At the onset of the pandemic in America, SXSW was one of the first festivals to announce they would be canceling their 2020 event. Other summer festivals, like Coachella and Lovers And Friends, still held on to hope and at first postponed their dates until the fall. But as the lockdown persisted, nearly every major festival this year made the difficult decision to cancel their events. Even still, festivals like Mad Cool and Outside Lands have already announced their lineup for next summer but Lollapalooza’s co-founder, Marc Geiger, worries they could be a little too eager.
Geiger offered his prediction for the future of live music in a recent segment of the Bob Lefsetz Podcast. When asked his opinion about when large-scale events can return, Geiger said “super-spreader” events like sports and festivals won’t be able to happen until the pandemic is more under control. “In my humble opinion, it’s going to be 2022,” he said.
Continuing to offer his “instinct,” Geiger said: “It’s going to take that long before, what I call, the germaphobic economy is slowly killed off and replaced by the claustrophobia economy – that’s when people want to get out and go out to dinner and have their lives, go to festivals and shows. It’s my instinct, that’s going to take a while because super-spreader events – sports, shows, festivals… aren’t going to do too well when the virus is this present.”
The festival co-founder continued that there are “probably 20” issues to be dealt with before live music can safely return, including “spacing and density” as well as the “infinite liability” festival organizers will face against insurance companies. Geiger concluded that “the next six months may be more painful than the last six months, and maybe the next six months after that are even more so.”
Listen to Geiger’s full interview on the Bob Lefsetz Podcasthere.
Turns out that Chris Pratt and Rob Lowe have remained very good friends post-Parks and Recreation (in fact, Pratt’s wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, also appears to hang out regularly with Rob Lowe’s wife, Sheryl Berkoff). In addition to talking about Pratt’s success since Parks and Rec, as well as their love of certain movies (including Lowe’s St. Elmo’s Fire), the two reminisced at length about their time together on the Amy Poehler sitcom, including a story “that’s been told a thousand times” within the show’s family about the “single greatest ad lib in the history of Parks and Rec.”
“It’s the flu season episode,” Chris Pratt recounts, acknowledging Rob Lowe’s ad-lib, “Stop pooping!” in that same episode may have actually been better, or at least the second best ad-lib in Parks history. In any respect, everyone was sick in that episode, so Andy was taking over and “sitting at Jim’s desk, and I was sitting in Jim’s position. Ben is walking Leslie out saying, ‘You have a fever. You have the flu. You need to go.’”
“And then Tom [Magil, the director of photography] says, ‘Hey Pratt. You wanna say anything? We might catch you in the background, so you might want to improv a line or two.’ So, they stuck a mic on the desk and when they were walking out, I improved the line where I had a computer in front of me and I said, ‘Leslie, I typed your symptoms into the thing up here, and it says up here that you could have network connectivity problems.’”
“Mike Schur [the show’s writer and creator] gets so mad about it,” Pratt says, “because he writes jokes, and he’s very generous, and he writes amazing jokes all the time, but he’s always been very effusive and complimenting of that joke.”
“It’s the perfect joke,” Rob Lowe continues, “because it’s hilarious, it’s story-point driven, and you are the only character who could have said it. That’s why it’s so great. I mean, in theory, anyone could have said, ‘Stop pooping’ and it would have been funny. Andy is the only person — other than Jerry, who is an idiot — who could say, ‘You have Internet connectivity problems.’”
“I know it’s a good joke,” Pratt adds, “because every once in a while, I’ll repeat it to myself and laugh. A joke that makes you laugh every time you hear it is a good joke.”
“When I need to stop pooping,” Rob Lowe concludes, “I say to myself, ‘Stop pooping,’ and then I laugh, and then I continue to poop.’”
It took just over 13 minutes for Zac Efron’s new travel series, Down to Earth, to win me over completely. I was teetering in that direction before that, to be fair. The first episode takes place in Iceland and is all about sustainable energy and how the country has weaned itself off fossil fuels. It opens with a segment where Zac and his co-host, wellness guru Darin Olien, meet with an awesome Icelandic dude who a) showed them how to bake rye bread by burying it underground in the piping hot soil that is heated by a nearby volcano, and b) explained that he watched the same volcano’s most recent eruption from his hot tub. This is an excellent way to start any episode of television, for any show. Kick off the next season of Succession with Cousin Greg and a bearded Icelandic dude soaking in a hot tub while a volcano blows fiery lava towards the heavens in the distance. Do it in a cold open, before the opening credits and tinkly pianos hit. You don’t even need to explain it. I cannot stress in strong enough terms that I am not joking about this.
So, yes, teetering, understandably. But what came next pushed me over the edge. Zac and Darin hopped in a car with a guide to go to a geothermal plant so they could learn more about how Iceland uses water and steam to power huge chunks of the country. As they pulled up, the guide and Zac had this conversation, which I promise I have not edited or taken out of context in any way.
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This is my favorite show now.
I’m going to back up, quickly. I don’t have time to do it any other way. I have way too many screencaps from this show to share with you. But it is important, I think, to note one thing: I came into this show with cynicism. I was expecting it to be one of those humorless celebrity vanity projects where an A-list star frowns while discussing your carbon footprint. I was expecting, at best, to point and laugh as a couple of Los Angeles bros “discovered” electricity. And it is that second thing, sometimes, to be sure. But it’s also more than that. Let me put it this way: I was not expecting, at all, to be completely won over by the earnest enthusiasm of two dudes who were just super excited to learn cool shit about the Earth.
I mean, look how freaking stoked they are about turbines.
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The whole series is like this. It’s incredible. Huge chunks of the show are just scientists and experts explaining stuff and then these guys being blown away by how cool it is. They meet with urban beekeepers to learn about how city bees can produce healthier honey because they’re not messing with plants that have been doused in pesticides. They go to the Amazon to climb trees and explore natural ways humans can boost their immune system. They go to Peru to learn about potatoes and cryptopreservation efforts to make sure there’s a food supply to sustain the survivors of a near-apocalyptic event. They go to France to learn so, so much about water and water purity, and they meet with an incredibly weird dude who calls himself a “water sommelier.”
If you play a drinking game during the show where you take a sip every time you hear “whoa,” “wow,” “rad,” or “sick,” you’ll be watching the second half of the season from the hospital. It shouldn’t be nearly as charming as it is. And yet!
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My favorite episode takes place in Sardinia, a small island off the coast of Italy known for being a Blue Zone, one of the places in the world with an abnormal number of residents who live to be 100 years old. They talk to doctors and experts and dozens of very old people, and yes, all of the very old people find Zac Efron very adorable. You cannot possibly imagine how much 100-year-old women love Zac Efron. Maybe you can. It’s a lot.
The best part of the episode is when the people of Sardinia explain multiple times that one of their secrets is a diet that is both low in protein and does not shun carbs. This information absolutely shatters Zac Efron, a man who spends about 15 percent of this show shirtless and just shredded out of his mind thanks to a high-protein diet and an avoidance of carbs that, by his own admission, included a six-month carb-free stretch to prepare for the Baywatch movie. His face in these moments is the face of a man discovering his whole world was a lie. It’s like The Truman Show but with spaghetti.
An example will help. This is a screencap of him eating pasta he made. It does not do the scene justice. He really is so deeply happy to be eating these carbs.
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It’s the most pure thing you’ve ever seen in your life. There is not a droplet of cynicism present in the entire show, except for when Anna Kendrick joins them briefly in France and makes fun of the water sommelier, a little bit, to his face, which is also charming and fun in a different way. The whole thing is somehow both the polar opposite of a Bourdain-style travel show and one that accomplishes a similar purpose. Both of them just want to bounce around the globe and show you the cool stuff they found. They want to make the world a little smaller and better. They would not have gotten along even a little bit, sure, largely because Bourdain would have hated Darin so much, but whatever. Not the point. There’s more than one way to experience the world, you know?
Here’s the craziest part: By the end of the show, I was kind of envious of Zac Efron. His worldview is so refreshing, so free of the kind of forced irony you see from a lot of people on television. Would I have felt this way without the melancholy of a pandemic hanging over me? I don’t know. Maybe not! But that’s not really the point either. The point is that Zac Efron is just so powerfully enthused — so jazzed — to be learning all this stuff and to be sharing it with people. He is sharing it with a lot of people, too. Between his name recognition and the show’s platform on Netflix, he might be reaching more people with these messages than anyone on Earth right now. That’s pretty cool. That’s rad. That’s, well… that’s kind of… okay, I’ll say it. Fine. I’ll say it. That’s…
I May Destroy You easily nabbed the #2 spot on our Top 10 Shows Of 2020 So Far list. Michaela Coel created and wrote the series, and she stars as Arabella, but Michaela also brought an old friend along to play one of her good friends. Paapa Essiedu went to drama school with Michaela, but he explained to us how he definitely earned the role of Kwame, who supports Arabella following her rape in numerous ways. That includes accompanying her to the police station, but when Kwame suffers his own sexual assault, he heartbreakingly travels all by himself to report being raped. One there, the detective who listens to Kwame’s story turns him away without taking the thought of pressing charges seriously at all.
It’s a devastating turn of events on this TV show, which explores the various forms that sexual assault take through Coel’s scripts. Kwame’s trauma begins in the season’s fourth episode, when he’s raped by a man with whom he had consensual (protected) sex with earlier that evening. The events that transpired throughout that night also bring his friendship with Arabella into question, and Paapa’s layered performance of Kwame shines light upon a perspective that we rarely (if ever) see on TV.
Paapa was gracious enough to hop onto a Zoom call with us to discuss how he loved wearing his character’s various masks on I May Destroy You as the show continues to fearlessly deliver truths to the HBO audience.
You and Michaela go way back. How does it feel to watch her success and be a part of it?
Yeah, I mean, as a viewer and as a punter, which is mainly what I am, being her friend, it’s amazing! All you wanna do is see your friends [succeed], and this is like the front cover of a magazine for your friends. I’m so proud of her, and even being involved in this kind-of takes a backseat to that, actually. When I watch the work, the show, it’s mainly pride that’s the front-end sense for me.
How did you learn that you were going to be playing Kwame, and were you privy to any of Michaela’s scriptwriting as it happened?
I obviously would be talking to her when she was writing, and talking about it, but she never thought it was me that was going to be doing it. It was a very last-minute.. well, I auditioned for it. She was maybe having a hard time finding the right person or whatever, and then the casting director said to her, “Well, what about Paapa?” And she was like, “What, really?”
That was a very flattering reaction, I’m sure.
And it was the casting director who pushed it through. When we actually started working on it, though, it was very easy to get into it.
Did this role stick with you when you went home at night?
I think I was actually okay because I’ve done a lot of plays, and a big part of the ritual of doing a play is to try not to bring it home with you, which I’m sometimes good at and sometimes not good at, but the one thing that I did need was that — after we finished filming — I did need to go do a play for a couple of months, just to not think of that project, and then I came back to it.
How did you wrap your mind around bringing this nuanced view on sexual consent, and a type of character we rarely see, to TV?
I guess, of course, the responsibility is great, in terms of it being an underrepresented story in terms of television. I don’t even know if I was thinking about that when we were doing it. I guess I was, but it was mainly about doing it justice and investing the character in his journey with truth and integrity and honesty and realness. That’s the only thing that I, as an actor, can concern myself with, as opposed to how people may or may not receive it. And I felt very privileged to be given the opportunity, but the privilege was connected to the challenge, which was to do it justice.
One layer of Kwame is that he’s introverted, but he’s also an aerobics instructor, so he’s used to shifting into extroversion, and shifting gears in general. Do you think that has anything to do with how he processes his trauma?
Oh, one-hundred percent, but I think, like, all of us kind-of are [that way], but I think that he is more complex than the rest. I really wanted to have that approach to him early, from the genesis of making the character. He has the ability to be super introverted and super introspective and quiet and with himself, but he’s also got the ability to, like you say, run an aerobics class or try to be in front of his friends and show videos of people that he’s gonna f*ck and all of that. He’s got this real confident, tough exterior, but they’re all masks. They’re all different versions of himself, and sometimes he’s got this one on, and sometimes he’s got that one on. And that was the case with all of us. That was the amazing thing, to excavate and explore this character.
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Do you think that Kwame gets any closure toward the end of the season?
I don’t even think that closure is what he’s necessarily looking for and needs. I think that closure is a difficult ideal for him to fully grasp because with that kind of trauma, it stays with you. It’s more about how it metamorphosize and becomes something else to you. I don’t know if that’s what he gets, but I have hope for [he and Arabella’s] relationship.
The show uses intimacy coordinators, which are a relatively new thing. Did that change the experience for you?
Hugely. I can’t imagine this kind-of sensitive and delicate material being produced safely without one right now. Because I’ve been lucky on previous projects to have worked with very experienced actors who have been upfront and certain about what they’re capable and comfortable doing and what they’re not, so that’s great because everyone knows where they stand, but there are so many other versions of that where no one knows where they stand, and they make it up as they go along, and that’s not an area where you want to improvise, really because you’re going to infringe on someone’s boundaries. So an intimacy coordinator just helps you concentrate on the actual scene, because there’s communication, and everyone feels safe and comfortable and focus on the task at hand, which is to tell a story.
It’s a hell of a story. Do you have hopes for a second season?
I really love, but I can’t really — yet — imagine the characters outside of the parameters that have been set for them so far in this circumstance. That’s what we played it for, and we never set it up for [the event that] somebody will say, “You can tell this story some more.” There’s a totality in the twelve episodes that we’ve made, so the curiosity is very much sated by that.
Sometimes there’s a fear that a second season can’t live up to a first.
We’ve told the story that we’ve wanted to tell, and it’s quite a brave and radical thing we’ve done… but who knows what the future will hold.
Well, if you could give Kwame a holiday on any other show, what would it be?
I’d like to see Kwame on Succession, I think because basically, I love Succession. I also think that show needs this type of character to disrupt things.
‘I May Destroy You’ airs on HBO at 10:00pm EST on Mondays.
Harry Lloyd’s got an argument ready for why you should watch Peacock’s risky new sci-fi series, Brave New World. It has something to do with the nightmarish possibility of a “utopia” based on author Aldous Huxley 86-year-old classic. He’s got even better reasoning for why you should get invested in his character, Bernard Marx — a high ranking member of a society, which is doped up on happy pills and countless orgies, who translated as a minor villain in Huxley’s original tale. Because, like the rest of us, Bernard is just trying to figure his sh*t out.
Born an Alpha Plus, an elite designation in a place called New London where test tube babies are coded as Alphas, Betas, Gammas, and so on, Bernard belongs to the upper echelon of society. He should be respected, worshipped, and desired because of his ranking. Instead, he’s ignored, gossiped about, and his authority is constantly questioned. This is where we’ll let Lloyd take over:
Lloyd: He’s an Alpha Plus. What’s his problem?
Lloyd: Well, he doesn’t really know.
Lloyd: Okay, why should we spend time with him?
Lloyd: Because he’s willing to find out.
Fair enough. We chatted with the actor about how the show eventually goes off-book, its comparisons to George Orwell’s 1984, and how he’d fare in this utopian future.
As long as Huxley’s book has been around there’s been comparisons to Orwell’s 1984. Which is more terrifying in your opinion?
I think Huxley’s [world] is a bit more sinister because we recognize it. We’ve given up some [things] without perhaps noticing rather than in 1984 when freedoms are taken away and you’re denied access and knowledge. Here, you’re distracted. No one needs to read a book. Why would you want to? That’s more terrifying than burning a book because there’s something horribly feasible about it.
Bernard might not be the hero of this story, but he is a compelling character. What interested you about his journey?
I was very interested in Bernard particularly from the start because he’s contradictory. I didn’t know where to place him. He’s representing this Bureau of Stability, he’s an Alpha Plus, but he himself is conflicted. And he’s brave enough actually to explore that doubt even though he’s so desperate to be an Alpha Plus. I think that’s why I was initially sympathetic towards him. He’s actually a quite cowardly individual, a puppy at times.
He does come across as more vulnerable than in the book.
I am responsible for some bit of puppyishness about him. I didn’t want him to be cold, which he could’ve come across as in this world where everything’s happy and perky. You get bored with those guys pretty quickly. He had to be vulnerable. There had to be something wrong with him, something he was trying to hide, if we were to be bothered to spend any time with him, frankly.
He’s malfunctioning, essentially. How does that fuel his journey in season one?
He’s got this same itch that CJack has, that Lenina has. The big question of the whole series is how that all connects to the one big character that we eventually introduce who’s not in the book: Indra. How do you embody that society and personify that in a character that has even more control than someone like Mustafa Mond? That’s a really interesting thing that I think will take us beyond the book.
Is that a season two hint?
[laughs] I know basically nothing about season two. I have my theoriesm which is where I think you’re led as an audience. Without any spoilers, just keep your eye on Indra from the start.
If you had to choose between a chill life in New London or life in the Savage Lands, which would you pick?
Is it for the rest of my life? Is it forever? Or do I get a weekend away? If it was a weekend, I’d definitely take a weekend in New London. That be a nice place to hang out on holiday. But yeah, forever? I don’t know, because you’d have to give up your privacy which is impossible, and also, your family. I have a little girl who’s about to be two. When I was filming this, she was actually one. It’s a wonderful experience. I wouldn’t give that up.
‘Brave New World’ premieres on Peacock’s July 15 launch day.
Calling out overpriced bourbons is tough. Many of the most expensive bottles are released at pretty fair price points and then those prices get jacked up — in some cases ridiculously — when they hit the secondary market. For instance, the “suggested retail” of a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 23 Year is $299.99. That’s steep but do-able for a major splurge on a truly special expression. But you’ll be lucky to find that bottle for less than $2,500 these days. Basically, huge retailers and service industry groups buy all the Pappy up the second it hits the open market and then they sell it back to us normal folks at huge markups.
Sad and shitty but true. And it happens more than you might think.
Most of us don’t have thousands of dollars laying around to spend on a single bottle of bourbon, so we’re taking a look at five overpriced bottles of bourbon (thanks to the secondary market) and calling out similar bottles from the same distiller. The ten bottles below are paired off according to their general vibe and often their actual mash bills. And just to be clear, we’re not saying that these bottles are overrated (Pappy 23 is delicious after all). They’re simply overpriced, mostly due to the way unchecked capitalism is allowed to work in the bourbon industry.
Price:$3,250.00 Distillery: Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, KY
Bottom Line:
Let’s get the Pappy out of the way right up top. Yes, this is delicious. Superior 20-year-old barrels of Pappy are identified in the rickhouse and then aged an additional three years to add even more greatness. But with a price tag this steep, this wheated-bourbon is pretty much completely out of reach to everyone without super deep pockets.
Alternative: Weller Special Reserve Bourbon
Price:$45 Distillery: Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, KY
The Whiskey:
This wheated bourbon is the actual predecessor to Pappy. In fact, W.L. Weller and Pappy were made at the same distillery in Kentucky after Prohibition ended. There’s a direct lineage between these two labels from the same distillery (to this day) and that shared heritage shines through in Weller’s refinement.
Tasting Notes:
Sweet caramel greets you. The sip slowly travels through notes of oakiness, fresh honeycomb, wildflowers, and a hint of butterscotch. That floral note marries the honey sweetness as the sip lingers on the palate long after you’ve finished the dram.
Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond 9 Year Old
Price:$300 Distillery: Heaven Hill Distillery, Bardstown, KY
Bottom Line:
This high-end bottle from Heaven Hill is certainly one of the best-looking bottles on the list. The wheated bourbon is well-made but comes at a hefty price tag that makes this bottle more of a delicious showpiece than anything else.
Alternative: Henry Mckenna Single Barrel Bourbon 10 Year Bottled-in-Bond
Price:$50 Distillery: Heaven Hill Distillery, Bardstown, KY
The Whiskey:
While this isn’t also a wheated bourbon, this very affordable offering from Heaven Hill shines brightly. The juice utilizes a touch of rye in the mash bill and is then aged for ten long years in a bonded rickhouse. The best barrels are chosen by hand and the juice is bottled directly.
Tasting Notes:
Orange zest, caramel, vanilla, and Christmas spice are counterpointed by a flush of fresh mint. The vanilla and caramel carry through as the spices kick up the sharpness alongside a burnt orange feel. It all slowly fades out on the charred oak finish with a minor hint smoke far in the background.
Michter’s 20 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Price:$2,000 Distillery: Michter’s Shively Distillery, Louisville, KY
Bottom Line:
This is straight-up a collector’s bottle and it’s not even the most expensive bottle of Michter’s you can buy. Still, if this bottle was priced closer to $250, we might say “go for it” — it’s truly a masterpiece of bourbon making.
Price:$70 Distillery: Michter’s Shively Distillery, Louisville, KY
The Whiskey:
One of the big changes you get in the 20-plus-year-old whiskeys is a real sense of oak. It’s just different. And this expression doesn’t have exactly that; but the use of sun-kissed, toasted barrels adds an extra dimension that reaches towards those aged depths.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a clear sense of oak alongside a rush of spice and a billow of smoke. Cinnamon and allspice forward pecan pie with a butter crust mingle with a little more smokiness and a clear sense of sappy woodpile. The sip lasts a while as it slowly rolls through all that wood, spice, and pecan pie nuttiness/sweetness.
Eagle Rare 17 Year
Price:$600 Distillery: Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, KY
Bottom Line:
This expression is released every year as part of Buffalo Trace’s “Antique Collection” along with stellar bottles of George T. Stagg, Sazerac Rye 18-Year-Old, William Larue Weller, and Thomas H. Handy. It’s truly a masterstroke of rickhouse aging.
Stagg Jr.
Price:$75 Distillery: Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, KY
The Whiskey:
It’d be easy to just say, “grab the Eagle Rare 10” instead. And by all means, don’t let us stop you — it’s a great expression. But let’s change it up a little with a really well-rounded cousin to Eagle Rare: Stagg Jr. The bourbon is aged for nearly ten years before it’s bottled completely unfussed with, and it’s a great sipper to have around.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a brown sugar sweetness the drives towards red fruit and spice. With a drop or two of water (or an ice cube) a real sense of dark chocolate bitterness arrives alongside ripe cherries next to more sharp rye spice and wet brown sugar. The sip ebbs and flows through the spice and sweetness towards a wisp of smoke right on the end that sits with you like a fog.
Amy Baldwin is a straight-up sex expert. While the splashiest entry on her resume might be the fact that she co-owns Pure Pleasure Shop — a sex boutique — with her mom, she’s also a certified sex educator and a trained sex and relationship coach. As one half of the duo behind the popular podcast Shameless Sex, Baldwin and co-host April Lambert speak to sex researchers, thought leaders, and a wide range of people who feel deeply invested in the various permutations of human connection on a weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) basis. The show is fiercely non-judgemental, deeply inquisitive, and reveals the co-hosts’ shared passion for both their audience and their subject matter.
When COVID-19 hit the United States and the whole “horny in quarantine” conversation took hold across social media, Baldwin and Lampert chose to take an interesting tack with Shameless Sex. Rather than focusing only on the more sensory aspects of the whole sexual experience, they reached out to listeners for a check-in. The duo read emails for hours at a time and wrote back with messages of emotional support. The entire exercise proved to be a reminder of how online communities can become powerful gathering spaces during this era of isolation and how sex is so often about more than just the physical act.
With quarantine dragging on (and getting stricter in some states), we hopped on the phone with Baldwin to speak about how Shameless Sex has approached the COVID era, her favorite episodes of the show, the lengths that she and Lampert go to take accountability for their mistakes and blind spots, and how she hopes to see conversations around sex continually evolve in the year to come.
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You’re taking a kind of interesting approach to the shutdown. It’s a lot more human-driven and not quite so overtly sexualized as people might expect. Do you want to explain what you and April have been doing?
Yeah, totally. With our podcast, first of all, I mean, we take sex questions and things and we get testimonials and fan emails and PR stuff. Our email box is crazy. We do not have the opportunity to respond to everyone who sends requests in and all that stuff, so we have to pick and choose. But we’re seeing that during this time people are just so hungry for connection and feeling just how extreme the isolation is — regardless of if they’re married with three children or if they’re single and alone. A lot of people are feeling kind of a similar thing: this challenge of aloneness.
So what we started to do was send out, to our newsletter list, a newsletter that’s literally asking them, “How are you?” When you walk down the street and a friend sees you and they go, “How are you? That’s great. It’s cool. I’m hanging in there.” But we really are like, “How are you really? What’s really going on? And we invite you to respond to us and we will read all those and we will respond to every single one of you who email us in response to this.” And then in it, we share how we are. We’re not just like, “Oh yeah, my dog’s cute, and life is great.” We’re like, “this is fucking hard.” And sometimes I have these really great days where I’m super optimistic and I’m seeing the silver lining and the beauty. Other days, all of a sudden for absolutely no reason, I’m just in this low funk.
So people have been responding to that. And they’re sending us things like, “I’m a single mother with three kids.” And sometimes they contemplate like, “how long can I do this for?” They’re not talking about suicide, but they’re like, “how much capacity do I have?” And other folks are just sharing how grateful they are and they’re sharing their stories and also the beauty of it, like, “Oh, I’m having more connected sex with my partner.” And someone else was like, “I want to kill my partner.”
You’re getting the full spectrum of quarantine experiences.
Yeah. Then we respond to them and if they keep responding to us, we just keep this dialogue going with strangers. And in it, I feel connected to these people I’ve never met. They’re feeling this connection to us. Obviously, they hear our voices, but here’s the silver lining — something that we’re just missing in society in general — usually we can only open up to people we really know, really well and we don’t check in on the folks that we rarely see. We’re not really checking in with them and giving them space to really share who they are and for us to do the same.
So this idea is just helping us be part of a really powerful opportunity that’s happening right now — to embrace checking in and maybe actually shift the way we connect.
Have people been surprised about the fact that your focus has been more “tell us how you’re connecting and how you’re holding up” than some of the more hedonistic “how to have a COVID sex party on Zoom” stuff?
We received so much gratitude. Folks were just like, “Oh my god, wow, you’re actually taking the time to talk to us?” They know that we have 50 or 60,000 people that listen per week, but that we’re actually taking the time to really check in on them. So it was more just this gratitude. And then when we respond to them too, they respond, we respond back, they were more like, “ah!” This felt really, really good for them. So yeah, just more this gratefulness, this gratitude that was coming through.
Yes, our podcast is about sex. Right now, people, I think, need to hear things that are just spicy and juicy and aren’t just talking about isolation and the coronavirus, right? They need those outlets because COVID is everywhere. But also, there’s this other part. Like you’re saying, “yeah, there’s sex and there’s the fun stuff!” but there’s also the other deeply emotional pieces involved in what we do. I think it’s important for us as the educators that we are to open up the doors for those conversations too, because they’re so connected, right? You’re feeling complete anxiety and aloneness and in the world and in your isolation. That’s going to somehow translate into sex. Maybe it makes you desire more sex, maybe less sex. Maybe it makes you desire a new type of sex. I don’t even know, but it’s all interconnected. And I just think that it is just a really important time to create space to embrace all of it, as opposed to just staying in the shiny stuff.
Yeah. Honestly, I feel with a lot of what we do is just going with the flow of what the current times or energy is based on our listeners and what’s happening there. And it’s a tricky thing. Here’s one other thing I’ll say that’s happening right now. This is a little off-topic, but somewhat related — our listeners are 20 times more sensitive than they’ve ever been right now. Some of the things that we say now, that if we were to say this two months ago, totally fine. Now, we say certain things that might be somewhat political, our beliefs, things like that, and people are just on edge. So we’ll get eight emails in a day that are like, “Hey, this really offended me.”
We’ve committed to — we’re not going to walk on eggshells and change who we are — but we still need to pay attention to everything because they’re a part of us, our listeners, they are Shameless Sex. We wouldn’t be anything without them. We know that we’re not our own thing. And so we take that into consideration. And sometimes it is rather messy. Sometimes we hear some of those harder, more critical critiques of us. It’s hard to take in, but it just shows what people are going through right now. I can see it, I can hear it. And I can know. “You’re having a really hard time right now,” I can see that. Or “This touched a really personal place or was something that you’ve experienced.” And then we just work with that.
Adjust to the audience, respond to things that bothered people —
One thing that we do in our podcast is we own it. When people call us out, we actually… First of all, if they call us over something that we’re like, “I don’t know about that one” — we’ve been called man-haters before and all of these things; I’m not going to buy into that one because we love us some men — but if people are suggesting ways that we could do better, we talk about that in the podcast. And we own it and we’ll apologize. And we say, “all right, we’re learning and this is how we’re going to work with that.” And it’s just happening at a stronger, faster rate right now, but it’s making us better, ultimately, more connected to our listeners and to our community.
I think of My Favorite Murder also in this same vein of reacting and responding and owning up where it needs to be done. “We’ll get better on this issue. Whereas over here, we kind of disagree with you on this issue.” It’s a more circular content model — where the audience is involved in the next stage of creation. Is that something you’re constantly conscious of? And how do you feel that benefits the audience?
I don’t believe I saw a model for doing things this way and was like, “we’re going to do that.” But I was consciously like, “we’re going to take everything into account that the audience says.” And make it, like you said, that circular model.
I think that it just kind of coincides with who we are and what our platform is and our message. Because Shameless Sex is about inspiring people to make their own rules for who they are as sexual beings while abiding by rules of consent. I think it just kind of goes hand in hand with the model for what we do and for what we offer, that we need to hear the audience’s voices and their stories. If we were a platform where we were like, “oh no, we have all the answers and this is how you should do life,” then we probably wouldn’t care about what they were saying and take that into account, but it’s not why we created the podcast or what we do. So I can’t say, I mean, I think I know of some other podcasters that are doing the same thing. And for me, when I hear that, when I hear people that can give other people voices and then own their shortcomings, I value them 20 times more. I think they’re more credible, more trustworthy. I’m more interested in what they have to say and teach.
I think people just probably value that they feel seen and heard. And we’ve of course had some people send us emails that, “I don’t feel seen and heard by something that you said,” and I’ve had people say, “I’m not going to listen to you anymore,” and I’ll respond to them and let them know, “I actually really appreciate you sharing that with me, because while I’m not going to necessarily have the ability to change everything, you’re making me a better person by just giving me feedback. And also that’s really fucking vulnerable for you to share that.” That in itself is a powerful exchange for me and for that person, for them to even open that up.
Whether they choose to listen to us or not, something powerful happened there.
To what degree do you think the world in 2020 — and obviously, I would imagine that you guys have a pretty socially liberal-leaning audience — but to what degree does the world in 2020 have progressive viewpoints about sex? Where do you feel the mainstream population is lacking? Where do you feel you wish you could push people and what do you wish for them and their sex lives?
So most days, I’m like, “Oh my god, it’s getting better. Everyone’s getting more open and progressive and there’s more room for women’s sexual reproductive rights,” and all these different things. Then all of a sudden, that changes again two days later. And so I think in some ways, it is growing and expanding. In mainstream media, we’re seeing more examples of polyamorous relationships and queer relationships and trans folks. Even if you look at the representation of queer and trans folks on TV 20 years ago, it’s entirely different than what it is now. Now it’s almost something that is standard to see, as it should be, because this is a huge part of our population that should also be represented.
What I would love to see are more examples of mainstream folks, whether it’s in a TV show or something, where they’re like, “Here’s my really set belief system of how things are — how sex is as a man and a woman, they do it like this and dah, dah, dah.” And more examples of them having some holy shit or a-ha moment where they hit rock bottom or something and it inspires them to question everything they believed. And then they totally recreated their whole idea of sex and relationships. They reframed their whole idea of what sex and relationships needed to look like and lived the most ultimate juicy, beautiful aliveness that they possibly could, which is totally happening. That is out there.
When you get out of your own way and you start to get really curious about what’s true for you — and know that that’s going to be different for everyone and you need to create that acceptance for everyone — that’s where the magic comes in. Those are the people who are like, “life is fucking incredible. Oh my god. I have all these moments where I’m so grateful. I’m so alive. I went to a sex party yesterday, or my partner and I had this deep, vulnerable conversation.” Instead of being stuck in the “this is how you do it.” And I can’t tell you how many people I know who did the “this is what you’re supposed to do” dream and are so confused as to why they’re not happy, whether it’s sex, relationships, or just an overall sense of purpose.
So just more examples of that — mainstream folks getting out of their own way, and then discovering that this is the key to ultimate happiness, potentially.
I’ve wondered if there will be a return to hedonism coming out of the quarantine as people say to themselves, “This is my life. It’s clearly fragile. It’s time to live.” Do you see a new Summer of Love coming?
I’m so curious about what will happen because on one side, we are entering this stage of people having so much less closeness and contact with people. Physically, at least. In the sexuality realm and in the relationship realm, people who were already maybe curious about doing things that were a little bit outside of the box are like, “Oh god, I missed the window. Now I have to wait to do that again!” Stuff like going to sex parties or even just people wanting to go up to that person in the bar and not doing it because of fear.
And then quarantine happened. And now you’re like, “Fuck, I can’t do that for two years, maybe.” So there’s a silver lining there of making us think, “You know what? Now that I know that anything can change at any moment, I think I’ll flirt with that person the second I get a chance. No putting it off until tomorrow.”
We have a really wonderful opportunity to get more clear about what we’re missing and what we wish we had done. And when it comes to relationships and sexuality, those are going to be huge, huge parts of it. I think it’s going to be a little weird when people come out, where they’re like, “Wait, I can touch you? I can kiss you?” Because it’s kind of like STI and STDs, right? It’s like sexually transmitted diseases. But yeah, that’s the way I describe it. And being in isolation, we have our isolation pods. I see my partner and my two housemates and that’s it. But my partner sees his kids and my two housemates see their partners. And so we’re all kind of just having sex with each other, right? We’re all taking risks on getting this virus with everyone we see and everyone that they see.
Yeah, you’ll have your quarantine cluster, right?
Yeah. It’ll open up more and more and more, and it’ll be wonky as we open and get used to this thing. And I think my advice is for folks also to really not get set on things being what they once were. I’ll say this with sex and relationships too. Actually, it should always be that way. It’s not helpful for us to ever be set on sex in relationships a believe that just because things happen one way today that they should be the same tomorrow. What we’re going through right now is an even greater example of that. We’re living it right now. And maybe people can really take advantage of that and adopt that into their belief systems.
Right! And that doesn’t mean that the previous time was wasted. It doesn’t mean that what I had five months ago, my sexual philosophy, was wasted. It means that it’s continuing to evolve. What do you say to people who are just beginning that journey? When you get someone who comes into your orbit, but is really skewing on the straight and narrow end of the scale and the spectrum? What’s “progressive sex 101” for them?
A lot of how I would start with people is asking them, “What is sex to you?” Because the definition of sex for everyone is different for everyone. Some people like penetration, some will throw everything in there — making out is sex. I like to get curious people and ask them questions. What is sex to you? Where did you learn that? Did you believe that three years ago? How has that shifted? Do you think that that can change? And how do you think your life might be different if you shift that? What would that look like? And are you aware that your definition of what that looks like is different than mine and every other human being on the planet?
Of course, there’s might be a mainstream idea of what that is. I feel like some of the ways, the times I’m working with people, I’m almost trying to teach them meditation. Teaching them how to have that internal observer, that instead of just becoming their feelings and beliefs, they actually are looking at it as an observer and asking themselves questions along the way, which I think is so important for sex. Because again, we’re constantly being affected by all these different messages that are shaping who we are. And so many people, they just believe it. They just believe it. They can live their whole lives just believing instead of actually going in with a deeper inquiry. So I think wokeness about sexuality means there’s a greater perspective of understanding what’s happening.
And then also wokeness on sexuality, by the way, isn’t just understanding what’s happening here in California or here in the United States. What is sexuality in, I don’t know… Uganda or in Zimbabwe, and in different communities or cultures? You have to educate yourself about the diversity of sexuality. Also, how was it 100 years ago? There are two parts. It’s the internal piece of your own work, asking yourself the questions, but also the external piece of getting curious about how sexuality is everywhere and how it’s constantly evolving and changing minute for a minute, I think is the ultimate woke place that you could be in.
Yeah. So it’s the flexibility that is the answer in many ways, right? The being willing to reevaluate your definitions and your thought processes around sex.
Totally. And being willing to change. Being willing to prove yourself wrong. Being willing for your whole identity to shift, or maybe not the entire one, but so much of what we were attached to, to thinking who we are. I’m Amy and I’m a straight woman who wants to get married and have babies some days, to all of a sudden being Amy who’s now heteroflexible and actually doesn’t believe in marriage and wants to go have an orgy with her neighbors. And maybe that’s not for you, I’m not saying that everyone needs to go and have wild sex and do all those things, but to be open to everything, just being fluid as is everything in the world. I feel only, there’s only… I have a stainless steel sex toy. This thing is kind of the only thing that will be constant for a long time. This thing’s not changing, it’s indestructible. Most other things that I see and look at, they’re changing all the time.
Shameless Sex
I love that. And what episode should someone start with the pod?
Yeah. Well, it depends on and what people want to listen to, what’s going to excite them the most. We were doing one episode a week and now we’re doing, during this whole thing, we’re doing two episodes a week. I don’t know if we could keep doing that. I think it might just be a temporary thing. We’ll see how it feels. We need to also talk to our listeners and see what they’re thinking.
Okay, so one that I love that is super entertaining and wild and it’s with another podcaster, it’s number 149. And it is about group sex, sex parties, and gang bangs. I just think it’s fun and playful. And it’s also, they’re very much about consent and things. And I think I’ve talked about group sex a lot in here. I actually only do a little bit of that. I’m not a huge advocate that, just so you know, but —
That’s one of the episodes I’ve listened to. It’s really fascinating.
Isn’t it, though? It’s so good because he also talks about… So when people think of it, it’s just swingers and, “oh, they just go and do this thing!” And there’s so much thought to it. So yeah, I would say — there’s one. If people want to listen to something that is maybe a little more… Well, that’s still educational, but I love, so we’re doing monthly episodes with Dr. Nan Wise. She’s a neuroscientist and she’s now coming on to answer sex questions, but she does have an episode on why good sex matters. That’s episode one 46. And I love that one as well. She’s absolutely wonderful and brilliant and inspiring. So yeah, I think that’s a really good one.
I think that’s —
One more episode though.
No, please.
Number 126 — “Erotic Blueprints with Jaya.” That one is badass because it gives people this very simplified blueprint thing to figure out who they are, how do they get aroused, and what is their sexual communication? So it’s kind of like love languages, but more like sex languages. And it’s really inspiring to people. She’s such a great speaker too. And there’s a quiz in there that people can take that’s free. And I got so much out of it. It’s really well done.
Last year was already a very strong year for Guapdad 4000. Coming off a few strong features, the Oakland rapper released his debut album, Dior Deposits, and made a plethora of appearances of Dreamville’s star-studded compilation album, Revenge Of The Dreamers III. Bringing that same energy into 2020, Guapdad has been a force moving full-steam ahead. Sharing over ten episodes of his Rona Raps series, one that finds him dropping joint freestyles with his fellow rap peers, he also dropped his Platinum Falcon Tapes Vol. 1. Back with more content for fans, Guapdad returns with a new single.
A solo release this time around, Guapdad drops “No Home For The Brave.” The easygoing track finds him in a reflective light as he points out the dangers in the world and the constant reminders of its existence as he sings, “I say ‘Be careful’ not ‘Be safe,’ because they break / Land ain’t free, ain’t no home for the brave.” Guapdad also reminds listeners that his bars are in tip-top shape thanks to a pair of verse that are laced with punchlines and metaphors.
The track arrives after Guapdad and Denzel Curry joined forces for their “Lil Scammer That Could” single. Welcoming Curry into his world, the two rappers paired the single with a surreal video that included human plants and a Thomas The Tank Engine-style train. Also, check out Guapdad’s recent performance of “Greedy” for UPROXX Sessions.
Listen to “No Home For The Brave” in the video above.
Guapdad 4000 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
On paper, Happy Endings was just another sitcom about a group of young adults navigating this messy thing we call life.
There were breakups and hook-ups and racist parrots — okay, that last one feels unique — but the basic premise wasn’t anything revolutionary. And yet, nearly a decade after it introduced a bizarre gang of Chicago-based weirdos named Brad (Damon Wayans Jr.), Jane (Eliza Coupe), Max (Adam Pally), Penny (Casey Wilson), Alex (Elisha Cuthbert), and Dave (Zachary Knighton), we still feel the anger rising at its too-soon cancellation. Anger even a rage-chill rewatch of Downton Abbey can’t cure.
So instead, to survive the wait before the cast’s planned reunion (and to distract us from the fact that Penny’s break-up play, Black Plague: A Love Story, is our current reality) we’re rounding up some of the best episodes of Happy Endings in case you need a re-watch.
10. “Dave of the Dead” (Season 1, Episode 7)
ABC
The Story: Dave mulls a job change after believing he may slowly be transforming into a zombie while Penny channels her inner hipster to impress a guy.
Why It’s On This List: Hipsters were millennial scum when Happy Endings first aired and they’ve only gotten worse with age so watching Penny don oversized spectacles, flea market duds, and practice her “Over it” catchall just hits different – and by different we mean funnier – the second time around. Of course, Max is there to guide her through the world of fashion scarves and bike locks as belts and hating froyo before she wises up to how dumb this whole vibe is, and while she’s doing that, Dave is gestating an idea that will soon become his signature food truck, Steak Me Home Tonight.
9. “Like Father, Like Gun” (Season 1, Episode 12)
ABC
The Story: Brad’s overly-strict dad pays a visit, and Penny learns she can only speak Italian when plastered.
Why It’s On This List: Damon Wayans. We’ll say it again: Damon, Wayans. Watching Wayans Jr. act against his dad is a special kind of treat for comedy fans, but the two actually craft an uncharacteristically emotional storyline from the pair’s strained relationship that offers a deeper glimpse into Brad’s psyche. Oh, and Alex teaches us all how to take BBQ ribs like a champ while Penny perfects her drunken Italian.
8. “Spooky Endings” (Season 2, Episode 5)
ABC
The Story: A Halloween party at a warehouse goes horribly wrong when Penny and Max choose the wrong couple’s costume, Alex gets mistaken for a man in drag, and Dave’s Austin Power’s getup doesn’t land the way he hoped.
Why It’s On This List: Adam Pally strapped to Casey Wilson in a Baby Bjorn. Need we say more? Fine, Quiche Zones, Elton John, ZZ Top Gun, and weird gay turkey parties. There, you’re welcome.
7. “You Snooze, You Bruise” (Season 2, Episode 19)
ABC
The Story: Dave gets bullied at the gym, which prompts Alex to recall her early years as a schoolyard tyrant and Jane takes Penny’s advice to relax her standards a bit too far.
Why It’s On This List: One word: Slo-mo-homo. Dave and Max get some quality gym time that really plays to both character’s strengths: Max, the reluctant gay, and Dave, the lovable goof. The gym subplot also means the return of D-Rock (Stephen Guarino), which is always a good thing, and an appearance from SNL alumn, Bobby Moynihan. Really, there are just too many funny people in this episode to praise each one but one of the highlights belongs to the Kerkovich sisters. Tough love takes on a new meaning when you have to talk your sibling out of some Gaucho sweatpants.
6. “The Butterfly Effect Effect” (Season 2, Episode 15)
ABC
The Story: Penny and Dave anticipate the annual Jane and Brad Spring Smackdown while Max hibernates through his seasonal depression.
Why It’s On This List: It’s the philosophical quandary of our time– which is funnier: Watching Adam Pally mumble his way to becoming a human-version of Winnie The Pooh or watching the rest of the gang hype up our favorite couple’s yearly fight like it’s some Pay-Per-View event? We don’t have a good answer but what we do know is this: “The Butterfly Effect Effect” is real, and it’s already impacted Ashton Kutcher’s movie career.
5. “The Kerkovich Way” (Season 2, Episode 17)
ABC
The Story: Penny and Max pull out all the stops to top an annoyingly perfect couple in the neighborhood’s annual scavenger hunt, and Alex enlists Jane’s help in “Inceptioning” Dave with an ancient Serbian-wiping memory technique passed down in the Kerkovich family for generations.
Why It’s On This List: Jane always had a particular kind of crazy about her, and Eliza Coupe chewed up every bit of comedic screentime she was given, but there’s something deliciously dark (and funny, obviously) about watching the more maniacal Kerkovich mindf*ck her friends, her husband, and her sister with the energy of a campy Bond villain. There are other gems here, like Penny’s patenting of “floor pie,” sadness crumping, and Brad’s love of Meryl Streep, but this episode really belongs to Jane and she does the most with it.
4. “Blax, Snake, Home” (Season 2, Episode 1)
ABC
The Story: Penny moves into a haunted apartment and begins morphing into a cat-friendly spinster, much to her horror. Max and Brad have a tiff over Brad’s networking commitments. And Jane’s plan to bring Dave and Alex together again as friends goes sideways.
Why It’s On This List: Where to start? Maybe with Penny, who’s elation over becoming a new homeowner is darkened by random cats popping up in her home, DVR recording of The View, and the fact that her hookups are too intimated by her Italian marble countertops? Or maybe we should focus on Dave and Alex’s budding rivalry? They’re each competing for worst pet-peeve this episode, and it’s between Dave’s running socks and sh*tty taste in music vs. Alex’s inedible jambalaya and insistence on feeding her pet snake Tyler Peeps for breakfast. Or maybe it’s the two-minute opening melee that begins with Max stabbing Brad with an oyster knife and ends with Penny administering an EpiPen when a shrimp cocktail tower falls on an allergic Jane? Really, take your pick.
3. “Baby Steps” (Season 2, Episode 2)
ABC
The Story: Alex’s boutique becomes a hot spot for teenagers with a fetish for baby tees, which sparks a desire in Penny to return to her high school days. Meanwhile, Max struggles to pay rent, and Jane stalks her egg-donation, which has now become a full-fledged preteen.
Why It’s On This List: This episode perfectly channels the soul-crushing realization that every 30-something has at some point in their tenure as an adult: you’re just not cool anymore. For Penny, that just doesn’t fly, so when a group of mean girls start repping Alex’s baby onesies as makeshift crop-tops, she chases that hollow-high of popularity to the mall’s food court. And while she’s going through a mini-mid-life-crisis, Max is operating a German sex hostel and bemoaning the millions he lost when the Beanie Baby bubble burst. Aren’t we all?
2. “Cocktails & Dreams” (Season 2, Episode 16)
ABC
The Story: The group stars having sex dreams about Dave after imbibing at his food truck when his liquor license comes through while Max worries that he might be getting a bit too domestic with Grant (James Wolk).
Why It’s On This List: Besides giving us the heavenly vision of Wolk cooking a whole-ass frittata, the show nails the cringe-inducing awkwardness of sleep-lusting over your best friend. It happens to everyone eventually, though Brad’s reactions are by far the funniest, and while his friends are trying to control their nighttime urges, Dave gets to pal around with Colin Hanks and his coke-loving intern, Beans. But the greatest gift of this episode is Penny’s defiant speech when she thinks Dave is slut-shaming her for taking a “Whore’s Bath” (really, it’s just the name of his new drink). Did you know you were pronouncing Au Bon Pain wrong? Well, now you do.
1. “The Marry Prankster” (Season 3, Episode 12)
ABC
The Story: Fed up with years of Max pulling pranks on them, the group decides to dole out some ice-cold revenge by tricking their old buddy into thinking he’s won the lottery. When he finds out he’s still the poorest one of the group, Max vows to exact slow, torturous payback on them all.
Why It’s On This List: Look, do we condone psychologically terrorizing your friend group as a healthy method for managing feelings of betrayal and loss? Well, if it’s this funny then yes, yes we do. Adam Pally has a hell of a time taking his character to the brink of insanity as his “gotcha”s become increasingly disturbing — paintball rigged muffins is something only a true psychopath could think up. What’s even more funny than watching Penny get slimed and Dave breakdown over his friend’s faked death is Alex’s rising panic that she too will be pranked. She just can’t handle the truth — that they’re all just little prawns in this twisted game, swimming around, waiting to be eaten by Max Broom… we mean Mark Bloom. Oh damnit, you get the picture.
This past April marked three years since Joey Badass delivered his sophomore album, All-Amerikkka Badass. Since then, besides a few features here and there, mostly with his rap collective Pro Era, the Brooklyn-born rapper has stayed relatively quiet. However, continuing to tease the release of his third album in the near future, Joey Badass opted to warm fans up with a “bundle of songs” prior to its release. Delivering three songs to fans, Joey Badass calls on a fellow east-coast rapper for a guest appearance.
Rolling through with Pusha T, the two rappers connect for “No Explanation.” Looking to hit listeners with some lyrical miracles, Joey Badass leads the way with his own verse, stepping through with confident bars like “If we talkin’ ’bout their rhyme for rhyme / My stats combined got stocks and bonds” before lending the mic to Pusha T. Sticking to his textbook topic on his verse, Pusha keeps the confident raps going with some of his own saying, “Olympic divin’ in this money, watch me jackknife / My rap life ain’t like yours / I’m really goin’ home to five stories and bright walls,” before allowing Joey Badass to close the song.
Joey Badass and Pusha T first announced the collaboration back in August 2018 at the Afropunk festival saying “it already happened.”
Press play on the video above to hear “No Explanation.”
The Light Pack is out now via Pro Era and Cinematic Music Group. Get it here.
Joey Badass is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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