back in New York (after stints in LA, Paris, and London) and looking more at ease because he’s not running from the scene of a murder (or is he?) or pretending to be a professor:

Joe will open a new bookshop in Manhattan, and this season will bring at least one ghost, according to Netflix, and since he’s already been haunted by Love, Candace, and Beck, perhaps Benji will return for a turn at mentally torturing Joe. Whatever happens, this season will end at a semi-preplanned place given that executive producers Greg Berlanti and Sara Schechter aimed for five seasons. Additionally, series co-creator Sera Gamble left her showrunner post with scribes Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo taking over those reins.

How will justice be served? If Joe doesn’t end up being trapped by a prospective (or former) victim inside one of his beloved cages, then it’s possible that he would be busted through the efforts of Dr. Nicky (John Stamos) or Marienne (Tati Gabrielle). What is certain, however, is that Badgley is done with sex scenes, and he has suggested that Joe’s “inner monologue” could “evolve,” and he might be working “to accept himself.” Clear as mud.

Cast

Beyond Bad Boy Badgley, it’s likely that we will see the return of previous Joe targets/victims/ghosts, including Beck (Elizabeth Lail), Candace (Ambyr Childers), and Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) before this story concludes. We could also use a good haunting by Joe’s ex-wife/mutual stalker, Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), and don’t forget that Dr. Nicky (John Stamos) remains alive, along with Jenna Ortega’s character, Ellie Alves (her return is not confirmed).

The newest collection of characters in Joe’s orbit will include Bronte (Madeline Brewer), “an enigmatic and free-spirited playwright” who will work in Joe’s new bookshop and obviously appeal to his love of those archaic tomes. Joe’s latest wife, Kate (Charlotte Ritchie), will return after helping Joe rehabilitate his image, and Griffin Matthews (The Flight Attendant) will appear as Kate’s socially outcast brother. Finally, Kate’s identical twin sisters (Anna Camp in both roles) will be on hand to stir up sh*t:

“Raegan is the cunning, cutthroat CFO of the Lockwood Corp who has her eyes on the throne and will crush any adversary… be them family or not. Maddie, on the other hand, presents as the unserious twin, a thrice-divorced socialite whose job is ‘vaguely PR.’ But make no mistake, a master manipulator lies underneath Maddie’s frivolous façade.”

Release Date

C’mon, Netflix. They’re being very secretive, other than to suggest that this season will debut in late 2024.

Trailer

The series hasn’t gone into trailer mode yet for this final season, but Penn Badgley suggests that anybody from Joe’s past could show up, including Dr. Nicky (!).

Did you get a chance to celebrate National Motorcycle Day?! As always, the holiday is celebrated the second Friday in July (obviously) and yet it seems to be overlooked by most. But soon you’ll get a chance to redeem yourself by streaming The Bikeriders and making motorcycle king Norman Reedus proud.

The Bikeriders stars Tom Hardy with another ambiguous accent, Austin Butler, and Reedus as the members of a midwestern motorcycle gang in the ’60s and ’70s. The Jeff Nichols film is based on Danny Lyon’s photo book of the same name, which followed various members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club.

Butler portrays Benny, a young and eager member of the motorcycle gang led by Johnny (Hardy). The club begins to expand and evolve, and Benny’s loyalty is tested as the gang gets caught up in the gritty and violent underworld.

After a long journey, the movie will stream exclusively on Peacock starting August 9. It’s just enough time to find a good helmet. But wait! There’s more motorcycle fun.

The movie will finally be available for purchase on digital on August 9 and Blu-ray and DVD on August 13. The digital editions will feature exclusive bonus material that includes interviews with the cast, a behind-the-scenes look at production, and a deep dive into writer/director Nichols. This way, you’ll be prepared for National Motorcycle Day next year.