Not everyone loves their boss enough to write a song about them, but Ab-Soul has returned with a fiery freestyle in celebration of TDE founder Anthony ‘Top Dawg’ Tiffith’s birthday. Produced by Devin Williams, the beat is built on a soulful loop and features some of Ab-Soul’s slickest wordplay yet, with timely references to Eminem, Craig Mack, Michael Jordan, Nat Turner, and John Mayer. Midway through the song, the beat switches up, trading in its soul sample for one from Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam,” while Ab-Soul unleashes, delivering nimble-tongued odes to Top Dawg and Soul’s late friend Mac Miller.
Ab-Soul has had a quiet couple of years since the release of his most recent album, Do What Thou Wilt, but recently began to poke his head back above the surface for neck-snapping verses on labelmate Reason’s latest single “Trapped In” and performances at Day N Vegas and the annual TDE community concert, where he promised his new album would arrive in 2020. With albums from the likes of Isaiah Rashad, Jay Rock, Reason, Schoolboy Q, and SZA reportedly coming soon, 2020 is very quickly shaping up to be a crowded year for the Los Angeles-based label — if coronavirus quarantines don’t derail their mainline artists’ respective comebacks.
Hundreds of right-wing protesters demonstrated in Denver, Colorado on Sunday in opposition to the governor’s stay-at-home-order. A small group of healthcare workers stood in the crosswalks as a reminder of why the shutdown is in place.
Two nurses, who have witnessed first hand the toll Covid is taking in Colorado, stood up and peacefully counter protested. Here is how they were treated. I had join them. pic.twitter.com/iJnNcqZxSv — Marc Zenn (@MarcZenn) April 19, 2020
“This is a free country,” the protester screams in the video. “Land of the free. Go to China if you want communism. You can go to work — why can’t I go to work?”
The video is an unbelievable display of selfishness and stupidity by the protesters. The fewer people that adhere to lockdown, the longer the virus will spread, leading to even greater economic hardship.
“Clearly this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics and the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC. “But unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery, economically, is not going to happen.”
As the coronavirus continues to spread, the live music industry has taken a major hit. Nearly every festival and concert tour this summer has been canceled or postponed in order to adhere to social distancing guidelines, and consequently, live music and touring stocks have fallen drastically. In the midst of the festival and concert tour schedule changes, Ticketmaster is making it more difficult for ticketholders to get a refund. But artists are responding by doing what they can to return money to their fans.
Ticketmaster recently faced backlash for quietly altering their refund policy. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the company offered full refunds for shows that were either postponed or canceled by the artist. But, in recent weeks, Ticketmaster changed their policy’s language to remove concert postponements from refund availability. That means fans can only get their money back if a concert was canceled entirely, not postponed.
Musicians like Bon Jovi are attempting to combat Ticketmaster’s policy change. In a statement, the veteran singer’s crew announced they would be canceling all summer shows, rather than postponing them, so fans are able to receive refunds and financially support themselves:
“Due to the ongoing global pandemic, it is no longer feasible for Bon Jovi to tour this summer. Given these difficult times, we have made the decision to cancel the tour entirely. This will enable ticketholders to get refunds to help pay their bills or buy groceries. These are trying times. You’ve always been there for us and we’ll always be there for you. We look forward to seeing everyone again on tour when we can all safely be together. We will continue to send out news and updates on Bon Jovi touring in the weeks and months to come.”
Though some fans are not able to receive refunds to postponed shows, some artists are making sure fans can exchange their tickets for a later date. Taylor Swift recently announced she would be postponing all her 2020 tour dates. While that means fans cannot receive a refund through Ticketmaster, all tickets will be automatically transferred to the reflect newly scheduled date.
Fans place value in what their favorite celebrities say. That’s relevant during these trying times, as musicians and other famous people have spoken up and shared their thoughts about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. For the most part, these messages touch on at least one of a few basic points: Only leave the house if necessary, regularly wash your hands, stay six feet apart from people, and to sum that all up, be mindful of yourself and others, more so than usual.
Then there’s Pitbull. Over the weekend, Mr. Worldwide shared his own take on a meaningful social media post, and while it may have meaning to him, it’s not clear how many non-Pitbull people know what message he was trying to convey. Sharing a photo of himself accompanied by a few lines of text, Pitbull’s post, which comes across as a slam poem crossed with a public service announcement, reads as follows:
“Wake up, don’t sleep. This is deep.
Deeper than a virus. This is about
freedom or freedumb.
The choice is yours. Educate yourself.
God bless, stay blessed.”
The meaning behind Pitbull’s vague message and odd phrasings isn’t exactly crystal, adding uncertainty and confusion to an era that already has plenty of those things. He seems to be advocating for social distancing, but said it in the most uninviting cryptic was possible. Whatever the case, listen to Pitbull and choose freedom over freedumb, and try your best to stay blessed.
Just because countrywide COVID-19 safety measures have put an end to all of our favorite annual festivals this year, doesn’t mean the virus can take 4/20 away from us. Smoking weed is a social act, something best experienced with a couple of friends at your side; and while we wouldn’t suggest breaking social distancing rules and meeting up with your friends to swap spit and pass a bowl, we still don’t think you should spend this year’s 4/20 alone.
If you’re living with housemates who don’t partake and you don’t want to smoke solo, tune-in to one of these six livestreams — ready to help you celebrate 4/20 in real-time with live performances from weed-loving comedians and musicians, virtual smoke-sessions, and interactive giveaways. Pull up a chair, place a towel under the crack of your door, and light up for the world’s first virtual 4/20. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our 4/20 deals list so you can re-up your supply on the cheap.
Join Willie Nelson for a four hour and 20 minute variety show-style livestream centered around cannabis. At 4:20 CST, Willie Newsom will be joined by a huge list of celebrity guests who have come together to celebrate all things cannabis and help raise money for The Last Prisoner Project, an organization dedicated to bringing restorative justice to the cannabis industry.
Expect to see Matthew McConaughey, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Smith, Billy Ray Cyrus, Bill Maher, and anyone else famous who famously partakes in the green herb.
The National Cannabis Festival and The Emerald Cup have teamed up for a special 4/20 livestream, with performances from The Disco Biscuits, The Pharcyde, and Ape Drums of Major Lazer fame for a day of online workshops, live performances, and interactive panels all centered around your favorite herb. Highstream will raise money to benefit coronavirus relief charities as is streamable from 4-10 PM EST at Highstreamtv.
Beginning at 12 PM PST until 4:20, attendees of the Miss Grass 4/20 Summit will be treated to a day of free Zoom programming in an effort to raise money for the Last Prisoner Project’s emergency COVID-19 relief fund. Chelsea Handler will head a “Get Good At Weed” workshop, and cannabis industry heads will discuss timely subjects like Sex and Weed in quarantine and restorative justice, with a closing DJ set performed by Stoned Fox.
Los Angeles’ biggest cannabis crews, from Weed Rave, to Stoner’s Night LA, to Sesh-Ins, are teaming up for a three-room Zoom rave with non-stop music from Galcher Lustwerk, Wasted Fates, ABBY, Dier Times, and many more. Stoned Alone will even feature a virtual reception room with a cyber door girl who will screen guests before you enter the dance floor.
Viewers of Stoned Again will be able to participate in dance competitions for cannabis-themed prizes or hang out at a virtual patio to watch classic stoner movies or chat with friends. Who said 4/20 had to be celebrated alone this year?
Join B-Real, Too $hort, Tommy Chong and more for an online cannabis, music, and arts festival that seeks to raise money for COVID-19 first responders. Live on Twitch from 11 AM to 6 PM PST, The Great American Sesh In will also feature appearances from Stephen Perkins of Jane’s Addiction, Scott Page of Pink Floyd, and a variety of other celebrities guests and comedians exploring all things weed-related.
Wiz Khalifa and Billy Ray Cyrus will headline WeedMaps’ very own virtual 4/20 celebration today, beginning at 12 PM PST. For five hours viewers can tune into live music performances, stand-up comedy, and live smoke sessions in an effort to raise money for the Last Prisoner’s Project.
Previously on Jesus Christ, Superstars: Bob Backlund wore a jacket that made him look like a patriotic disco pirate, Marty Jannetty dressed up like a Starburst, and WWE Network took five months to upload new episodes. Thank God we’re back!
If you’d like to watch this week’s episode, you can do that here, and you can support the column (so we’re allowed to keep writing it) by reading previous installments on our Jesus Christ, Superstars tag page.
If you like these, and our break from the normal Best and Worst format, make sure to share it around so it gets read and drop us a comment below.
Here’s what you missed 28 years ago on WWF Superstars for December 12, 1992.
Jobbers Of The Week
The last time we saw “John Richner” on Superstars, he fell victim to Papa Shango’s dreaded voodoo leg cramp. This week, he’s back with the actual spelling of his name — John Rechner — and teaming with the Brooklyn Brawler. Say what you will about the Brawler, but tagging with a face from WWE’s Mount Rushmore of jobbers is a major step up from jobbing to a spooky Charley horse.
It’s also worth noting that despite having one of the worst haircuts in Superstars history, he topped it by shaving off just the middle of his scalp merkin. So now instead of having a big drain clog on the top of his head, he’s got two, smaller clogs. I think he just left a tuft in the back so Sags would have a handle while relentlessly raking the man’s face in Brian Knobbs’ razor burn.
Anybody else bothered by the Nasty Boys doing a “gross armpit” spot but shaving their armpit hair? Isn’t the hair getting stinky and gross what makes it disgusting? It’s not like all the other parts of Knobbs and Sags’ bodies aren’t sweaty. This and other observations from the guy who once wrote an entire paragraph arguing that Mr. McMahon’s “Kiss My Ass Club” isn’t as gross as they pretend because he just makes them rub their nose against his butt cheek, which is funny gross, but not gross gross like if they actually went up in there. Basically you’re just kissing his leg. What, is the lower back disgusting? It’s biologically equidistant. Butt cheek grossness is a social construct.
Please unread the previous paragraph before proceeding.
A Brief Aside About Capitalism And Classism
Not to derail Jobbers of the Week as soon as we got it back, but I have to mention this week’s green-screen promo from Money Inc. on the Nasty Boys. Sean Mooney, gift from God that he is, prefaces it with the statement, “Now when you are Tag Team Champions there is hardly time to dream; and considering the tough competitors out there in the tag team ranks, there is no rest for the weary, or the very rich.” SOCIETY!
IRS goes full MAGA while describing the Nasties:
“I’ll tell you something, Million Dollar Man. We know why they call them the Nasty Boys. They nastily stink, they nastily smell, they’re just nasty, nasty people. But we know how to deal with nasty people: we just put them back on the STREET where they belong!”
Bonus points for using some variation of “nasty” six times in four sentences to describe a team choosing to call themselves the “Nasty Boys.” Mooney sticks the landing with a deadpan, “compassion certainly not a trait of Money Incorporated.” GREED CERTAINLY NOT A TRAIT OF PHILANTHROPY LLC.
Okay, back to the jobbers.
Speaking of haircuts and terrifying armpit grossness, Gus Cantankerous is back this week, and he’s grown out his hair from when we saw him back in October. He’s on “Lance Cassidy” duty, whom you may remember as the World Wrestling Federation’s brief attempt to make Steve Armstrong a southern heartthrob with a vague “guns and mullets” vibe. Shit’s rough when you’re the fourth best wrestling Armstrong.
Harlem Globetrotters Bit Of The Week
Half Beatle John Paul returns as well this week, losing to Bam Bam Bigelow. If you aren’t familiar with Bigelow (and/or haven’t been reading the Best and Worst of Nitro) Bammer’s basically what would happen if you made the Nasty Boys into one guy and set him on fire.
Unfortunately the match is all about the encroaching Doink the Clown, who brings out a bucket during the match and drinks from a bottle of water inside the bucket to … show us the bucket has water in it, somehow? Don’t think about it, it’s like doing a submission hold on a table. It hurts more. The bucket’s got water in it. But anyway, if you’ve never seen a Harlem Globetrotters game and don’t know where this is going, Doink threatens to douse fire-type Bam Bam with water, only for the bucket to be filled with harmless confetti. Swerved!
That’s only the first half of the bit, though. Once you’ve established that you’re pretending the bucket of confetti is water, you have to flip it. So after Marty Jannetty defeats future Light Heavyweight Champion (no really) Dwayne Gill, Doink returns with the bucket.
Marty, having the deductive reasoning of a trout, is like, “haha, what a cool confetti bucket!” And then … well, you know.
The look of absolute, unfathomable betrayal is the funniest part of this entire episode. Dude wasn’t this shook when his tag team partner kicked him in the face and threw him through a stripper’s barber shop window.
Debut Of The Week
Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler’s WWE career is one of the few seemingly infinite things in the world, but have you ever wondered where it began? On this December 12, 1992, edition of Superstars. The best part? He’s debuting right now because the Royal Rumble is coming up, and it has “Royal” in the name. No, really.
“All of this talk about royalty, the Royal Rumble, it’s only natural that the true royalty of wrestling should appear on the scene.”
As you might imagine, having Bobby Heenan and 1992 Jerry Lawler on commentary at the same time is like letting Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets call your show. McMahon is a perfect intermediary, though. If you’re going back and watching the episode, watch his eyes when Lawler says, “You don’t have to refer to me as Mr. Lawler, King will suffice nicely.” It’s BUG-EYED DISBELIEF followed by a moment of pleasant acceptance followed by BUG-EYED DISBELIEF.
Goodbye Of The Week
The seven-month WWF career of justifiably angry ex-convict Nailz ends this week with a win over Repo Man’s used car salesman cousin, Mike Collins.
As we’ve mentioned before, very few people have as dramatic an exit from WWE as Kevin ‘Nailz’ Wacholz. The most reliable third-party story we have on the incident is from Bret Hart, who in his autobiography recalled that Wacholz got The Berzerker to watch the door so he could corner Vince McMahon in his office and scream at him for fifteen minutes over a pay dispute. A loud crash was heard, which turned out to be Wacholz, “knocking Vince over in his chair, choking him violently.” He was fired, of course, which led to him filing a wrongful termination lawsuit and claiming that McMahon had given him steroids, made him do steroids, and sexually assaulted him. Also he saw McMahon in the closet making babies and he saw one of the babies and the baby looked at him.
Nailz would go on to have a storied career in World Championship Wrestling — calling himself “The Prisoner” to lose his first match to Sting and immediately disappear — and would, believe it or not, team with Ron Simmons in New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Super Grade Tag League (now the World Tag League) in 1994. See you never, Nailz. Heaven needed someone to put on Herman Munster shoes and choke a cop.
Positive Affirmation Of The Week
Slick, the Reverend who somehow just now found religion, delivers a surprisingly timely sermon comparing life to the Royal Rumble:
“You know in comparison, sometimes my friend, life can be just like the Royal Rumble. Every couple of minutes, things all around you are just changing. You don’t know how to trust. Trouble coming from every direction. And I want to say unto you today, this is the reverend with a message of hope: say to yourself every day, I’m going to have a happy day. I’m gon’ have a happy day, though my sky may be clouded and gray, I’m gon’ have a happy day.”
Saturday morning Slick promos for children just hit different in quarantine.
Planet Hollywood Event Of The Week
One of this week’s most interesting time capsule packages is a video about the World Wrestling Federation having a Make-a-Wish fundraiser at Planet Hollywood, featuring Macho Man Randy Savage, Ric Flair, and others. John Cena’s also there somehow, but I think they just CGI’d him in. Yokozuna arrives via what Sean Mooney calls “traditional transportation,” which he adds is, “much to the driver’s chagrin.” Who needs legs anyway?
I should also quickly note that WWE had a guy named “The Undertaker” pull up to a Make-a-Wish event in a hearse. Thank Christ for context.
Starfleet Command Of The Week
This week we learn more about Max Moon than we’ll ever learn again. He arrived in the WWF, “after battling many various enemies throughout the universe” — thank goodness he’s fought VARIOUS enemies — and is, “totally focused and FOOLY prepared for the task ahead.” What’s that, you may ask? “To blast my opponents right out of the ring, and launch them into orbit.” I wish his promo had just been, “I HAVE FOUGHT SO MANY ALIENS AND NOW MY JOB IS TO KILL A BUNCH OF WRESTLERS AND SEND THEIR DEAD BODIES INTO OUTER SPACE.” I also wish that he’d succeeded at least once, and that I could write the sentence, “Gus Kantarakis was then launched into orbit, where he suffocated in the vacuum of space and was never seen again.”
Also, did you know Max Moon supporters are called his “Star Fleet?” I bet those fans were really disappointed to see him get Roddenburied.
PACKAWHILEJACKALS Of The Week
This week’s main event segment is a “special interview” featuring a condor in Liberace’s bathrobe screeching at a Canadian drum major. [squints] Sorry, this is Ric Flair interrupting Bret Hart to scream at him about how the Royal Rumble’s coming up, which means Flair’s probably going to be champion again. Have you SEEN the 1992 Rumble? This of course ends with Flair and Razor Ramon attacking the champ 2-on-1 until professional turncoat Mr. Perfect arrives to make the save.
Later, Bret does his standard great “how DARE you” promo where he calls Flair and Ramon a “pack of wild jackals” and goes full Canadian with, “I don’t care if it’s one’a ya, or both’a ya!” He also calls Ramon “Mr. Match-IS-mo,” which is delightful. Challenge them to a fight in your dad’s dank gym!
Next Week Of The Week
Bob Backlund, Genichiro Tenryu, and Carlos Colón. Also El Gigante is there dressed as a giant naked man with fake muscles and airbrushed-on He-Man underpants. I’m not making any of this up.
Late last year, Kali Uchis debuted her first solo music since her 2018 breakout album Isolation. Her track “Solita” arrived as a standalone single and the singer has been keeping her new music under wraps ever since. Uchis recently collaborated with Little Dragon for “Are You Feeling Sad?” and Kaytranada for “10%.” But, other than those two tracks, Uchis has remained relatively quiet. However, the singer revealed on Monday that fans won’t have to wait much longer for new music.
Kali Uchis unveiled that her upcoming EP is arriving at the end of this week. Announcing the project on social media, Uchis said: “can’t give you my album yet, but i recorded some demos in my room for u.” The demos are compiled to form Uchis’ EP To Feel Alive. Along with sharing her EP’s release date, the singer revealed its raunchy cover art. Partially censored for social media, Uchis’ To Feel Alive cover art is a pastel painting of the singer performing a sex act on herself.
While the art may be jarring for some, Uchis was quick to thwart any pushback from fans. Replying to one fan who called the artwork “ugly,” the singer had the perfect comeback, writing in an understandably now-deleted tweet, “u & the cover have that in common.”
To Feel Alive EP is out 4/24 via Universal. Pre-order it here.
The Lovebirds starring Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae was just one of several films that saw its spring release date jettisoned as the ongoing pandemic shut down theaters across the globe. But while other releases went straight to VOD or remained in flux, hoping that they can still make it into theaters, Paramount went a different direction and brokered a deal to release The Lovebirds on Netflix, with this new trailer showcasing the film’s romcom-crime highlights.
Unfortunately, Netflix and Paramount didn’t provide a release date at the time of the announcement, but that’s no longer the case. In a surprise Twitter video that Nanjiani dropped on Monday morning, he reveals to Rae that their romantic action comedy will be available for streaming on May 22.
You can watch Nanjiani’s announcement below, which also features Rae getting in a few jabs about his new Marvel physique:
The Lovebirds was originally scheduled to debut at SXSW, but like most festivals and mass gatherings going into the foreseeable future, that event was cancelled as the world quickly retreated into self-isolation to slow the spread of the pandemic. With studios still shuffling release dates in a mad scramble to make sure its biggest blockbusters see their full box office potential, it makes sense for smaller films like The Lovebirds to broker deals with streaming services where audiences are starved for content.
It hijinks start when Jibran (Nanjiani) and Leilani (Rae) are accosted in their car by a guy claiming to be a cop commandeering their vehicle to chase down a perp. But it doesn’t appear that this guy is legit an officer of the law when he runs over his target… again and again and again. Now the couple are on the run, framed for the murder.
The Lovebirds will start streaming on Netflix on May 22.
Ken Block is no stranger to entertaining. The famed rally car driver and member of the Hoonigan Racing Division has spent years behind the wheel, whether it be for a race, a television show, or his YouTube channel, which boasts 890,000 subscribers as of this writing.
Now, Block is one of the many names to hop on board with Quibi for the first wave of shows during the mobile streaming app’s launch. In the aptly named Block vs. Elba, Block and Idris Elba go head-to-head in a collection of car-themed challenges. While logic would dictate that Block has a major leg-up, Elba is no slouch behind the wheel, either, and without giving anything away, the show’s second episode features him being far more eager than Block to do a particularly dangerous challenge.
Block vs. Elba made its debut last week, and Uproxx Sports caught up with Block to discuss how this came to fruition, making the show, and why he thinks it’s perfect for Quibi.
How did it come about and what was the timeline on making this show go from an idea to reality?
Yeah, good question. The impetus of it was really Idris. Idris really likes cars and likes to do car-type activities, everything from racing to the shows. So he sought me out, came out and visited me in a race a couple of years ago in England and we hit it off and really enjoyed hanging out with each other. So he pursued a couple of different show ideas with myself, and the first one that we’ve done now is this show with Quibi. So this was his production company that did it, it was their idea and I just came along for the ride, which I gladly did because I liked the idea of it, I liked working with Idris, and I think they did a great job.
Filming the show, can I get a general timeline of how that looked, where it happened, and then just the sheer amount of organization that goes into setting up the various challenges that you two put yourselves through?
Yeah, the show was filmed last June in a part of London by the London airport ad it took three or four days to shoot, I think a total of four days. Some of the stuff, interviews and little bits between Idris and I were done separately, but then a bunch of the competitions were obviously done together. So it was really quite fun to do and quite a challenge for the production team to do all those different set-ups in a small area.
The ones that I saw were the obstacle course in the first episode, the long jump, and then driving on two wheels. Why were those things that you guys wanted to get into this as challenges?
Well I think the basic impetus of it was Idris knew if we just went out and raced that, most likely, my experience in the racing field would put him at a disadvantage. So they came up with a bunch of fun and interesting challenges that would challenge us in different ways, because I’ve never driven a vehicle on two wheels, so that was something that we kind of equaled the playing field because we both have skills in the car but this challenges those skills in a totally different way. So I enjoy adapting and approaching each challenge as a unique way to challenge all the race craft that I had, but I think it was a great way, like I said, to make the challenges an equalizer that didn’t make it just so the race car driver went out and beat the non-race car driver.
Yeah, I was going to say that second episode, it seemed like you were a bit surprised that Idris was so gung-ho about having a car launch off of a ramp and onto a bed of other cars. Did you kind of get surprised by his desire to do some of those crazier things that you might not expect that a Hollywood celebrity would be into doing?
Well, he comes from a slightly different world where stunts that normal stunt drivers do. Like, jumping a car to a dead stop is kind of normal but for me that’s the opposite of what you want to do. Every jump that I do is a very calculated jump with a take-off ramp and a landing ramp. I want to roll away from the jump, I don’t want to come to a dead stop. So I think that one just came more as a surprise to me that people wanted to do that. But for him coming from the world that he comes from, he sees a lot more of that stunt action, which is a bit more standard in that world and that’s something that excited him a lot more than it excited me.
What’s the number one thing that you wanted to accomplish with this show?
Well for me it was great to be able to have someone like Idris challenge me in this way and it was a lot of fun to do. But also there were certain challenges in there, like driving on two wheels, like driving a monster truck and doing the Wall of Death. These were things that I always looked at as interesting and fun things to do with vehicles that I just had never gotten the chance to do. So this show gave me the opportunity to go out and do some things that were just on my bucket list to try but I just never had the chance to set them up. So for them to set up a fun show for me to go out and compete against a great guy like Idris and create really fun content on a new app, that’s very cool. I like Quibi, it was just a very great opportunity for me.
In that first episode you say, I think verbatim, “I really don’t think Idris has a chance here. He’s basically screwed.” For someone like you who has done this competitively for years, does your competitive spirit kick in right away, or do you take more of a “this is supposed to be fun” approach. How does doing something fun like this mesh with Ken Block, the person who has done this competitively for years?
I’m competitive no matter what I do. So I always try and have fun and enjoy myself, but at the end of the day, I want to put myself in the position to win. So when we originally started looking at this, I thought, “Crap, Idris is going to come out looking pretty good no matter what in this.” Because I’m the race car driver, I’ve got everything to lose. So if I lose, that’s going to make me look pretty bad. But if he wins, he just has a nice upside really, no matter what. Even if he comes close to beating me, it still looks great for him.” So yeah, there was a bit of extra pressure on my side, but I wanted to have fun and enjoy myself competing with Idris. But at the end of the day, I want to win no matter what.
Of all the challenges you did in this show, what was your favorite one and why?
I would say my favorite one was actually driving on two wheels. I’ve wanted to do that for a long time and my buddy Terry Grant, that’s a stunt driver in England, has taken me for several different rides on two wheels at events like Goodwood Festival of Speed or a demo somewhere like Gymkhana GRiD. So I’ve always been intrigued by that but never had the opportunity to learn it. So that was a huge challenge and it was a lot of fun to kind of unscrew my brain and try and learn a new skill that just made no sense to me, so that’s the one I enjoyed the most.
It seems that you and Idris both had a blast. What was the most fun part of all of this?
This has a nice ring to it; “Idris Elba to drive Ken Block’s Ford Mustang Hoonicorn RTR at Gymkhana GRiD!” What do you think? Should we push @IdrisElba to come race GRID this year?? #ElbaForGRiD2020pic.twitter.com/XCcD5YWg8G
I would say the most fun part was really interacting with Idris and really the sportsmanship and the challenge of trying to beat someone else, and he’s genuinely like a car guy and a fun guy to compete with. So just that whole interaction of trying to outdo a guy like Idris was just a really fun part and now that I’m doing all this.
I know you’ve done plenty of TV over the years. How do you think a medium like Quibi is right for this kind of show?
Well, I think that all of us are kind of experiencing really the birth of the internet and social media and how us as humans are using it and to watch new apps come along and be very successful based on the way that we consume media. So I think Quibi is really found a niche in the idea of making short, high-quality content that people can watch sitting on a train or in between appointments or however they want to do it. And it really resonates with me because a lot of the things that I do, especially like the Gymkhana videos, average around 10 minutes. So for me it’s something that I really appreciate. I think it goes right into sort of my sensibilities of how I like to use my phone and watch content. So I think they’ve done a great job.
Have you and Idris spoken about possibly doing a season two? Would there be any interest in that sort of thing?
Yeah, we’ve had a couple discussions about it. I mean instantly when we got done filming this show, he was talking about trying to do a second season, so I’m game. I really enjoyed it. I think there’s ways that we could even up the level of the competitions even more next time. So I really hope it happens.
Is there anyone else off the top of your head you can think of that you’d be interested in competing against in a format like this or is number one you want to run it back with Idris and see what else you guys can cook up here?
Well, I enjoyed working with Idris because he’s definitely a car guy. I get to compete against all sorts of different race car drivers around the world from the likes of Petter Solberg to Vaughn Gittin, doing different things. So I enjoy that element of it. But this, doing it with an actor and a personality like Idris was really cool. So I’d love to do that again but if I had to pick someone else, I’d love to do it against another celebrity like Idris, or like a Brad Pitt, or someone like that that’s really into cars and competing. But I really hope that we do a second season of this show because I enjoyed working with Idris and his production company, so I hope Quibi makes it happen.
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This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.