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More than a decade and a half ago, Jeezy arrived on the hip-hop scene as one of the earliest trap artists in the genre, joining the likes of T.I. and Gucci Mane. In the years that followed, Jeezy, who hails from Atlanta just like the other aforementioned artists, would go on to drop well-appreciated albums and mixtapes and grow into one of the most respected rappers from that time period. However, in Jeezy’s own words, his rise didn’t come without lessons from a pair of rappers that came before him, them being Snoop Dogg and E-40.

During an appearance on Spotify’s Best Advice podcast with Kim Bennett Taylor, Jeezy shared a time where Snoop Dogg and E-40 “g-checked” him after a run-in with the law during a video shoot.

“Snoop Dogg and E-40 they looking at me like I’m crazy. Say ‘you know what? You know what’s the difference between you and Pac?’ and I was just like ‘Whoa.’” he said on the episode. “I’m like ‘OK’ and they just went on to say ‘Yo listen, he never stopped what he was about. He never let up on his people. He never…’ and it was like ‘Yo, you, you better get out here and do what you’re supposed to be doing. Because these people believe you and they riding with you. And you ain’t moving right. And we telling you that.”

Jeezy continued to praise and thank Snoop and E-40 for their actions. “I don’t really think, you know, Snoop and E40 and those guys get enough credit for who they really are, man,” he added. “Like you know, those guys save lives you know what I’m saying. And, and, and they definitely got me back on the right course but they’ve been through what I’ve been through.”

You can listen to Jeezy’s full appearance on the show here.

Earlier this week, Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher made a quip that went viral and it involved Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide. In addressing the Houston Touchdown Club on Wednesday, Fisher was prompted on what it would take to beat Alabama outside of the retirement of Saban.

Fisher’s response… made the rounds.

“We’re going to beat his ass when he’s there,” Fisher said. “Don’t worry.”

It was a mortal lock that Saban would be asked about Fisher’s comment, and that moment arrived on Thursday.

Saban’s immediate response of “in golf” is unquestionably elite, especially when combined with his facial expression. The follow-up of “I’m sure there will come a day” is also tremendous, before the easy pivot to talking points about Texas A&M’s improving program, but the point was certainly made. He even followed up by asking if Fisher’s comments were actually about football.

This is far from the first time that Saban has been blindsided by a potential rival, and he has been sitting atop the college football mountain for quite some time. However, it is always fun to see him provide a genuine reaction to a challenge, and the first few seconds of his answer in this instance perhaps provide a window into his thought process.

The first look at season four of Stranger Things dropped on Thursday with an Eleven-centered trailer. The Indiana Fever took a moment to celebrate by showcasing their recently-announced Stranger Things jerseys on Twitter.

In the photos, Fever players Kelsey Mitchell, Tiffany Mitchell, and Danielle Robinson are wearing the jerseys, part of the line of redesigned jerseys Nike released for the upcoming WNBA season. Stranger Things, for those who don’t know, is set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana which may or not be a suburb of Indianapolis, and the Fever got a ton of praise when these were released for leaning into the beloved show. There were a number of sensational unis in the Nike Rebel edition drop, but these were a cut above.

It’s going to be fun how far the Fever can lean into this as a bit. The show itself is filmed in Georgia, so it’s probably not easy to have actors from the show drop by and sit courtside. (They should try and get Winona Ryder at all costs, though.) But could they do an Upside Down-theme intro for games they where these jerseys? Yes. Should they serve some kind of Eggo waffle dish in honor of Eleven’s favorite food? Also yes. Should they play the clip of David Harbour dancing after every made basket? Also yes.

Over the years Twitter has made a lot of changes and added new features, some of which it felt not many people were actually clamoring for. But the latest add is certainly interesting: a “tip jar” function that lets people pay others through the social media app, presumably for having good tweets.

Twitter announced the Tip Jar function on Thursday with, as you might expect, a few tweets.

The feature is pretty simple: you can pay people directly through Twitter, using a payment app like Venmo or PayPal. In many ways it’s similar to Patreon or other ways that writers have monetized their work, and as Twitter is often a big part of that work it’s the next logical step in said monetization.

There was a lot of reaction to the news, starting with people who were excited to see that it was enabled on their accounts.

And many saw it as an opportunity to finally cash in on some good tweets.

Or, perhaps, finally log off for good.

The feature was being rolled out slowly starting on Thursday, but some users started to have some concerns right away. Starting with the fact that, according to some users, your address could actually be sent to the person you tip if you’re not careful which payment app you use.

That part is apparently being worked on by Twitter, but it did make for a new round of people making jokes about it, of course.

While his own artistry is absolutely something to recognize and appreciate, 6lack’s ability to stand beside a variety of artists no matter the genre is another quality that makes him great. In just the past few months, the Atlanta-born singer — who switches hats to rap on songs at times — has worked with the likes of JID, Lil Durk, Lil Tay, and Melii.

As he’s done a few times in his career, 6lack returns to the afro-fusion lane for a remix of Spinall and Fireboy DML’s “Sere.” The summery track takes life on Spinall’s 2020 album, Grace, and with 6lack’s addition, the song gets a nice boost without moving away from its original structure.

As of late, 6lack’s been a busy man. In addition to providing great guest features on a number of tracks, he singer stood by his fellow LVRN labelmates for a hard-hitting Rap Caviar cypher. With OMB Bloodbath leading the way, new names to the roster like NoonieVsEverybody and BRS Kash followed suit with confident verses of the own.

Next, the more familiar names of the label, Westside Boogie and 6lack himself, delivered bars of their own. Boogie’s verse focused on his fame and how it impacted his life and the lives of his homies while 6lack’s own was a slick-lipped contribution filled with enough metaphors to remind you of his original rap upbringing.

You can press play on the new remix in the video above.

Trust Coldplay to take it to the next level.

For their latest single — which is produced by Max Martin and leans decidedly pop — the band teamed up with French astronaut Thomas Pesquet aboard the International Space Station to officially premiere the track in space. After a quick chat with the French spaceman that can be watched here, the band got right into a specially-recorded performance of the track, complete with alien holograms who danced along to the stadium-ready bop, and possibly irritated Lady Gaga fans in the process. Not to worry Monsters, the Chromatica crossover is truly quite minimal, aside from some minor merch similarities.

Although the UK band has dabbled with pop sounds before — “Viva La Vida” anyone? — this song definitely feels like a shift toward that shimmering, polished sound, and the involvement of one of pop’s greatest super producers definitely sends that message as well. The band will be performing the song on American Idol this coming Sunday and at the upcoming Brit Awards next Tuesday. They’ll also be performing it during Glastonbury’s Live At Worthy Farm livestream on May 22. And what do all those performances mean? There’s probably going to be a new album coming soon. Check out their new pop direction above, and look out for more Coldplay news coming soon.

One of the ways to tell if you’re in a healthy relationship is whether you and your partner are free to talk about other people you find attractive. For many couples, bringing up such a sensitive topic can cause some major jealousy.

Of course, there’s a healthy way to approach such a potentially dangerous topic.

Telling your partner you find someone else attractive shouldn’t be about making them feel jealous. It’s probably also best that if you’re attracted to a coworker, friend, or their sibling, that you keep it to yourself.

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But, being open about your sexual feelings, can be a way to spice things up in the bedroom and to let your partner know what you like.

Actress and mental health advocate Kristen Bell admits that she and her husband, actor Dax Shepard, have learned how to be open about their attraction to other people. The couple believes that being able to talk about such taboo topics without making each other jealous is a great way to preserve their relationship.

“He can tell me someone he finds attractive, female or male, ’cause he pauses the Olympics on a lot of runners, but it doesn’t make me feel like he’s going to leave me for that person because I’m not allowing my self-esteem to be affected,” she explained.

Bell believes that it’s completely normal and healthy for people in monogamous relationships to be attracted to other people.

“I know there are people on planet Earth that are more attractive than me, and well, we’re not dead. I have to acknowledge we’re monkeys,” Bell said. As an attractive, famous couple working in Hollywood, there is extra pressure for them to be able to handle their jealousy.

The couple has also done a good job at accepting the fact that Bell is the primary bread-winner in the family. Studies show men have higher levels of stress if their wives earn more than 40% of their home’s combined income.

About a third of women in the U.S. make more than their husbands.

While Shepard has had a successful career, acting in films such as “Idiocracy” and “Without a Paddle,” Bell has starred in some major hits including, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and the “Bad Moms” films.

She’s also made a pretty penny voicing Princess Anna in Disney’s “Frozen” franchise.

“I think I’ve always out-earned him,” Bell said about their careers. “I got a lot of opportunity, you’re sharing in it, we’re able to provide for a ton of our family members who may or may not be struggling,” she continued, as if addressing Shepard. “I don’t look at it like, ‘This is mine and this is yours.’ I’m like, ‘This is ours. Get over it.'”

Bell believes that the couple’s ability to get over petty jealousy is one way to make sure their unique relationship stands the test of time.

“Do you want to be on the porch with someone when you’re 80?” Bell asked. “We both want that.”

Every year, around 100 million carats of rough diamonds are mined to supply the world’s multi-billion dollar diamond jewelry industry, leaving both human and environmental damage behind.

The ethical issues at the heart of diamond mining, from violence to human rights abuses to forced labor, are no secret. The destruction of land and water in the mining process is also well known. Though an official chain of practices for creating “conflict-free” diamonds known as the Kimberley Process is supposed to reduce some of these issues, ongoing problems remain.

Science has a solution.

Instead of digging up gemstones that have taken a billion or more years to form in the earth, scientists can now make diamonds in a lab in just six to ten weeks—without the bloodshed and devastation involved in mining traditional diamonds.

Are they the same, though? If anyone were going to be a purist about gems, you’d think the world’s largest jewelry brand would. But Pandora, the Danish jeweler that boasts that title, is all in on lab-grown bling.

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Pandora has announced that it will not be using mined diamonds in its jewelry anymore and will be launching an entire line of lab-grown diamond pieces. The upsides of lab-created gems are plentiful; not only do they avoid the exploitation of workers, violent conflict, and environmental degradation of diamond mining, but they’re also significantly less expensive. According to Business Insider, a lab-created diamond can cost 30 to 40 percent less than a traditional diamond.

And according to Pandora, they do all that without sacrificing quality. Lab diamonds are still graded using the standard 4 Cs—cut, color, clarity and carat—as mined diamonds, and Pandora emphasizes that they have all the same “optical, chemical, thermal and physical characteristics” as well.

“They are as much a symbol of innovation and progress as they are of enduring beauty and stand as a testament to our ongoing and ambitious sustainability agenda,” said Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik said in a statement. “Diamonds are not only forever, but for everyone.”

Of course, the marketing of diamonds has always been a bit of a ruse. The DeBeers family held a near-monopoly on the diamond trade for more than 100 years, and their control of supply created an illusion of scarcity and value that doesn’t reflect reality. A highly successful “Diamonds are forever” marketing campaign to make people associate diamonds with lifelong commitment added emotional value to the stone, which led us to where we are today.

In other words, the thousands of dollars that people will drop on a diamond engagement ring is almost completely due to a purposeful plan to make people feel that they need to do just that. That plan may have been brilliant or diabolical, depending on how you look at it, but there’s no question that it worked.

Pandora’s shift to lab-grown diamonds won’t change the association between diamonds and commitment, but it may at least help people recognize that diamonds themselves are not as precious and rare as we’ve been led to believe. It’s also a bid to younger consumers, who want their purchases to be more affordable and sustainably sourced.

The new lab-grown collection, Pandora Brilliance, launched today in the U.K., with pieces starting at US$350. It has also achieved CarbonNeutral® product certification in accordance with The CarbonNeutral Protocol. And when the collection becomes available globally next year, the diamonds are expected to be made using 100% renewable energy.

It’s great to see big companies stepping up their game when it comes to ethical practices and environmental sustainability. The planet needs it, consumers are asking for it, science is making it possible, and smart companies are moving the needle in their respective industries. Well done, Pandora, for being a leader on the jewelry front.

Republican Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming sits on the wrong side of a rift in her party that her career may not survive. Her refusal to believe and promote the “Big Lie,” as she calls it, has not only put her leadership role as the third-ranking House Republican in jeopardy but her place in politics altogether.

The Big Lie is the right-wing conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and that the insurrection on January 6 wasn’t incited by GOP lawmakers.

Cheney has also become persona non grata in her party for being one of the few Republican lawmakers to vote to impeach the former president for his role in the Capitol riot.

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The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their bac… https://t.co/kMmjACP0xg

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney)
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Unfortunately for Cheney, and Democracy, her reluctance to kowtow to the Trump cult of personality that’s overtaken the Republican Party has put her on the outside looking in.

“The conflict here does not stem from Cheney’s refusal to move on from the lies that sparked the Capitol riot, but from the fact that the Republican Party has embraced those lies as foundational to Republican identity in 2021,” Adam Serwer writes in The Atlantic.

Cheney made her position clear in an op-ed published by The Washington Post on Wednesday. Cheney argues that “The Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution.”

The op-ed was a brave move for the Representative who may be on the right side of history but the wrong side of the GOP rift. Given the damage that the Big Lie is doing to American politics, her decision to fight back is a clear example of someone putting country before party.

Cheney believes that Trump’s behavior is not only beyond the pale for a former president but dangerous to democracy itself. “Trump is seeking to unravel critical elements of our constitutional structure that make democracy work — confidence in the result of elections and the rule of law. No other American president has ever done this,” she writes.

via Wikimedia Commons

The daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney believes that the GOP’s current antics is putting a fragile democracy at risk.

“I have worked overseas in nations where changes in leadership come only with violence, where democracy takes hold only until the next violent upheaval. America is exceptional because our constitutional system guards against that,” she writes. “At the heart of our republic is a commitment to the peaceful transfer of power among political rivals in accordance with law. President Ronald Reagan described this as our American ‘miracle.’

Her reference to “The Gipper” shows she still believes the GOP can be the party of Reagan which is probably wishful thinking. Her distancing from the rest of her party shows how incredibly loyal it still is to Trump. The party’s decision to demonize immigrants, scuttle free trade deals, embrace authoritarian leaders, support Trump’s vulgarity, and denigrate democracy shows how far it has moved from Reagan.

Cheney suggests three ways that the party can move forward. First, by supporting “the ongoing Justice Department criminal investigations of the Jan. 6 attack.”

Second, by supporting a “parallel bipartisan review by a commission with subpoena power to seek and find facts” relating to the January 6 attack. And finally, “to stand for genuinely conservative principles, and steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality.”

Cheney’s plea for the GOP to return to its traditional values probably won’t change many minds in a party that is still under the spell of Trump. But it’s a valiant effort that puts her on the record for being on the right side of history.

Her family name is synonymous with Republican politics, so standing against a strong political headwind at a time when she could easily go with the flow is commendable.

“History is watching. Our children are watching,” she writes. “We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am committed to doing that, no matter what the short-term political consequences might be.”

Guy Ritchie made Jason Statham a star, with memorable turns in Ritchie’s acclaimed, Tarantino-esque British crime movies Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. But it was Luc Besson (and Robert Kamen) who made Statham a superstar in The Transporter. From then on, Jason Statham wasn’t just an actor but a name brand, synonymous with a particular type of character — a sort of hooligan James Bond, who drove flash sazz wagons, bedded fit birds, and delivered proper thrashins. (Ain’ dat roight, Tommy?)

Wrath of Man‘s intriguing project is to re-team Jason Statham as we now know him with his old pal Guy Ritchie as we now know him — director of everything from 2019’s Alladin to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (the best Bond movie of the last 20 years, if you ask me). They’re together for an English remake of the 2004 French film Le Convoyeur, by Nicolas Boukhrief (whose English title, “Cash Truck,” is infinitely better than “Wrath Of Man”).

Wrath of Man is crystal clear on which version of Jason Statham it wants to present, but the movie around him is a strange, fitfully compelling muddle. It’s a film that’s alternately odd and entertaining, but ultimately doesn’t quite translate, stuck halfway between The Transporter and Heat.

Jason Statham plays a character named Hill, a strong silent type applying for a job at a weirdly garrulous armored car company. His chummy evaluator, played by Holt McCallany from Mindhunter (an Easter Island statue of a man whose rough-hewn features are just fun to look at) tells Hill he needs to get at least a 70 on his shooting/driving/lifting test in order to get the job. Hill scores a 70 on the dot, in an evaluation that he’s clearly muffing on purpose. McCallany’s character welcomes him to the team with a handshake and a new nickname, “H.” McCallany, aka “Bullet,” introduces H to all the fellas — Boy Sweat Dave (Josh Hartnett), Hollow Bob, and Dana (girls don’t get nicknames, apparently).

It’s a great sequence, mostly thanks to the oddball tone, in which eager actors gamely attempt to chew their way through wildly unnatural dialogue that’s like neon marbles in their mouths. Every scene at the armored car company is so curiously over-written that it feels almost like a Yorgos Lanthimos movie, or Don Delillo remaking Troy Duffy. Sample dialogue:

Hey, is that coffee still hot?

Yeah, it’s hot enough.

You ever thought about uh, buying a coffee maker?

A coffee maker?

You know, one that’s got that, milk, uh froster thing?

Oh yeah, frother, I gotcha.

That way you can, uh, make your own cappuccino.

It’s like the script was written by a French man whose only model for Americans was cereal commercials.

Hollow Bob, incidentally, is played by British stunt actor Rocci Williams, one of a handful of actors in Wrath of Man doing American regional accents so badly that you can’t tell if they’re supposed to be meatheads or just hard of hearing. Ball-busting, unnecessary exposition, and masculine threat behavior combine in this Wrath of Man dialect-unto-itself, which I like to call “Crimespeak.” Crimespeak is miles from naturalistic, but weirdly entertaining, like a normal action movie refracted through the lens of a Frenchman not quite getting it. This surreal quality gets turned up to 11 when “H” fearlessly defuses a hostage situation by shooting all the bad guys in the head, and Rob Delaney shows up as an armored car company executive who wants to give H a promotion.

None of this is what you’d call “believable,” exactly, but it is thoroughly compelling in its uncanny valley oddness. The big question of the film is “who is this H, and why is he such a badass?” The biggest flaw of the film is that it goes to the ends of the Earth explaining H’s motivation, without ever getting who he is. Turns out, it all goes back to another armored car robbery, teased in the film’s cold open.

We end up seeing this opening robbery a handful of different times from different characters’ perspectives, Snatch style, including title cards. These scenes explore who did it, how H was involved, and his motive for taking the job at the loquacious security company. Curiously, the latter half of the film essentially drops the style of over-written dialogue established in the first half of the film and essentially turns into an orgy of violence.

Though perhaps “orgy” is the wrong word. People at an orgy are generally having fun. These scenes are utilitarian, more like the filmmakers going through the motions of killing off enough characters to get the movie finished than enjoying themselves. Which is a shame, because “fun action” is traditionally something Guy Ritchie has been pretty good at.

Act 3 of Wrath of Man seems to exist on the premise of “more bullets better,” and it’s not dull, exactly, it’s just hard to go from pitter-patter dialogue about milk frothing and handjobs to grimacing guys firing sub-machine guns and not have it be a bit of a letdown. Who is H? Why is everyone talking like that? Why did we stop having fun all of a sudden? I may have to go back and watch Cash Truck to figure it out.

‘Wrath of Man’ opens in theaters nationwide May 7th. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.