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“Drivers License” has spent a lot of time at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this year, but its run is over now. Last week, Drake ended Olivia Rodrigo’s eight-week run on top with three songs in the top three spots, and yet again, there’s a new song at No. 1 this week. This time, on the Hot 100 chart dated March 27, Cardi B’s “Up” is up from its previous peak at No. 2 and has now taken the No. 1 spot for the first time.

“Up” is now Cardi’s fifth No. 1 hit, which extends her record for the most No. 1 songs by a female rapper. This also makes her the first female rapper with two No. 1 songs with no features on them (the first was “Bodak Yellow”). In the period between the week when “Bodak Yellow” went No. 1 in 2017 to now, Cardi is tied for the most No. 1 songs during that stretch, alongside Drake and Ariana Grande.

Another bit of trivia: “Up” is the second-shortest No. 1 song of all time in terms of song title length, with just two characters. The only No. 1 song shorter than it in name is Britney Spears’ “3.”

Cardi offered a quick reaction to the news, writing on Instagram, “I want God to come see me in my dreams when I take my nap today so I can kiss his feet and tell him how much I love him !!! Yoooooo sh*t is amazing yoooooo .I got no words .Actually I got a lot of words but I can’t type it all NUMBER 1!!!!!”

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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The NBA Trade Deadline is just a few days away, and last Wednesday brought the first dominoes to fall of a very interesting deadline, as PJ Tucker got sent from Houston to Milwaukee and Trevor Ariza was dealt from OKC to Miami. Following Thursday’s deadline, we’ll also see some players hit the buyout market, as there are some particularly interesting players like LaMarcus Aldridge and Andre Drummond who have big contracts that will be hard to trade and, it’s possible, each simply has to get bought out.

The Nets have already dipped their toes in the buyout game, landing Blake Griffin, and they might not be done chasing frontcourt depth to compliment their Big Three. The lack of a clear frontrunner at this moment makes for a very interesting deadline dynamic, as there are a number of teams that feel like they have a chance at a Finals run, but few if any feel particularly confident that their roster, as is, is a lock to make a Finals run.

As such, the next two weeks will likely see a lot of posturing and moves made by contenders, even if mostly seeking out depth rather than a major shakeup to their roster. We’ll take a look at the top teams in each conference and their biggest areas of need heading into the deadline and players they might be targeting, either in a trade or on the buyout market, starting with the three-team breakaway at the top of the Eastern Conference

EAST

Philadelphia 76ers: The Sixers made a lot of progress in terms of building a better roster this offseason, but Daryl Morey is always willing to make a move if he thinks it will make his team better. The two spots where I think they might look to add depth are with another perimeter creator/shooter and an upgrade at power forward. Of the top teams, they seem like the most likely to take a big swing, as there’s been plenty of rumbling — both reported and just guessing because of the Philly connection — that they could go after Kyle Lowry. Should they look not to shake up their starting lineup (or simply be unable to pry Lowry from Toronto), George Hill, Patty Mills, and Garrett Temple all could make some sense as a perimeter option to bolster their bench with a veteran. In the frontcourt, Thaddeus Young would be an incredible pickup for them (and, like, any contender) but I’m not sure if they have the package Chicago wants for a player who’s been so good for the Bulls in their own playoff push. Rudy Gay would also be a snug fit for what they need out of a bench power forward.

Brooklyn Nets: The Nets have made a ton of moves already this season and they likely aren’t done. Spencer Dinwiddie remains a valuable trade chip should they want to use him and their desire to get more frontcourt depth is well known. They took the low-risk chance on Griffin and they’ve seen some really good things out of Nic Claxton, but they want more. They’ll reportedly be in the buyout mix for Drummond but also could look for his Cavs teammate, JaVale McGee in a trade. I also think, sneakily, dealing Dinwiddie for Thaddeus Young would be a really good move for the Nets and would be a worthy use of Dinwiddie as an asset, as Young would be a major upgrade in the frontcourt that would bring them a lot of versatility and a different small-ball option from Jeff Green.

Milwaukee Bucks: The Bucks won’t have a lot of trade chips left to use after making the Tucker move, so anything they’d do at this point is going to be on the periphery. They could be in the mix for a center still, as while Tucker brings them frontcourt versatility, they do not have much insurance should something happen to Brook Lopez as far as a rim protecting big man. The dream scenario here is they can pry Richaun Holmes away from the Kings, because he’s a huge bargain and would be a great pickup for them. In a similar price range, but not quite as impactful, I’m still a fan of Nerlens Noel as a target for a contender that could use some rim protection in a pinch of the bench, as he’s likely not in the Knicks long-term plans. They also would happily add a Wayne Ellington type for some more bench shooting so they aren’t so reliant on Pat Connaughton come playoff time. The Bucks have also positioned themselves to be buyout players after moving off of a few roster spots in the Tucker trade, again likely for a center or another veteran guard now that they shipped DJ Augustin to Houston.

WEST

Utah Jazz: The Jazz are scuffling, but it might be a blessing in disguise. This is a team that still could use a little bit more and stalling out before the deadline, when you can make some adjustments, is better than doing so after. The Jazz could use another wing defender, and if New Orleans is selling, Josh Hart feels like a fairly snug fit into their 3-and-D group on the wing. I also would love the Thaddeus Young fit here, but whether they can meet what should be a steep asking price from Chicago is a different question. Young would give them a versatile defender in the frontcourt who can handle bigger wings, while providing them with more lineup versatility for the playoffs than Derrick Favors. Adding Ersan Ilyasova isn’t going to fix much for them, so I’d expect them to at least explore more frontcourt/wing help in the coming week.

Phoenix Suns: Phoenix has been really good this year and they swooped in to snag Torrey Craig for free in the Tucker deal, as they continue to collect long wings who can defend. There are two clear needs, most notably another center to backup Deandre Ayton and provide a little insurance on the nights where the second-year big man simply doesn’t have it. Aldridge to Phoenix feels almost too easy, but I also love this as a Holmes destination should they be willing to part with some assets via trade. They also might look for another veteran guard for their bench, as they have a lot of guys that haven’t quite earned the trust in the playoffs. Another Spur, Patty Mills, would make sense here as would any of the vet guards mentioned previously. They also could take a look at Aaron Gordon, a player they’ve been in talks for in the past and is once again on the trade block, particularly if they think they could use a talent bump to really contend with the top teams in the West as this year is worth going all-in on.

Los Angeles Lakers: Prior to the LeBron injury, I think the focus in Los Angeles was still on the periphery. Their desire to land frontcourt help is well known and they’re considered the frontrunners for Drummond, but I’m not 100 percent sure he’s what they need, as their issues are on offense not with defense or rebounding. Adding another shooter in, say, Wayne Ellington also made sense and still does, but it’ll be interesting to see if they look to make a bit of a bigger swing now that they might be without both of their top stars for a couple weeks. That’s not a reason to panic and make a rash trade, but it might push them to be a bit more aggressive in pursuing another playmaker who could carry some offensive load in the absence of LeBron and AD.

Now, any move they make is going to have to be with a playoff run alongside their two stars in mind, but while seeding isn’t all that important to L.A., they won’t want to slide too deep in the standings. Maybe they go see if Norman Powell could be had from Toronto, or possibly look into Eric Bledsoe in New Orleans or, and this seems far less likely, they poke around on Victor Oladipo. Their cap situation makes adding a $20 million guy very difficult without a major shakeup to the roster, but I think they’ll be at least a bit more interested in a bigger splash move now than they would have a week ago.

Los Angeles Clippers: Boy, the Clippers just look miserable right now, having not won back-to-back games in more than a month, and while part of that is just getting healthy, they really could use some point guard help. Insert just about any available lead guard and they’d be a welcome sight in L.A. George Hill, Patty Mills, bringing Eric Bledsoe back home, Delon Wright, or anyone else who is a competent would help them. One would think they’d be set on the wing with their two All-Stars plus Kennard, Morris, and Batum, but another frontcourt piece might not hurt them either and they’ll at least explore the buyout market. I still think they believe they don’t need a major move to be a top contender, and for that reason I don’t expect them to go chasing anyone major, but they have to address the backcourt situation this week.

Among many other things, the pandemic has uncovered previously-overlooked disparities in the music industry. Mainstream artists with already massive followings profited from livestreams and merch sales, while lockdowns left independent artists out of work and without many options. One band was particularly unlucky. After years of making a name for themselves through their wildly energetic live shows, Dogleg decided to finally record a full-length record. Their debut album, Melee, happened to be released on March 13, 2020 — the exact day that music venues across the country shuttered for over a year.

To their core, Dogleg is a DIY band: They live, play video games, eat pizza, and make music together as a group. Their sound has been assigned to a myriad of genres from garage rock to emo revival. But Dogleg perhaps put it best as they described their music in their Twitter bio as “punch-dancing out our rage.” As seen through their “Fox” video, their lightning-fast riffs are at home in damp basements where sweaty bodies thrash together in unison.

Before the pandemic swiftly transformed from a lingering anxiety into a real-life threat, Dogleg had their album release plans fully fleshed out — sweaty mosh pits included. They were slated to win over listeners at a handful of summer festivals and had booked a West Coast tour with Joyce Manor, hoping their raucous opening set would lead to a healthy following.

To Dogleg, playing shows is almost as important as their music itself. Sure, the band is happy to have racked up over 60,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and that Melee was met with a handful of glowing reviews, but they’d much rather have their music come to life at a show. So how exactly can a band, who prides themselves on their spirited live shows, stay engaged with fans when they can’t play in front of a crowd?

The answer, according to Dogleg vocalist Alex Stoitsiadis, is that “it’s really really hard.” To suffice, Dogleg organized a livestream on the one-year anniversary of Melee’s release. It felt just about as close to a real show as possible: Dogleg brought such intensity to their performance that the entire band was drenched in sweat after just two songs, and fans continuously sounded off in the comments to offer up the occasional “hell yeah” and describe how they were moshing alone in their living room. The band even spent the first 20 minutes of their livestream loading in and noodling around on guitar, prompting one viewer to make the apt observation that it felt like, “punk time online.”

Ahead of the livestream, Stoitsiadis and Dogleg guitarist Parker Grissom sat down, pizza in hand, to talk about how the pandemic has affected their following.

Your album obviously got a bunch of good reviews. I’d say you still definitely broke out into the mainstream as a band. But do you feel as though you would have been bigger if you were able to tour this summer? If you were able to play Pitchfork Music Festival and tour with Joyce Manor?

Alex: (laughs) Yes. 100 percent yes. Again, the reviews are super, super nice. And I appreciate them for sure. But nothing beats playing for somebody that doesn’t know who you are, and then that’s how they learn to love you and get to know you.

Parker: It’s not even a cockiness thing of, ‘Oh, if we got to play for this person I know they’d love us.’ Any band gets more people to listen to them when they tour with a band that’s bigger than them. If we could have those audiences, 100 percent we’d have more listeners.

A: Yeah, because people that are going to see Joyce Manor probably don’t know who we are. So, if we can at least just show up and play, then they can at least see us and learn. That’s new fans immediately right there. And that’s way, way, way better than somebody on Spotify that just happens to stumble upon a song of ours, whether that happens or not because Spotify has got all the algorithms — so that’s not super likely. It’s just way more impactful with the live audience.

Alex, I read in an interview that you are very sensitive to criticism. But all things considered, it seems like the album got a fair amount of good critical reception, like a review in Pitchfork, NPR, Billboard, obviously Uproxx. Did you feel like you could finally take a deep breath after all of the positive reviews started rolling in?

A: Honestly, no, because I am just always trying to keep one-upping myself and keep doing things even better than before. Even now, I’m thinking, ‘Alright, these songs are kind of old to me now.’ And I definitely want to start looking at making new songs and what that’s going to be like, and that’s exciting. And I always still go online and see what people are saying. Sometimes, you get the occasional person that’s like, ‘This isn’t that good.’ And I’ll feel bad about it for like an hour. I try not to put too much stock into, ‘Pitchfork said we’re really good, so I can stop now.’ No, Pitchfork is saying we’re good and now we have to prove it. We have to make it even better next time.

You’re using that as motivation.

A: Yes, especially when it’s all online. Because we’re all sitting here thinking they don’t even know the other half of it. They don’t even know the live shows, yet. They just know the recordings of the live shows. So when they can actually go to a show, that’s when they’ll get the full experience. And it’ll be even more impactful than just that nice review.

Speaking of that, I know that you guys have this mantra where you say 50 percent of you is your recorded music, and then the other half is the experience of seeing you guys at a live show. But since you can’t have live shows right now, has that shifted your perception of yourself as a band?

P: I think what we’ve been saying still stands true. If anything, we’ve been anxious to prove that. With the album coming out, we have more people listening than ever — by a very large margin — and we don’t have the opportunity to show them our other 50 percent. So I think it’s definitely an anxiety to prove it.

A: Yeah, absolutely. That’s one thing with all the good reviews and everything that I was seeing. I’m like, this is without even seeing us play live. And normally, when we get new fans, it’s because we play so good live that people are like, ‘Who are you? What is this?’ That’s how they get into us. So it’s this opposite direction that they’re taking now. So we’re like, alright, when we come back, we’re going to show them that we’ve been practicing, we can bring it live and that it’s going to be even more impactful.

I remember back when lockdown started, I was one of the many people who was of the mindset of, ‘This is only gonna last for a few weeks. We’re gonna all be at home for a few weeks, and then everything’s going to go back to ‘normal.” Do you guys remember, specifically, when you finally accepted that Dogleg actually had to cancel the tour and couldn’t play shows for a while?

A: Well, SXSW got canceled first. Before it got officially canceled, I remember, one or two days before, we were deciding how we should try to drive down there and do a little mini tour. Then, a week or so later, it was just the official statement from the city that said it was shut down — we can’t do it. And I think at that point, we were all just like, ‘Oh, that is that.’ Once the city started making official statements, it was just really like, this is serious.

P: We had some shows planned throughout the summer as well, so I held out hope for a while. Probably until late April, early May. I was like, maybe we’ll stick with those summer shows and festivals, but it was also around that time that I accepted it.

Before you guys canceled your shows, were you playing some of the songs from your album on tour? Or were you saving them until the album was released?

A: We actually have been playing those songs live for a year and a half. Our thing is that when we need a new song, we usually like to play it live in front of people a lot. We can really tighten it up that way and learn new and different parts to it by playing it — noticing, oh, the crowd is reacting this way, so we’re gonna play it this way. We just have a different synergy when we play that way. So we’ve been working on that for a while and just kind of had those songs fresh in people’s minds, even though the album wasn’t out yet. At least for local fans.

Well, that’s good that at least some people got to hear them. That’s interesting what you said, though, about how you like to try out songs in front of a live audience before you decide to go ahead with it. Have you been writing music this past year? And how is that changed, since you can’t really play it in front of people.

A: We’re trying to write new stuff, but it’s really really hard. We’re all just kind of still waiting to actually tour on what we made. And right now, I’m coming up with ideas, but they’re just ideas. There’s nothing really like concrete. Because without being able to show off what you made, it feels weird to just start making something new. We’re trying, I guess. You know?

P: We were playing a show a week for so long. That was a huge part of not only keeping an agenda to keep meeting up and hanging out, but also we were constantly playing music, so it would just come out naturally.

A: Yeah, it was basically just like practice.

The last time you guys talked to Uproxx, your album had been out for about a month and it had almost surpassed a million streams. But now a year later, you guys have two songs with almost a million streams themselves. How have you as a band been able to stay engaged with fans and keep pushing your music 100 percent online?

A: Before all this, we were definitely all about playing as many shows as possible, because we didn’t really know how to do the online thing. We had friends that were really good at being online bands. But our thing was just like, we just play more shows, and then more people notice us. So we’ve had to do a complete 180 when this all happened, and transition into being like them and being an online band. So we were all about what we could make that’s cool that still flexes our talents without necessarily having it be new music. So we were like, let’s try to make cool music videos, let’s try and keep replying to people online and show them that we’re still here, make cool new merch — just enough to kind of stretch out through however long this is gonna last — and show that we’re not dead. We’re not just waiting.

Melee is out now via Triple Crown. Get it here.

The last album fans got from Demi Lovato was 2017’s Tell Me You Love Me, and at the moment, the pop singer is in the midst of the largest between-albums gap of her career. She’s about to put an end to it, though, as she recently revealed that her next LP, Dancing With The Devil… The Art Of Starting Over, is set for release on April 2. There’s no tracklist yet, but Lovato has revealed a couple of big-time guests she managed to secure for the record.

A new profile on Lovato from Paper notes the album features a collaboration with Ariana Grande titled “Met Him Last Night.” Furthermore, there’s also a collab with Saweetie called “My GFs Are My BFs,” which is described as “a classic female empowerment anthem.”

In a recent livestream, Lovato explained that the album was initially titled just The Art Of Starting Over, but she later opted to add Dancing With The Devil to emphasize the importance of her upcoming documentary of the same name. Lovato said:

“If you listen to it track by track, if you follow the track listing, it’s kind of actually like the non-official soundtrack to the documentary. Because it really does follow my life over the past couple of years. When we went through the track listing and kind of mapped out how it kind of coincided with my life’s story, it made sense to add the more emotional stuff in the beginning and then transition into The Art Of Starting Over.”

Dancing With The Devil… The Art Of Starting Over is out 4/2 via Island. Pre-order it here.

Instead of hiring a permanent host to replace Alex Trebek following his death last November, Jeopardy! is trying out guest hosts to see if anyone will stick. Ken Jennings was given the inaugural duties from early-January to mid-February, followed by Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune executive producer Mike Richards and journalist Katie Couric. It’s now Dr. Oz’s turn, but everyone is ready for his two-week stint to be over.

The not-good doctor is a Fox News regular who advocated for hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients (something the FDA cautioned against doing); he also said that the idea of reopening schools during the pandemic was “an appetizing opportunity” as it would “only cost us 2 to 3 percent in terms of total mortality,” a “trade-off some folks would consider.” As Answers in the Form of Questions author Claire McNear wrote for The Ringer, Mehmet Oz has “consistently distanced himself from science and the world of fact generally, openly admitting to courting nonsense on his show for the simple reason that it’s ‘very entertaining.’” Oz’s unscientific and potentially dangerous baseless medical claims are plentiful, so it’s no wonder Donald Trump is a fan:

Dr. Oz has a connection with President Trump, who appeared on the Sept. 15, 2016 edition of his syndicated talk show — as a candidate — to exclusively share his medical records. Perhaps to return the favor, the president appointed Dr. Oz to a two-year term as a member of the President’s Council on Sport, Fitness, and Nutrition in May 2018… Henry I. Miller, a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco, sent a letter to Columbia University in 2015, signed by 10 physicians, that criticized Dr. Oz and asked the institution to remove him from its faculty.

Hm. Maybe we shouldn’t let the guy who doesn’t believe in facts host the fact-based game show? Just a thought. Another thought: let Frank Oz guest host instead. Everyone could get behind that, unlike the reaction to Dr. Oz’s introductory tweet:

If that last tweet is true, congrats to the new Jeopardy! host, Aaron Rodgers.

There are a few things you need to know before reading this interview with the Cullen Hoback, the filmmaker who completely dove into the world of QAnon to make a six-part series, Q: Into the Storm (produced by Adam McKay) that debuted on HBO on Sunday night. Only because getting to the bottom of who Q actually is – and by the end, Hoback does name someone – but it’s a somewhat complicated mishmash of the message boards where Q posts and the people who own those message boards. (If you don’t know what QAnon is at all, first, aren’t you lucky. But, in a nutshell, it’s an anonymous person on the internet who claims to know top secret information, that now millions of people actually believe – or at least did – and contributed to what we saw January 6th at the Capitol. It also involves democrats eating babies.)

The first thing you need to know is that in 2018, the person, or people, who posted as Q changed. Q used to post on a South African man named Paul Ferber’s board. In 2018 Q stopped posting on Ferber’s board and instead started posting on 8chan. Q now had an identifying tripcode and Q’s writing style completely changed. 8chan was then owned by Ron Watkins and his father, Jim Watkins (pictured above). And in the film Hoback spends an enormous amount of time with these two people who both seem to know a lot about Q and have a lot of the same opinions as Q, but swear they don’t pay much attention to Q, even though Q drives most of the traffic to their website.

The other name you need to know is Fred Brennan. Brennan used to own 8chan prior to Q coming along but sold it to Jim and Ron Watkins. Brennan used to be friendly with the Watkinses, but had a falling out and then, after the 8chan message board was used as a platform by the Christchurch mosque shooter, became vocal that 8chan should shut down. This created a lot of strife between Brennan and Ron and Jim Watkins.

By the end of the series, Hoback is convinced that the Q since 2018 is Ron Watkins. (The Q before this is complicated, as Hoback explains ahead.) There’s even an interview in the final episode where Ron Watkins, let’s say, messes up and inadvertently lays out his entire hand. Ahead, Hoback explains what it was like getting to that moment and how he got to a place where he could say, confidently, “Yes, this is Q.” Also he speculates where things go from here and how the average QAnon follower will react to this revelation.

In this film you basically say, “Yes, here’s the guy who’s Q.” You have all the evidence, and then that final video where he pretty much says, “Oops, yeah, it’s me.”

The Rick Perry “oops” moment?

Right. I felt like this would be a huge story, and it’s getting some attention, but not as much as I thought. Why is that?

I think it’s because we have requested that outlets not report on it. That they not reveal the ending, but that seal was broken Wednesday (when news outlets began reporting how the show ends). So, since then, I’ve seen it picking up in the news some.

Are you expecting a big surge of attention over the next few weeks?

Well, it’s hard to say. I think that unmasking Q has a lot of power to it. That’s why I put so much of my focus on that. It really is the driving question of the series: Masks have an incredible amount of power and someone who’s hiding behind a mask doesn’t have any of the baggage that comes with a messy human.

I’ve read about Ron and Jim Watkins before I saw your series, because there are pieces out there that are basically, “this is who Q most likely is.” Did you go into this focusing on them? Obviously entertaining other people, but focusing on them?

Absolutely not.

Oh really?

So you have to know that, when I started this back in 2018, no one knew who Jim Watkins or Ron Watkins even were. They weren’t suspects, really in anyone’s book. And Ron, CodeMonkey, he was the only person out of the three people behind 8chan, Ron, Fred and Jim. But no one was really pointing the finger in their direction. And the reason that I hopped over and started filming with all of those guys was simply because they were closest to the stories. You could chase any number of leads, but the factual leads, the technical forensic data, was all in their hands. So they knew. If anybody knew, it would be them. So that’s where I jumped in. And then of course I’ve been filming behind the scenes for years, tracking all of this stuff. Moving between all sides of the story, the sides that generally hate each other. Having to keep everybody’s secrets in that process, to some extent. Enacting a minimize-harm policy so that I could effectively document this. But it really wasn’t until the last six to eight months or so, I think, that people really started looking in the direction of the Watkinses. And I think you see in the series that a lot of that was eventually being spearheaded by Fred.

Were you surprised the Ron and Jim Watkins even agreed to be interviewed? And not just be interviewed, but really give you a lot of time? Do you think their strategy was they could spend a ton of time with you and that would convince you they weren’t behind Q?

I’ve wondered that myself. First off, for trolls, or for people who enjoy messing with others on the chans, I think they take great delight in trying to fool people into thinking things that are false. A journalist is the gold standard on the Chans. And these guys, Jim and Ron in particular, but also Fred to some extent, they kind of embody the sites that they run. In a way, Jim and Ron are like real life shitposts and it’s hard to know how seriously to take them because, to some extent, that’s the whole idea of a shitpost is to trigger a reaction. And so when I’m chronicling them, I’m trying to walk that line and show that intention, rather than playing into that hand.

But to answer your question, why did they end up giving me so much time? Well, I may have just been the first one there. The first one willing to travel to the Philippines, the first one who was willing to get on a plane. It was also before all the shootings had happened, so they weren’t household names at that time, not by any stretch of the imagination. There were a few weird videos of Jim doing yoga on YouTube. Ron, I think I found one picture of. And Fred was the most public-facing, so he was the one I reached out to first and he was the one who ushered me into the world of 8chan.

So are you under the impression that someone else was running the Q account before an incident happened in 2018 where Q switched boards and had a very noticeable style change?

Yes.

So who do you think that was?

I have a lot of very strong theories on exactly who was working with whom in those earliest days and how that all went down. We paint a case for Cicada’s involvement [Note: this would take forever to explain, but here’s the Wikipedia page], some of these ex-military camps to get involved. It’s hard to pin down exactly what their level of involvement was. It’s very possible that someone like Paul Ferber (a South African man whose board used to host the Q posts, whoever Q was in 2018 and before, before moving to Ron Watkins’ board) was a part of Cicada. It would make a lot of sense, certainly, that the person who created the tripcode would have taken that account to a board of their own design, right? The question of why does Q choose Paul Ferber’s board is a pretty good question?

Right. And then Ron and Jim Watkins are thinking, “Why are we letting him be on that board?” And then they just take it.

Right. Well, I’d say the one thing that really differs between Paul, and particularly the Watkinses, is that Paul’s story never changed. I interviewed him up and down, hours and hours, both on Skype before traveling to Johannesburg and then in person for days and his story never changed. It’s possible he’s lying. And it’s possible that he was in control of the account at that time.

So who’s your best guess? Or is it still somewhat of a mystery?

Well, the first Q was born partially out of a collective imagination. So the original 128 drops did not have a tripcode, so anyone could have jumped in and role-played as Q during that time. And, in fact, that’s largely how it started. So, while it was on 4chan, anyone could try to write in Q’s style. And if you were steeped in 4chan culture, particularly the culture of /pol/ – politically incorrect board on 4chan – you would have known the theories that were already favored by the anons. In order to be Q, you just needed to really know what people already believed and then know how to role play that and bounce it back to them in the form of questions.

I think I do make a pretty strong, compelling case in the series for the network of individuals that were involved with that and I think it connects back to the overarching theory that’s presented at the end of the series. I don’t point the finger 100 percent because I have mountains of evidence that ties to that early network, but in some ways what matters most is who’s been running the account the whole time. We know there’s a style shift, right? So we know there is at least one change of hands that takes place.

So you’re saying if it’s multiple people before Ron takes it over for good, they’re all trying their best to write like that?

That’s correct. So you can go back and look through those boards. And there are some QDrops that, for whatever reason, didn’t end up in the Q narrative or the Q canon. They just got omitted, or where board owners would delete them. There are ones which are debated as to whether or not they actually were Q. So they went back and kind of constructed who they thought were Q, simply based on style.

So especially after the final episode airs and it really gets out there in this film is saying, “Hey, here’s Ron Watkins. This is your leader. It’s this guy.” How is the average Q follower going to react to this?

Well, I’m still in touch with a lot of people who believe in Q, or the characters who are in the film and I’ve talked to all of them since the announcement. And interestingly, Craig, who’s in the film, right. He’s sort of the main QTuber that we follow…

Right, but those people have the financial interest. I’m talking about just the average person.

I think you’d be interested in hearing what he has to say, because he has maybe 100,000 people who believe in Q and are following him. So he knows what they want and what they’re thinking. It’s interesting because he described it to me like this, he said, “Half of the people who are following me right now think that it was a PSYOP. We all got tricked. There was no plan. And the other half believe that they need to double down, triple down. They’re bending over backwards in order to explain why none of the things that happened, why everything in reality seems to contradict the story that they’ve been telling themselves.”

And his position was, “Look, it’s like a basketball game where, at the end, your team lost, you’re down by five points, but for some reason your team is still running around the court shooting hoops, trying to score points. But the game is over. If there was a plan, it failed.” That was his view. So I think it’s really mixed, but to answer your bigger question about how the Q community is going to react to this?

Right, that it wasn’t some “insider.” It’s just this guy.

You’ll sometimes hear this idea that those who believe in Q or follow Q don’t care who Q is. That it doesn’t matter who Q is. That it was all about the research, and it’s a little bit of a refashioning of history But also something I’ve found along the way is that, when pressed, of course everyone who follows and believes in QAnon does, deep down, really want to know the truth. And I think, especially now, when reality is contradicting the story that they’ve come to believe, there’s more desire than ever to know what was really happening behind the scenes.

And, yes, Ron is a linchpin in a lot of this, but you do see that there were political operatives and other power players who were making this a reality. So the story that they told themselves wasn’t completely false in that sense: the idea that there were people in DC who were actively trying to make Q become real. But at the end of the day, if there was one person behind the curtain, who was it? And I think we make a pretty strong case in the series for who that was and I think they’re going to want to know that.

Well, you’re done with the film. You can sit back and see what happens, I guess.

[Laughs] Yeah. It’s hard to say, and part of me almost wishes that we had just let the series play and everyone kind of figure it out along the way because now there’s a lot of anticipation, right? Because, right now, a lot of people are like, “Oh, you point to this individual?” And, well, there’s a lot of context and a complex case that’s painted here. You should watch the series to see if you see what all those details are and decide for yourself.

That’s true. By the time you say, “this is the guy,” it’s so well laid out, yes, of course it is.

Right, yeah. We’re spending all of this time with these characters, not only to understand their motives and why they would keep a site like this up and running, but it’s a cat and mouse game to figure out what their level of involvement is.

I’m very curious how people react to this.

Me, too.

‘Q: Into the Storm’ airs Sunday night on HBO and streams via HBO Max. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Roddy Ricch may be best known for his music thanks to his low-profile approach to fame, but he certainly has an interesting philosophy about music as his legacy. That’s thanks to his meeting with Kanye West in Calabasas, according to Roddy himself in a new profile in Complex. Revealing his pick for greatest album of all time, he grants that distinction to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and recounts the wisdom Kanye shared when they finally got to meet.

“The main thing I learned from Kanye was expansion,” Roddy says.

“I pulled up on him in Calabasas. He showed me there’s more to life than just music. He taught me [about] really building empires. The empire you build with music, you could build it in other areas, like fashion, too. You’ve got clothes, or you’ve got a drink, or you’ve got this or that, and it’s all attached to you. He was building things that don’t got nothing to do with music, with different rooms having different ideas. Even building up a community or a civilization that can start and become something else. That’s a crazy thing to do. Just growing your own produce, and all these different things… It opened my mind.”

Roddy also reveals the best thing that’s happened to him in the two years since he blew up thanks to his Grammy-nominated hits “Racks In The Middle” and “The Box”: Becoming a father. “Having my son,” he tells Complex. “That was the most important.”

You can read the full profile here.

The Brooklyn Nets have been in cruise control for some time, as they just continue piling up wins even in the absence of Kevin Durant. While they wait for their star forward to return to the lineup, their star guards have carried the load as James Harden is once again putting up MVP numbers and Kyrie Irving has embraced his role of being the team’s scoring guard.

However, on their upcoming three game road trip starting on the west coast, where they’ll face Portland, Utah, and Detroit, Irving will not be with the team as he attends to a family matter, as the team announced on Monday.

It will be the second time this season Irving has taken some time away from the Nets to deal with a personal, family matter and it seems the Nets are more than willing to accommodate those needs and give him time when he requests it. Hopefully all is well with Irving and his family and he’ll be able to return to the court once the Nets return from their road trip, but the organization will surely give him whatever time he needs to handle whatever is going on off the floor. Last time Irving took time away, he returned at an All-Star level and the Nets’ concerns as a team are with having everyone right for the playoffs, not the regular season, and that sometimes requires some time away, either for physical or mental health, and the organization seems to understand those needs.

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro had a bit of a meltdown on her show, Justice With Judge Jeanine, over the weekend when a guest made the big mistake of … wait for it … complimenting the job President Joe Biden has been doing since he took office.

Pirro, a staunch Trump supporter and vocal conservative pundit, invited respected immigration lawyer David Leopold on to her show Saturday to discuss the ongoing crisis at the border. In February, a reported 100,000 migrants tried to cross into the country, prompting Republicans to blame Biden for the surge in immigration numbers. In reality, most of the policies put in place by the Trump administration remain intact, with Biden’s team facing a complicated path through the courts to change some of the more inhumane regulations enacted under Trump. In fact, despite Pirro claiming on her show that February’s number was a “record” in terms of undocumented immigrants crossing the border, that new threshold actually belongs to Trump — in May 2019, some 150,000 people crossed the southern border.

But really, what are facts and context to Pirro? Leopold, who battled with her over her unsupported immigration claims for most of his guest spot, had the gall to suggest that Biden was “making America great again,” a tongue-in-cheek compliment that threw Pirro over the edge.

“David, I’m stopping you right there,” Pirro interrupted after Leopold pointed out the success of Biden’s vaccination plan. “I don’t tolerate lies on my show! He is bringing Covid into this country. He’s bringing in a whole pandemic, during a pandemic.”

Pirro then completely shut down Leopold, telling her guest, “Thanks for being here, and thanks for nothing.”

So … yeah, at least we know now what sets Jeanine Pirro off. Facts.

After the pandemonium over Bernie Sanders’ inaugural mittens wore off, the senator from Vermont got back to his usual progressive business. This includes reigniting his feud with the CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and the Boring Company. Last year, Sanders pointed out that Elon Musk benefited greatly from government subsidies, which actually fuel his wealth (“Oh, Elon just l-o-v-e-s corporate socialism for himself, rugged capitalism for everyone else”). That round went down after Musk suggested a sarcastic drinking game revolving around government programs. The beef never died, and Sanders is here for more. Last week, he came for Elon’s massive wealth accumulation while suggesting that he should pay more taxes.

“We are in a moment in American history where two guys — Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — own more wealth than the bottom 40% of people in this country,” the Bern tweeted. “That level of greed and inequality is not only immoral. It is unsustainable.”

The subject got picked up by CleanTechnica, a pro-Tesla site that defended Musk against the “greed” accusation while arguing that Elon “passionately strives for gigantic goals with the companies he creates,” and “the inspiration there is the goals themselves, not making money.” Elon piled onto the defense of himself with a spacey addition and one of the strangest tweets ever tweeted: “I am accumulating resources to help make life multiplanetary & extend the light of consciousness to the stars.”

Dude sounds like he was having a pretty fantastic late-night Twitter session, but Sanders was in no mood to party.

“Space travel is an exciting idea, but right now we need to focus on Earth and create a progressive tax system so that children don’t go hungry, people are not homeless and all Americans have healthcare,” Sanders responded. “The level of inequality in America is obscene and a threat to our democracy.”

Musk has yet to respond to Sander’s latest blow, but it could very well happen with a “far out, man” type of vibe.