Kendrick Lamar really goes after Drake on “Euphoria,” with most of the bars leaving very little doubt about what exactly he means. There is one portion of the diss track that has raised some uncertain eyebrows, though: At one point, Lamar raps, “Am I battlin’ ghost or AI? N**** feelin’ like Joel Osteen / Funny, he was in a film called AI / And my sixth sense tellin’ me to off him.”
While Joel Osteen is a televangelist, the lyrics seem like they’re really more about similarly named actor Haley Joel Osment, which has left some listeners confused (and dropping Abbott Elementary references).
Meanwhile, Osment himself has subtly weighed in: As some have observed, Osment liked Lamar’s tweet sharing the song. Whether this is Osment taking Lamar’s side or simply giving a quiet nod to his unexpected role in the situation as a whole, who knows. But, we know that he’s at least aware of the fact that he got roped into the big hip-hop beef of the moment.
Perhaps relevant is the fact that in a 2017 interview with Uproxx, Osment said Flying Lotus’ “Massage Situation” was his most-played song at the time. Given that Flying Lotus and Lamar have a history of working together, perhaps Osment’s X (formerly Twitter) like really is a Lamar co-sign.
Benny Blanco single-handedly owned the pop radio landscape in the 2010s, soundtracking wild nights for a whole generation. In constant demand, even his non-album solo single “Eastside” — featuring Halsey and Khalid — went 6x platinum. But despite an absurd number of plaques over the past 17 years, Blanco’s latest release is a new entry for him. It’s literary — a cookbook titled Open Wide, which acts as the star’s love letter to food and, more specifically, hosting dinner parties.
Sprinkled with pinches and dollops of minutiae and personal anecdotes, Open Wide reads as much like an engrossing coffee table book as a cookbook. It’s chock full of Blanco’s hilarious musings (as well as featured guests like Eric Andre and Lil Dicky) and serves as a resource for dinner parties of your own. The book holds nearly 100 recipes and it should be no surprise that Blanco is beyond jazzed about every little detail.
We caught up with Blanco to get the detailed rundown on one of his favorites from Open Wide, the crowd-pleasing, Pop’s Chicken — which he describes as the perfect fried chicken recipe, originating from Benny’s friend Pop, who is known for cooking soul food at his house every Sunday. (Side note: We all need friends like that.) Blanco also gave us the rundown on the one dining spot we have to try in Virginia, what’s on his rider, his ability to be DJ-like in taking cooking requests in the studio, and where his dream first food pop-up would be (sorry Angelenos, it’s not LA).
We also got personal and asked Benny about the origins of the “Chuck” bit from “Dave,” learned about the time he shaved his Unibrow way too much (haven’t we all?), and how that led to his commitment to his trademark look.
What’s the first step in getting started with Pop’s Chicken? Let’s start with picking out a chicken?
First of all, you need to get the freshest ingredients, so you want to get the freshest, fucking most delicious chicken. I would go to your local butcher because you don’t want something that’s been sitting there for days. By the time you get them, they’re three, four days old. You want a chicken that’s fresh, you want to be able to see little feathers that were just plucked off of it.
And then, as far as breaking down a chicken, let’s say you’re in a hurry, don’t even worry about it, just ask the butcher. You ask your butcher, you’re like, “Yo, can I break this down? Can you give me the breast meat? Can you give me the legs separate?” And they’ll do all the dirty work for you. They’ll even do it at most supermarkets too, if you ask.
That’s a good tip. I noticed Pop’s Chicken involves an extensive list of different spices and seasonings. Where are you getting your spices and seasonings? Is there anywhere you really recommend? And then are there any specific brands that people should be checking for?
I think even more so than brands and where I’m getting them from, I think the most important thing to know is that spices go bad after a little while. They don’t go bad in the sense that you’re going to get sick from eating them. When you first get them, they’re like a fucking line of cocaine, but after they’ve been sitting there for six months, they might not hit the same way.
So where are you getting these fresh spices from?
I really like a place called SOS Chefs in New York. I like another place called Sahadi’s in New York. If I’m in LA I go to Farmer’s Markets. In the Grove (in LA), they’ll have a lot of stuff in there from farmer’s markets. Specialty international stores have really good spices as well. Usually, when you go to an international store, they’re going to have really fresh spices and ingredients.
And is there any specific brand that you’re kind of partial to or is it just kind of spice by spice, you get what goes best?
I’m always looking at the color. You want it to be bright, vibrant. You don’t want it to look like fucking sawdust that’s been sitting there for a while. You know what I’m saying?
Yep, so after you get your chicken and your spices, your recipe calls for eggs. You mentioned that egg whites are a really important part of the recipe, so how are you picking out your eggs and where are you getting your eggs from?
I really like to go to the farmer’s market and get my eggs. Again, I know this sounds crazy, but you want look and see if there’s a little bit of chicken poop on the side, a little bit of a feather, because it’s really going to ensure the freshness of your eggs. If you’re getting your eggs at a farmer’s market, you never have to put them in the fridge.
Putting your eggs in the fridge is like a Western thing, they don’t do that in most other countries, eggs do not stay in the fridge. This is some weird thing that America did. And if I am going to a grocery store, there is a brand in LA and on the West Coast, I’m not sure if it’s on the East Coast yet, but it’s called Happy Eggs, they’re like these really good farm fresh eggs.
Basically, you want the freshies, you want the big brown boys. Don’t ever buy the white eggs, unless you’re buying from a farmer’s market. I know the eggs are going to be good when they’re a little bit different shapes and sizes and colors. And although we’re not using yolk in this egg (for Pop’s Chicken), you want your yolk to be like radioactive orange. Yellow yolks are a thing that also doesn’t exist in a lot of other parts of the world. You go to Europe and you go to Italy, the yolks are like fucking ORANGE, they’re like radioactive orange yolks.
And so the reason we use the whites because it makes the bite. You know how when you bite fried chicken and you take off all the skin and it’s not with the chicken and it’s a little bit thick and crumbly; it just doesn’t hold to the chicken? The egg white helps it hold to the chicken so much better, it’s not like slipping around and sliding off the meat. When I’m at the last bite of my fried chicken, I still want it to taste like the first bite. You know what I mean?
The egg white helps you do that. And it gets it airy and crispy and crunchy.
What’s the first step once you get home? What’s next?
Another important thing is you need the perfect amount of time for buttermilk. And you don’t want too much time or then your chicken’s going to taste weird and sour and it messes with the science behind the chicken, and it’s mushy — you want your chicken to have bounce. And you want your fried chicken, when you bite into it, you don’t want some dry ass shit, you want that shit to be juicing out, like somebody injected water into the chicken.
If you’re going to be frying for a bunch of people, you can pre-dredge and flour your chicken and put it on a tray, (because) this batter and everything, it all holds pretty well. If you have people coming over, you can just prep it a little bit. If you want to do it 30 minutes or an hour before, that’s fine.
Tell us a little bit about the brining process, because it seems like you would be doing that before the dredging.
There’s so many ways to brine a chicken. For Pop’s Chicken, I put sugar and rosemary or some spices, I do it a little different every time. You can also totally brine in sweet tea, basically you just need the sugar and the salt to break down the chicken. A combination of salt and sugar always works, and water, because it’s going to help make the chicken juicier. I know it sounds like a lot of steps, but it’s really going to fuck it up if you don’t do this stuff. If I put a chicken that’s brined next to a chicken that is not brined, I can keep my eyes closed, you’re going to taste the difference.
So brine your chicken, it’s very important. And then for me, the dry rub is so important because you want your chicken to be seasoned. A lot of times when you bite a chicken, just the breading is seasoned a little bit, but you want it to penetrate and give the chicken the flavoring of the seasoning. It doesn’t need to be insane, but it’s just another layer; you’re just building layers of flavor.
What are some of your tips for creating and executing the dry rub?
Pat your chicken dry. I know it sounds like so stupid and that everyone’s like, “yeah, of course I do”, but you’d be surprised how many people forget to. And then if you don’t pat your chicken dry, you’re going to have a loose wet batter and it’s not going to hit the same way. You need it to really stick to that chicken.
I really love to use Bell’s Seasoning, it’s just like an old seasoning blend, it’s good. Poultry Magic is also such a good one to use. These are just staples, they’re in every supermarket and you’re going to be like, “oh, okay. I know that’s at least the right one”; they’ve been around for hundreds of years.
Once you got your dry rub going, what sort of hardware do you need in your kitchen to take the next steps? What are some things that you need?
You can fry in an industrial fryer, you can fry in a cast iron. Fuck, I’ve literally fried chicken in a bucket. Literally a trash can that we just poured (chicken) in and then put it on top of an induction burner and did it because we needed a bigger surface. You just need anything that can hold heat and just be big enough to put your chicken in.
You don’t want your chicken clumpy, you need your chicken to be spread out. You don’t want it to be too close together, you don’t want it to get attached, (the chicken) needs a little room to breathe, and you’re going to be flipping it and shit.
What are some tips on the dredging process? I know you said pat for the dry rub, but as far as doing the actual dredging, what’s the lay of the land there?
For my dredge, I need something tangy. I do stuff different all the time, but there’s always the three things I put in a dredge.
I don’t have the recipe in front of me, but I can tell you for sure I don’t even need to look – 1) I always put some sort of pickle juice in. 2) I’ll always put some sort of hot sauce. I like Crystal or Louisiana, anything that’s based out of Louisiana. 3) I’ll always put mustard, and I’m talking like shitty French’s Mustard, because there’s something with the tang, and that’s going to just give you another fucking flavor bomb.
Once you’re done dredging, what are some tips for the actual frying, and how do you know when your chicken’s done?
A lot of people fry their chickens and the outside will get done before their chicken’s ready. Don’t fry it too hot. Whatever you’re doing, always watch your temperature. Because when you put the chicken in, the heat’s going to go down. There’s so many different things, there’s so many different barriers.
So stay calm, always stay calm and make sure to just take your time. It’s not a battle, you’re not fighting to see who gets the best time. You’re making fried chicken, have fun, go talk to your friends, drink a beer.
How do you know when the chicken’s ready to go? What’s the telltale sign to be like, “okay, it’s good”?
After making it so much, I know the color and feel of it, but if you don’t know it, pull a piece out, put a little thermometer in the side and it’s going to help you (figure it out). Don’t be afraid to use tools to help you.
It’s going to take a while before you can really know. Also, always know, when you pull your chicken out, it’s going to get a little bit darker once it’s come out. So you have to just know that as it cools, it kind of browns up a little bit more.
With Pop’s Chicken what’s the biggest challenge or the easiest thing to mess up that takes a while to master?
Not taking your time. Some people skip steps and they’re like, ah, I don’t need to brine the chicken, oh, I don’t need to do this. Always, always, always lay your chicken on a wire rack when it comes out. If you lay it just on something flat that’s not porous, it’s going to steam the chicken more and then the bottom of your chicken’s going to get soft. You want to keep this crispy.
Afterwards I’m done frying, I put it in an oven at 150 or 200, just so it’s holding heat inside. It’s not going to cook anymore. If you’re making chicken for a bunch of people, sometimes I’m doing this for 30, 40 people, and you just want to put the chicken on a wire baking sheet and throw it back in the oven to hold the temp.
A lot of people are scared to fry things. They’ve never done it at their house, they’re frightened, they think it’s going to take over their house, burn their whole house down. It’s not, you’re going to be fine, just take your time. And don’t be afraid when you’re first starting, to pull a piece of chicken out, check it. Check it with the thermometer.
So in this food series that we’ve been doing, we ask a lot of musicians about their eating habits. We all know that musicians often have very unhealthy eating lifestyles just because of the nature of the times that you’re working and things like that. So first question is, when you’re performing what’s on your rider? Food, drinks and snacks.
I actually try to keep it healthy, you know what I mean? I actually don’t eat a lot before I’m filming or doing a show, it’s usually afterwards. Before, I’m probably just having carrots and dip and a coconut water or something, it’s not as exciting as it seems.
I usually have to take a shit right before I do anything, too. The nerves just come in and you’re like, uppp.
What about when you’re in the studio? What type of food or snacks do you like to have on deck?
I want to say I’m eating healthy because I don’t want to fall asleep while I’m working. But in reality, I mean sometimes you get nought, sometimes it’s who knows. Sometimes you open up, sometimes it starts with one skittle and then before you know it, I’m covered in crumbs and glazed doughnuts. I don’t even know.
So there’s nothing specific that is a go-to, you kind of just go with the flow?
No, I’m cooking a lot for people in the studio, so it’s like people’s favorite. I mean people want fucking banana pudding, lasagna, spicy rigatoni.
Oh, so you’re taking requests?
Oh yeah, I take requests, I’m like a DJ for food.
What are some foods that people might find gross or nasty but you think are amazing?
Sea urchin. Uni, it scares people. And caviar, I love.
And then what’s a snack or a food that most people like that you find unappetizing?
I don’t eat pork, so pork rinds maybe.
If you could own or operate any franchise of restaurant or food related business, what would it be?
You know what I would do? You know when you go to a basketball game or you go to a football game or a baseball game, I feel like we’re so slacking on the culinary experience at those.
I know they’re trying to get better, but I feel like if somebody just gave me one to take over, I feel like I could make it so much more special than what it already is. We’re so blinded, even having food at any game, we’re like, “whoa, we got nachos”, and you’re so stoked. But imagine if it was actually fire food.
So where are you popping up? Are you popping up at Dodger Stadium? Are we at the Staples Center? What are we doing?
I think I’d have to move back to New York just to… I feel like it’s got to be New York, we got to be at MSG or something.
And you’re selling Pop’s Chicken or what are we selling?
I don’t know what we’re selling. I mean, I’d have to get high and think up the whole little menu rollout.
And then being from Virginia, are there any foods native to Virginia, or restaurants, that people must try?
There’s these things that I’ve noticed I don’t see a lot on the West Coast, it’s kind of like a Southern thing. They have these things, they’re called Kitchens, there’s one, Virginia Kitchen, and basically you go in and it’s just the most delicious kind of diner, but it’s like soul food too. There’s biscuits and grits and gravy.
On the West Coast, the breakfast out here is so mid. There’s just no diners out here. So Virginia, I don’t know, Virginia has these really good, they’re almost like buffets, it’s hard to explain.
I don’t know if it’s still there because I haven’t lived there in a very long time, but I always loved Virginia Kitchen when I was younger.
I have to ask you a question about “Dave” and the “Chuck” greeting that you guys do. Did you guys get that from Peanuts and Charlie Brown?
No. We literally saw Peanuts, honestly like a week ago. We’ve been calling each other that for years, it has nothing to do with it. It started out because we used to call each other Buck, and then it was Suck, then it was Sook, then it was Book, then it was like Chuck, Chuck really kind of stuck. But we’ve had a like a million nicknames that evolved into Chuck, and it’s like we saw the Peanuts thing and we lost our mind.
Yeah, isn’t that weird?
I know. It’s so strange. There’s also, back when we used to call each other Buck, there’s also a thing called, there was a movie that Michael White made called Buck and Buck and we were like, “what the fuck?” It was crazy.
I was going to ask about your unibrow, but we can save that for another time.
I have a unibrow, you do not.
I used to though. In high school I started getting it waxed because I was very self-conscious about it. I’m probably 10 or more years older than you, so it was like a faux pas, and so I felt-
How old are you?
I’m 41. And I felt Like I had to, and so I started –
I’m 36. When I was younger, I used to do the same thing, I used to shave it. One time I messed up and I accidentally shaved my eyebrows so far to each side that it looked like I had two Hitler eyebrows, it was crazy. Because I kept trying to go more and more and it just…
Yeah, too much. So at what point did you settle into it and be like, “you know what? I’m just going to rock this unibrow for life”?
I think I was like 17 or 18, and I was like, “oh, this is me.”
The 90-second trailer released on Monday morning, April 29, featuring Beyoncé voicing Nala and 12-year-old Blue Ivy is voicing a brand-new character, Kiara, Nala and Simba’s daughter. According to the YouTube description, the prequel movie centers on Rafiki “to relay the legend of Mufasa” to Kiara, “with Timon and Pumbaa lending their signature schtick.” Donald Glover reprises his voiceover role of Simba, and Aaron Pierre voices Mufasa.
“A buddy of mine, Matthew Cherry, made the short film called Hair Love that Blue Ivy did the audio book of,” Jenkins told Entertainment Weekly. “Starting this project and just having that in the ether, I was like, ‘Is it worth a shot? Would Blue Ivy want to do it? Would Beyoncé want to act opposite her daughter? Is it too close to home?’ But once we put the question to them, they both responded with enthusiasm.”
Jenkins added, “What’s crazy is we made the film, and then the Renaissance tour happened, and I think Blue really grew up over the course of that tour. So the Blue Ivy you see in this film, it’s like a time capsule, this very, very, very young stage of her life, and she got to share it with her mom. So, I thought there was some synergy. It could be beautiful.”
It didn’t reach Brendan Fraser-in-The Whale“the only frame from the movie” status, but it feels like we’ve been seeing that image of Zendaya sitting on a bed with Mike Faist on one side of her and Josh O’Connor on the other for years. That’s only a slight hyperbole: Challengers was originally scheduled for August 2023, but it was pushed back to 2024 due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Thankfully, Luca Guadagnino’s sexy (and sex scene-free) tennis movie finally comes out this week, so we’ll be able to see the bed scene in context.
Speaking of that scene, Zendaya told Variety what was on her mind while taking such good care of her little white boys. “The only reason I really remember is because Beyoncé came out with ‘Break My Soul’ that day,” she said. “I was having a great day, like, ‘Y’all. Beyoncé’s single just dropped.’ That’s what I was focused on, to be honest.”
O’Connor joked, “We lost Zendaya for like a week. She was on set, normal, chatting with us. Then one day Beyoncé released something. They called ‘cut,’ and she immediately had headphones in. She was completely lost to the world.” Beyoncé: the only person who can make literally Zendaya lose her cool.
Here’s more on Challengers:
From visionary filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, Challengers stars Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy turned coach and a force of nature who makes no apologies for her game on and off the court. Married to a champion on a losing streak (Mike Faist), Tashi’s strategy for her husband’s redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against the washed-up Patrick (Josh O’Connor) – his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. As their pasts and presents collide, and tensions run high, Tashi must ask herself, what will it cost to win.
Challengers opens in theaters on April 26. See it.
At the top of 2024, Halle Bailey revealed that she had given birth to Halo, her and DDG’s first child. Motherhood is a beautiful thing, but it’s not always easy. Bailey is going through a rough patch with it at the moment, as she has opened up about experiencing “severe, severe” postpartum depression.
As People notes, in a video that Bailey recently shared on Instagram, she speaks about what she’s going through, saying, “I have severe, severe postpartum [depression], and I don’t know if any new moms can relate, but it’s to the point where it’s really bad, and it’s hard for me to be separated from my baby for more than 30 minutes at a time before I start to kind of freak out.”
She later added, “Halo is a miracle. He is perfect. He is beautiful. When I look at him, I cry because of how special he is. The only thing that’s been hard for me is feeling normal in my own body. I feel like a completely different person. When I look in the mirror, I just feel like I’m in a whole new body. Like, I don’t know who I am.”
Bailey also said, “Before I had a child and I would hear people talk about postpartum, it would kind of just go in one ear and out the other. I didn’t realize how serious of a thing it actually was. Now going through it, it almost feels like you’re swimming in this ocean that’s like the biggest waves you’ve ever felt and you’re trying not to drown. And you’re trying to come up for air.”
She concluded, “Even though you may look up to certain people and you think that they are celebrities, and they appear it have it all together, you never know what somebody else is going through, especially someone who just had a baby literally.”
It turns out that Eminem‘s memorable “Stan” music video reportedly almost had a different lead actor.
Devon Sawa, who starred in it, did a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight where he revealed that directors Dr. Dre and Philip Atwell were aiming for another child star — but it didn’t work out.
“Full disclosure: they went out to Macaulay Culkin first, I believe,” Sawa said. “I think that they wanted him, and he wasn’t available, or didn’t want to do it or whatever.”
“Then Dre, who had just seen Final Destination and was a fan, suggested [me],” he added. “There happened to be somebody in the casting office that knew somebody who was friends with me, and they called me that way… and it ended up working out pretty good.”
Looking back on it, it seems wild to picture the Home Alone star playing a character that idolized and imitated Eminem in 2000. However, when Entertainment Tonight reached out to Culkin and Eminem’s representatives, they didn’t return a comment to confirm.
Although the part could’ve gone to someone else, Sawa did point out just how lucky he still feels to have been selected. “It’s also one of the proudest things I’ve been a part of,” he shared. “I’ll tell you one thing, I know it better now than I did that day. Because I’ve heard it millions of times since.”
In recent days, a new meme has started to surface, and it turns out that Lil Yachty is at the root of it.
As Know Your Meme notes, Yachty performed at the Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash concert in 2021, and a clip of his energetic walk out to the stage has racked up over 4.5 million views on YouTube since it was uploaded on June 2022. Here’s that video:
The unmodified video started to be used as a reaction meme here and there, but it has found new life this April, after a post from X (formerly Twitter) account @AIWarper generated some attention. The tweet includes the video, but modified, using a tool called Viggle AI, to replace Yachty with Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of the Joker.
A version featuring New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has gone viral in the sports world, so much so that Thibodeau was asked about it in a recent press conference. He revealed that he was originally showed the clip by one of his players, Mitchell Robinson, and that he thought Robinson himself made the video.
Juvenile is a bonafide hip-hop legend. Through the timelessness of his classic records, he has helped to cement the legacy of New Orleans’ Cash Money era while enjoying a cross-generational appeal via the magic of social media. Juvenile stays ubiquitous – you cannot go to a major event, a club night or even listen to a new music release without hearing Juvie’s influence or actual music and lyrics.
On his 3rd or 4th wave now, Juvenile’s most recent reinvention outside music revolves around strategic hometown partnerships and products that result from his burgeoning passion for all things culinary, along with his innate entrepreneurial spirit. Current plans beyond his already popular Juvie Juice and savory Cheewee’s snacks include his own coffee, a line of sauces and more varieties of Juvie Juice.
We got the lowdown on everything Juvie has in the pipeline, along with his recommendations for New Orleans hot spots and local gems. Juvie has us covered when it comes to the top crawfish and gumbo in NOLA, what makes Ruth Chris’ in ‘Nawlins like no other, and his personal snack indulgence; pretzels and Snickers mixed.
Whether it’s getting healthy with Caesar Salads and Nature’s Own granola bars, hitting every Benihana possible, playing the “Juvie Card” to get some late-night eggs at Waffle House or polishing off that mini-bar Toblerone, Juvenile is a man who knows exactly what he likes and wants at any given time. And if Juvie tells you that you look like a Toblerone kind of guy, that just means he sees a little bit of himself in you – there may be no better compliment. Join us and get to know the legendary “Ha” emcee, unlike you’ve ever known him before.
Where are you today?
Oh, I’m at my little spot where I make my lamps and stuff in New Orleans.
When you’re on the road doing shows, what’s on your rider as far as food and drinks and snacks?
Most of the time it’s Popeyes Chicken, full service. I got to have the rice, the red beans. I want mild chicken. I’m going to always have my chips, of course, the 400 Degreez Snack Chips. My main thing would be the Popeyes. I got to have the Popeyes.
Is that like a bucket of dark, white, a little bit of everything?
I get mixed. I get it mixed, so it’s a little bit of everything.
When you’re in the studio creating, are there certain foods or snacks or drinks that you need to have in the studio to get in the right mind state?
In the studio, I got to have my D’Usse or some form of cognac. I got to have some cognac in there, and I definitely got to have my Juvie Juice ’cause I’m blending them. We make drinks, we make all kinds of drinks with the Juvie Juice.
What about from a food perspective? Are you ordering takeout?
Usually, when I’m at home, I want crawfish, man. I’m tweaking for some crawfish right now. Most of the time when I go to the studio out of town it would be some form of seafood. So it might be like a grilled fish or something like that, nothing heavy.
How do you like your crawfish prepared?
Oh, they got to come from Cajun’s on Claiborne, on North Claiborne, first of all, ’cause they got a few Cajuns in the city. I got one specifically that I go to, right? My crawfish, they come one way, they hot.
They hot, they real seasoned up. It’s everything. You know what I’m saying? You really got to have a liking for them because they real hot.
So do you like your food spicy in general, or is it just the crawfish?
No, it’s just the crawfish. When we say spicy in New Orleans, we mean spicy, we don’t mean spicy by pepper spicy. We mean a lot of seasoning, like a lot of vegetables and a lot of onions and bell peppers and stuff like that.
It sounds like you have a lot of big meals, but are you much of a snacker? Do you eat chips and cookies and candy and stuff like that?
Yeah, not a lot. I used to. I used to be a Snickers man but now I’m getting up in age, man, I don’t do too much junk (food), like I used to. But if I was to dive into some snacks, I like ice cream sandwiches.
What’s your go-to ice cream sandwich?
Strawberry Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich from, what’s the name of the ice cream place? I can’t think of the name right off the top of my head. I just walk in a damn store every other day and buy something. Why I can’t think of it? I got a big dude in here (who) can’t think of an ice cream place. Baskin? That’s it, Baskin-Robbins. Yeah, Baskin-Robbins.
Do you prefer sweets to chips and savory snacks?
I’m really a potato chip guy. I’ll be eating them Kettle Chips. I get the Kettle Chips from Whole Foods. I like Lay’s Kettle Chips. My brand, I’m a Kettle Chip head, and I’ll try some shit too when it’s Kettle Chips, honestly. I like the crunch.
They got the Zapp’s down in New Orleans.
Yeah. That’s the main reason I like Kettle Chips. I like all the Zapp’s, even though some of them are horrible, but I still eat them.
What’s the worst flavor of Zapp’s?
Probably the crawfish flavor, but I still eat them. If you give me a bag, I’m still going to eat them.
You’re a crawfish guy, how come you don’t like the crawfish chips?
It ain’t the consistency I’m looking for, but I ain’t trying to hear it on Zapp’s either because they got some good chips.
When you’re on the road and you’re touring, what’s something that you like to have in your room or if there’s something in the mini bar?
I get into the mini bar, I do. You know those Nature’s Own snacks in the green pack? I like those, bro. I ain’t going to lie to you. I like those. I’m hooked on those. If they got those in the hotel room anywhere, usually I’ll eat them. I used to be a Toblerone man. I’m telling you, man, I used to have it bad with that. I had to leave that alone.
A lot of people have that problem.
You look like a Toblerone guy too! Especially in the hotel rooms ’cause they usually always have them in the minibars and stuff. That’s a fact. So after you’re done a show, I know- also, Famous Amos Cookies. I knew I was forgetting something. Famous Amos Cookies, I love those.
So after you have a show, I know it’s usually probably pretty late at night once you’re done. Do you usually go out to eat afterwards? Are you getting room service?
If I eat it’s going to be Waffle House, probably some eggs, grilled chicken. Whatever’s open 24 hours, usually late, I want eggs. I want some eggs and grilled chicken most of the time.
So you’re not doing room service?
If it’s open, and I can convince them to make what I want. I’m real talkative when I want some food, and I want something, I be, “Hey, this Juvie.” That’s when I start throwing the Juvie card around. “That’s Juvie, y’all. You know this Juvie, right?” “I’m going to tip you real good. Hey, could you get the chef to make me some eggs? You know what I’m saying? Some turkey sausage or something like that, man, just hook me up something special,” ’cause usually, they have pork on the menu for breakfast.
I’m not a pork eater, so I always have to ask these extra questions.
So it sounds like as you’re getting older, you’ve gotten a little bit healthier in your eating habits. You said you go to Whole Foods, you’re eating turkey sausage and it sounds like you might-
Nah, nah, I got to learn how, I’m trying. I’m trying, ’cause look, I got a stomach, bro. I’m trying to learn how.
Besides the granola bars, what’s some other healthy snacks that you like that maybe other people should know about that are trying to get healthier too?
Well, I’m a salad head. But as far as snack wise, healthy snacks, fruits, that’s probably it. I eat a lot of fruits too.
Do you have a favorite fruit? Favorite salad?
My favorite fruit is orange. I love oranges, mandarins or anything like that.
What’s your go-to salad when you’re eating salads or eating healthy?
I’m a Caesar head. I like Caesar. I like Caesar. I can eat it with chicken without chicken, just the Caesar.
So something that’s interesting that’s come up to us is that lot of times nowadays people are trying out new snacks and putting different snacks together. We had somebody that likes to eat Oreos and Doritos together. We had somebody that likes to eat Kool-Aid flavored pickles. I’m curious if there’s anything that you like that other people might think is weird or gross.
Yeah, pretzels and Snickers. I like pretzels with Snickers together. You know, the little Snickers? The little Snickers in the little pack… and pretzels. Try that.
That sounds good, actually.
Try that. Try that, brother.
Then on the flip side, is there anything that you see other people out there eating that you’re like, “That’s nasty?” Or, “Why would you eat that together?”
It’s been some weird stuff, man. I done seen people put peppermints in hot pickles, take a peppermint and stuff it into hot pickles.
Yeah, man, like, what’s the purpose? Your breath, it’s not going to help. I don’t know, but people have some weird fetish. The weirdest stuff I done seen probably came from pregnant women. I think that was my aunt or somebody was eating pig lips. What they eat it with? Pig lips and potato chips, pig feets and potato chips. You ever had that?
No.
Down here they have pickled pig lips. Pickled pig lips and potato chips.
That sounds like a band name or something. That’s interesting.
Pickled pig lips and potato chips, that’s big down here.
I’ll take your word for it. I might have to try that on my next trip.
So that brings me to New Orleans. You come from somewhere that has a very rich food history, a very rich culinary background. What are some of your favorite restaurants or places that the tourists don’t get to that they should be checking out?
Well, Neyow’s would be one of them, a local spot that a lot of people do come through that know about it, but a lot of the tourists miss it. It’s a spot I eat at on a regular. We got a lot of trucks down here that’s real good.
What are you eating at Neyow’s that’s really good?
I like the gumbo and the fried chicken, but I’ve had the fish, I’ve had the salmon. They got different stuff on their menu, man. They got a big menu. It’s always packed in there, but I don’t know if there’s people from out of town. I think it’s locals.
What’s another local spot that everybody should check out that maybe they don’t know about?
Definitely my guy, Skip, got Chicken & Watermelon. Everybody from out of town comes there. It is right there on Claiborne Street.
So would you say that Neyow’s is the best place to get gumbo or where’s your gumbo spot?
No, I think it’s called Orleans Cafe is another spot that’s in the New Orleans East that all they sell is gumbo, and they sell it by the gallons.
Oh, wow.
People say they have the best gumbo. I’ve had it one time, but I got to have it a couple of times. My taste buds don’t work like that. I got to have it a couple times to say if it’s the best or just have both of them together and compare them. But nah, Neyow’s have some good gumbo.
Then I know you said crawfish is your favorite local dish.
Nah, that’s number one, but we got Ruth’s Chris. Ruth’s Chris is from here. I always tell people from out of town like Ruth’s Chris is different in New Orleans. It’s not like the Ruth’s Chris you go to on the road or something like that.
So what makes it different in New Orleans, if you could explain?
I guess that base of the way they cook the steaks and cook the food and the know-how, you know what I’m saying? New Orleans is the cooking capital, so people in New Orleans tend to do things different, the chefs and all. So the cooks that they have that’s in the Ruth’s Chris down here will be totally different from the ones out of town. Even though they’re cooking the same thing.
When you’ve been on the road touring, are there any cities that you really look forward to ’cause of the food there or restaurants that you like to go to?
I’m big on going to spots that we don’t have here in New Orleans, but most of the time, it’s national spots. We don’t have a Benihana here, and I love Benihana. Every time I go to Dallas or I go to Atlanta or to New York, those are the spots that I look for. But New Orleans people, we so locked in on our food, when we go to another city, we like the people to tell us what’s the best spot and go there. I’ve been to a lot of spots, it’s just hard for me to just pull one out of my hat.
What do you like to order at Benihana, though?
Man, I be ordering damn near everything on the menu. We just order. I go for it. I go for it, man. I like the pageantry and everything, but usually I get the triple, the one with the chicken, the steak and the shrimp. Forgot what they call it. I don’t eat it all, but I just order it like that.
I want to get more into your snacks and products. So I heard that Juvie Juice was inspired by your love for Arnold Palmer. When did you get into the Arnold Palmers, and where did that come from?
I’ve been drinking that since a kid. We always took lemonade and mixed it with tea, and I never knew the name was Arnold Palmer until I got older. So when they started saying Arnold Palmer, especially when you’re going to bars or restaurants and you’re trying to make that order, it’s just easier to say that ’cause they know everybody knows what that is. But yeah, I just love the taste. Seltzer was something that I wasn’t a fan of. I’m not really a big beer drinker either.
So it was something that I had to be convinced to like. So my guy Travis took me over to Urban South and we had a taste test, me, him and my wife.
We went through all these different flavors and stuff like that. I kept telling him, “Ah, this ain’t it. This ain’t it. This don’t taste like Arnold Palmer, I don’t like it.” Eventually, we got to the flavor. We got to the consistency that I like, and shit, right now, it’s doing good. I think a lot of people feel the same way I feel about seltzers. A lot of them are just dry and horrible.
So how does that feel for you to have something that you loved as a kid and now you have your own version on the market? You’ve been in the hip-hop game, you probably have had every honor and achievement in music, but having that outside of music, how does that feel?
Oh, it’s a good feeling, man. Tomorrow I’m doing a big in-store with Total Wine, Costco’s and Rouses, which is a local grocery store food chain down here, so I’m gradually growing a brand. To see a brand grow from one state to another state — right now, we’re in eight states — and do well and see the fans reaction when they drink it is great. Mmost of the people that come, they really haven’t drank the seltzer a day in their life. They’re getting introduced to something new and they really like it. For me, it’s a new world.
Then can you explain also how the CheeWees partnership came about?
Well, CheeWees is something that I’ve been eating since I was a kid down here. It’s a local company that’s been making these CheeWees before Cheetos. Actually, they sold the machine to Frito-Lay to make the Cheetos brand, so this brand’s been going… Down here, when you say Cheetos, we don’t say it, we say CheeWees. I call Cheetos CheeWees also, so it’s something that stuck with me and I saw an opportunity to have a partnership with somebody local and make a chip of my own, something that I really like, something that I enjoy with my face and my brand on it. I think it’s doing real good, man. The people down here, they love it.
So I have to ask you, what’s next? Because it seems like this food and culinary world is something you’re really embracing.
We got the hot sauce we working on right now. Matter of fact, I’ll show you. I already got some bottled up, but I don’t have the pictures. We working on the artwork right now,
I’ll have to ask them to maybe send me some info on it, and maybe you could send me a bottle when it’s ready. I would love to try it.
Yeah, I can. I got a trunk full of it right now. I got A-1, when I say A-1, I got steak sauce I’m working on. Well, we’ve already finished with the steak sauce, and we’ve already finished with marinades, so I got a list of marinades. I got two more flavors of the Juvie Juice coming out. One is strawberry lemonade, the other one is mango. I’m working on a coffee, which is called The Great Company with my wife.
Oh, man, you got an empire that’s coming.
Yeah, I’m working, bro. I’m working.
One last question. I know you got your own stuff and your own brands going, but if you could own or operate a franchise that exists already, like a restaurant or something like that is already out there, would it be Popeyes or would it be something else?
Man, you hit it on the nose, bro. It would be Popeyes or Chick-fil-A. I love Chick-fil-A. I wish they would open on Sundays, but I understand ’cause from a Chick-fil-A person that loves Chick-fil-A, it hurts me when they close on Sunday ’cause I love my grilled nuggets.
Grilled nuggets is your go-to at Chick-fil-A?
Grilled nuggets, and then we never talked about that yet, I’m a Chick-fil-a man. I got to have my Texas Pete Hot Sauce with my grilled nuggets, my 12 count.
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington‘s first four movies together are: Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, He Got Game, and Inside Man. Pretty good track record! They will soon start working on their fifth collaboration with help from one of the most in-demand rappers out there: Ice Spice.
Variety reports that Ice Spice has joined the cast of High and Low, Lee’s English-language reinterpretation of the Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller of the same name. This will be the “Munch (Feelin’ U)” rapper’s acting debut, unless you count her recent appearance on Hot Ones, which you should. She suffered for her art.
“I didn’t ever really like see myself being a rapper,” Spice said on Hot97’s Ebro in the Morning in 2023. “I always wanted to be an actress. That was like, my first passion.”
Apple Original Films, which partnered with A24 on the “Spike Lee joint,” shared a photo of the filmmaker and Washington on X to announce that production has begun on the project. “No. 5 now in production,” it reads.
Lee’s High and Low does not currently have a release date, but it will be released theatrically by A24 before a global launch on AppleTV+. You can watch the original film on Max.
The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers are teaming up for a new podcast called… well, The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast. While it’s not the most original title, the endeavor sounds pretty interesting.
According to the recently launched Instagram account for the audio collab, the podcast will take a deep dive into each of The Lonely Island‘s digital shorts that instantly became viral hits after airing on SNL.
“We’re launching a podcast!!” reads the first official post for the podcast. “Episode by episode we’ll discuss how each short was created, what the response to it was at the time, and what impact, if any, it still has today. We’re so excited to relive our time at SNL and reminisce on the nearly 50-year-old show. Along the way we’ll talk all things SNL from guests, fellow cast members, and favorite live sketches including many that never aired!”
The first episode launches April 8 on the podcast network of your choice, and new episodes will drop every Monday.
You can also listen to the official announcement below that also teases the first short, “Lazy Sunday,” which instantly became a smash hit for not just SNL, but also YouTube.
The Lonely Island consists of Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer who dropped a litany of viral hits during their time on SNL that includes “D*ck In A Box,” “I’m On A Boat,” “Like A Boss,” and of course, “Jizz In My Pants.” They also made the masterpiece that is Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
