A couple of years ago, Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free mystified the world with the announcement of their new company, PgLang. Nobody seemed to know what PgLang was or what it’d do, but in the intervening years, we’ve seen glimpses. In 2021, the company collaborated with Calvin Klein on a new ad campaign and backed the release of Kendrick’s cousin Baby Keem’s debut album The Melodic Blue on Columbia Records. According to Deadline, though, they’ve now got bigger plans, expanding into the world of film with the creators of long-running animated comedy South Park.
Kendrick, Dave, Matt Stone, and Trey Parker have teamed up to produce the live-action comedy with Paramount Pictures. The premise is probably par for the course for the provocative South Park creators, following “a young Black man who is interning as a slave reenactor at a living history museum” who finds out that his white girlfriend’s ancestors owned his (does this make them many-times-removed relatives? Probably!). The script was written by Vernon Chatman, who created the MTV2 comedy Wonder Showzen and voices a handful of characters on South Park, but no director has signed on yet, despite production being scheduled for this spring. The film will have theatrical distribution, as well as streaming on Paramount+.
Celebrity bourbon, like celebrity tequila or anything else “celebrity”, is an odd beast. White labeling is a very real thing — that’s where big-name celebrities slap their names on a label, spend some time promoting the bottles, and then collect checks with little to no real influence on the process. But that’s not always how celebrity-driven bourbons come to be. Some famous folk actually dig into the process of making whiskey, help pick barrels and make blends, and spend a large amount of time championing the whiskeys they helped make.
Today, we have a bit of a mix of both worlds. Some of these bottles are sourced whiskeys that were released in an effort for a celebrity to jump on the bourbon boom. Some of them are passion projects. But does that love for the game shine through in what’s actually in the bottle? Or can an indifferent star make a better bourbon with a great brand backing them?
We’ll see!
Today, I’m tasting five bottles blind and then ranking them on taste alone. I’ve kept this a little smaller purposefully. The main reason is that when I’m tasting ten or 12 (or more) drams at once, some simply get lost in the mix — a few rise to the top, a few sink to the bottom, and the middle can become sort of an extended tie. When there are fewer drams competing, the competition becomes fierce because there’s nowhere for a middling dram to hide.
Our lineup today is:
Drake’s Virginia Black Decadent American Whiskey
Bob Dylan’s Heaven’s Door Redbreast Edition
Matthew McConaughey’s Longbranch
Scottie Pippen’s DIGITS Bourbon
Terry Bradshaw’s Bradshaw Bourbon
I was lucky enough to score a few of these from a bar owner and whiskey collector down in Prague where I host whiskey tastings to help keep things new and varied (hence the small taster bottles in some of the images). Let’s get to it!
This is thin from the nose to the end. There’s a touch of vanilla extract with a plastic vibe on the nose that leads towards a hint of old lemon peel. The taste is pretty watery with a touch of caramel and a mild spice that leans towards cinnamon toast. The finish arrives pretty quick with a little note of oakiness.
This feels like “bourbon” but only just.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose draws you in with a worn leatheriness next to dark stone fruits, brittle toffees, and something that feels like apricot jam with a good dose of winter spices. The palate is nutty (ranging from nutshell to marzipan) with a sticky toffee pudding vibe that leads towards plum candies. That sweetness gets very creamy with a vanilla pudding base as a light sense of stringy cedar barks leads back to that sweet plum candy.
Taste 3
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There are very light notes of citrus on the nose that feel like a distant lemon-lime with a wet wood vibe. The taste dried that wood out immediately, driving it towards almost pine wall paneling with hints of dry and dark spices, peach pits, and vanilla that all leads to this beautiful caramel candy end.
Taste 4
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a sense of vanilla extract that leads towards slightly singed popcorn with a touch of butter and an echo of cherry soda. The palate is classic bourbon with notes of caramel sauce, dark spice, light oak, and vanilla dancing with slight hints of leather and cherry tobacco. The end holds onto the vanilla before going full cherry candy on the finish.
Taste 5
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This is a wild nose that goes from Wether’s Originals to leather-bound books to drug store aftershave. The palate is all about soft spices with a woody vibe that’s a little bit wicker and a little bit oak. The finish holds onto the spice and warms up considerably before veering headfirst into apple candy sweetness.
This whiskey is a collaboration between tequila maker Brent Hocking of DeLeón Tequila and Drake. The juice is a blend of high-rye bourbons from MGP that aged for two, three, and four years. That blend is then proofed all the way down to 40 percent before it’s bottled in what best can be described as a fancy art-deco perfume bottle.
Bottom Line:
This was last and it wasn’t even close. The 40 percent ABV meant that water kind of took over the whole flavor profile and left a faint hint of what whiskey might have been in those barrels.
This bottle is a collaboration between Bulls superstar Scottie Pippen and Napa wine superstar Dave Phinney. The juice is a sourced five-year-old whiskey that’s distilled in Tennessee, likely in a place that rhymes with “Tacoma”, alongside some MGP whiskey from Indiana. The barrels are sent to Mare Island, off San Francisco, where they continue aging before vatting, proofing, and bottling.
Bottom Line:
This is miles ahead of the bottle above. There’s a real sense of a well-built whiskey here that weirdly starts off a little thin but builds towards a very solid finish. I could see using this in cocktails very easily but I don’t know if it’s quite a sipper, like its price point suggests.
A few years back, Wild Turkey brought on Matthew McConaughey to be the brand’s Creative Director and design his own whiskey. The product of that partnership was launched in 2018. The juice is a wholly unique whiskey for Wild Turkey, thanks to the Texas Mesquite charcoal filtration the hot juice goes through. The bourbon then goes into oak for eight long years before it’s proofed and bottled.
Bottom Line:
I think this could have won that day had the first half (the nose and the opening of the palate) had been bolder. This dram ends amazingly but you have to sort of force yourself to get there. Still, it’s pretty solid once you’re past the first act.
Bradshaw Bourbon is made by Green River Distilling Company in Owensboro, Kentucky. The bourbon (and now a rye) is a collab between former Super Bowl champ Terry Bradshaw and Silver Screen Bottling Company, which acts as a sort of bottling fixer between a celebrity and a distiller or barrel house. The juice is a two-year-old bourbon made with 70 percent corn, 21 percent rye, and nine percent malted barley. It’s proofed to a hefty 103.8.
Bottom Line:
This really stood out. That aftershave moment of the nose threw me a bit (it’s not too out of leftfield) but made total sense with the whole experience. Then the palate truly popped as a very classic Kentucky bourbon. There weren’t any big bells or whistles but there didn’t need to be. This felt like a really solid “table bourbon” that you could sip on the rocks or throw in a cocktail and all will be well.
This whiskey is a collaboration between Heaven’s Door Master Blender Ryan Perry and Redbreast’s legendary Master Blender Billy Leighton. The duo worked long and hard to create multiple whiskey expressions, which Bob Dylan taste-tested and granted final approval on. The juice in the bottle is Heaven Door’s low-rye 10-year-old Tennessee bourbon. They take that whiskey and fill it into Redbreast whiskey casks that had previously aged Irish whiskey for 12 years. After 15 months of final maturation, those barrels are vatted and slightly proofed down with soft Tennessee spring water.
Bottom Line:
Nothing came close to this. It’s complex, accessible, pronounced, nuanced. There’s a real depth that makes sense and welcomes you in. This is the winner by a country mile. I wanted to immediately go back. Given that Dylan actually helps select barrels and works with the blending, I have to think that he’s got one hell of a whiskey palate.
Part 3: Final Thoughts
Zach Johnston
I think I would have been shocked if Heaven’s Door didn’t win. The majority of their lineup is pretty damn fine whiskey across the board. Still, when I saw that Bradshaw Bourbon was my second-place pick, I was shocked. I had written that bottle off as “Terry probably just slapped his name on a bottle.” That’s not exactly true, he is part of the process, in theory. He’s out there pounding the pavement for the brand and has a long history of barrel picks going back a long way. It shows in this whiskey as it feels like it was made by someone who adores bourbon.
For me, the Longbranch was the splitting point. That whiskey finished so beautifully that it felt like a real shift from “shitty” to “okay” to “very nice” in this lineup. Still, I wanted a bit more up top and up just wasn’t there.
When it comes to Scottie Pippen’s bourbon, my best summation is this “yup, that’s bourbon alright.” It just left me a bit cold while tasting it and now while thinking about it. I can’t really see myself ever going back to it.
Finally, there’s Drake. Sorry, but cool perfume bottle aside, this was “meh” at best and “try again, folks” at worst. The 80 proof just let too much water take everything over and there was very little left.
I guess that means Bob Dylan remains the GOAT, in more ways than one.
So if you were thinking there was a chance their performance of coupledom was going to end any time soon, guess again. Today Megan shared a video of Colson proposing to her under a Banyan tree, noting that the couple had sat under the tree in July of 2020, around the time their relationship began, and “asked for magic.” She also concludes the proposal caption by noting “and then we drank each other’s blood.” So there’s that. Check out the video and her full caption below.
“In July of 2020 we sat under this banyan tree. We asked for magic. We were oblivious to the pain we would face together in such a short, frenetic period of time. Unaware of the work and sacrifices the relationship would require from us but intoxicated off of the love. And the karma. Somehow a year and a half later, having walked through hell together, and having laughed more than I ever imagined possible, he asked me to marry him. And just as in every lifetime before this one, and as in every lifetime that will follow it, I said yes. …and then we drank each other’s blood. 1.11.22.”
On last week’s Billboard Hot 100 chart, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and other vintage holiday tunes were still dominating the top ten spots. On the new chart dated January 15, though, we’re back to non-Christmas programming, as holiday tunes are out of the top ten and Adele’s “Easy On Me” is back to No. 1 for an eighth total week.
Perhaps the top-ten song that stands out most, though, is “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from the new Disney movie Encanto. The track — which is credited to Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz, and Encanto Cast — jumped from No. 50 last week up to No. 5 this week, making it the first top-five song from a Disney movie since Frozen‘s “Let It Go.” Aside from those two, other Disney songs to crack the top five include Vanessa Williams’ “Colors Of The Wind” from Pocahontas, Elton John’s “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” from Tarzan, and Peabo Bryson and Regina Bell’s “A Whole New World” from Aladdin.
Furthermore, “Bruno” is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first top-ten hit, as he wrote the song (and all the others from the movie). The song is also the first top-ten track for all of the credited artists. Also, speaking of Elton John, his and Dua Lipa’s “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)” rose to No. 7 this week, making it his first top-ten hit in the US since “Candle In The Wind”/”Something About The Way You Look Tonight” in 1997.
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” from @EncantoMovie, earns @Lin_Manuel his first career top 10 hit on the #Hot100 as a songwriter.
The highly transmissible Omicron variant has caused a spike in COVID cases all over the world. It’s been particularly bad in the United States. Earlier this week, the nation recorded over a million positive cases in a day — the most in the country over a 24-hour span. One person who was hit with a positive test this week was legendary hip-hop DJ and producer Kid Carpi, who shared the news on Instagram and was honest about his condition.
“I’m sick as sh*t man,” he said in a video. “Y’all gotta be careful out there, man. Y’all be careful ’cause it’s bad out there. I’ve been sick for the last three days. F*cking head is pounding. Back hurt. I’m pretty far from good.” He then issued some advice and a warning to those who listened to the video. “I just wanted to pop on here and tell y’all take care of yourselves, man,” he said. “F*ck them parties. F*ck hanging out. If you ain’t gotta be somewhere then don’t go. Just relax, ’cause this sh*t is no joke.”
Capri concluded, “Every shirt I put on, I sweat it out. The lady just left here to give me my test. I had the home test, she came over here and tested me. F*cking head is pounding. But like I said, man, just stay out the way. Take care of yourself out there because it’s serious. Sh*t is serious.”
The Weeknd has announced that his new album, Dawn FM, is set for release this week, on Friday, January 7.
The trailer describes the project as “a new sonic universe from the mind of The Weeknd.” The trailer also includes a list of what seems to be collaborators on the project, and it features Jim Carrey (yes, that Jim Carrey), Quincy Jones, Tyler The Creator, Lil Wayne, and Oneohtrix Point Never. The clip, which features footage of The Weeknd in aging prosthetic makeup, ends with a voiceover (which sounds like it’s recited by Carrey) that says, “You are now listening to 103.5 Dawn FM. You’ve been in the dark for way too long. It’s time to walk into the light and accept your fate with open arms.”
While the Carrey collaboration may be unexpected, it’s not entirely unprecedented: The Canadian entertainment icons were introduced at a party and spent The Weeknd’s 30th birthday together. The Weeknd previously explained, “On my [30th] birthday, he called and told me to look out my window, and on his balcony he had these giant red balloons, and he picked me up and we went to breakfast. It was surreal. Jim Carrey was my first inspiration to be any kind of performer, and I went to breakfast with him on my first day of being 30.”
Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi’s involvement with Don’t Look Up doesn’t stop at their song “Just Look Up,” as they also have substantial parts in the film. Furthermore, Adam McKay has heaped praise on the two for their performances in the movie.
McKay said of Grande, “It made sense to have the biggest pop star in the world play the biggest pop star in the world. We got her on set for her first scene with [Leonardo DiCaprio] and [Jennifer Lawrence], and she’s improvising lines. I knew she’d nail the song, but I didn’t know she could improvise.”
“It made sense to have the biggest pop star in the world play the biggest pop star in the world. We got her on set for her first scene with Leo and Jen, and she’s improvising lines. I knew she’d nail the song, but I didn’t know she could improvise.” — Adam McKay on Ariana Grande pic.twitter.com/WiNdkOYRra
He spoke more about Grande’s improvisational skills in a recent video from Netflix about the movie’s improv, starting at 4:19 into the video.
Grande also offered a quote about McKay, saying, “Adam’s one of my comedy heroes. I was jumping out of my skin when he pitched me the idea of playing this pop star in this yucky tabloid frenzy. Playing this little part and getting to work with Adam and this beyond incredible cast was such a special experience.”
“Adam’s one of my comedy heroes. I was jumping out of my skin when he pitched me the idea of playing this pop star in this yucky tabloid frenzy. Playing this little part and getting to work with Adam and this beyond incredible cast was such a special experience.” — Ariana Grande pic.twitter.com/HJumcIS8tL
McKay also had compliments for Cudi, saying, “[I] knew who Kid Cudi was, but in meeting Scott Mescudi, I was completely taken aback. He can really act. He was immediately natural on set and such a humble guy. Scott was incredibly open and collaborative.”
Adam McKay “knew who @KidCudi was, but in meeting Scott Mescudi, I was completely taken aback,” says the DON’T LOOK UP director. “He can really act. He was immediately natural on set and such a humble guy. Scott was incredibly open and collaborative.” pic.twitter.com/wVkw185vGL
Of course, it makes sense that both Cudi and Grande would be comfortable on a set, as they’ve both spent plenty of time in that environment. Before music, Grande was known for playing the character Cat Valentine in two Nickelodeon series, Victorious and Sam & Cat. As for Cudi, he been in the main cast of shows like How To Make It In America, Comedy Bang! Bang!, and We Are Who We Are.
It might be a slow week for the rest of the music industry, but Nicki Minaj is apparently keeping her focus on business. Despite being a relatively new mother, Minaj has something major in the works for 2022 — and it’s not just a follow-up to her latest album Queen. In a new Instagram post, director Deon Taylor of Meet The Blacks, Fatale, and the soon-to-be-released, Fear, made it clear that his next project is going to involve the Pinkprint rapper.
“Wait, everything just got different !!” Taylor captioned a group selfie on his Instagram grid, which features Nicki, philanthropist Robert F. Smith, producer Roxanne Avent, Quality Control president Brian Sher (who branched out into Quality Control film and television earlier this year), and himself. “Wait till I tell you….. I’m gone,” he continued, tagging each of the celebrities and using a bevy of flame emojis to indicate his… excitement?
Sher also posted the selfie with similar sentiments, but focused his attention on Nicki in the caption: “Here goes…” he wrote, tagging Nicki in the post.
Fans are assuming that the project will be a new documentary/HBO docuseries focused on Nicki and her career, as the project was announced back in 2020. Nothing official from Onika yet, but keep your eyes peeled for an announcement hopefully coming soon.
De La Soul‘s streaming woes are well-documented at this point, but now that the crew has landed a soundtrack placement on the biggest movie of the year, new fans are finding themselves frustrated to learn that the pioneer trio’s catalog is unavailable on DSP. The crew’s 3 Feet High And Rising song “The Magic Number” appears over the end credits of Spider-Man: No Way Home, undoubtedly sending many of the film’s viewers to Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal only to discover that the only two De La Soul albums available are The Grind Date and The Anonymous Nobody.
And while both albums are worth several spins, most of De La’s most recognizable work comes from earlier in their career, when they were still under contract with Tommy Boy Entertainment. The trouble with streaming the albums stems from their extensive sample use; over the course of their six projects under Tommy Boy, the band used hundreds of samples of prior works — 3 Feet High And Rising contains 60 samples by itself. While Tommy Boy cleared most of those samples, the contracts only covered physical releases, the only method for releasing music through the ’80s and ’90s. With the advent of streaming, the label considers the albums open to a plethora of potential lawsuits and not worth the hassle of uploading.
The band themselves have offered to take on the intricate work of clearing all the samples backed by an army of volunteers who just want to be able to stream the albums they love, only to get rebutted by Tommy Boy. Earlier this year, De La Soul apparently won back their master recordings after Reservoir Media acquired Tommy Boy for around $100 million, but now comes the nitty-gritty work of actually clearing all those samples, which could take some time considering the age of the records and the labyrinthine nature of copyright law. While the appearance of “The Magic Number” on Spider-Man’s soundtrack could be a promising sign that at least the work has begun (the song mainly samples Bob Dorough’s “Three Is a Magic Number”), all those new fans will have to join the grizzled vets in waiting impatiently for that work to be completed to stream De La’s greatest hits.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is out now in theaters and racking up records as one of the most popular movies not just in the series but of the last several years. It’s already crossed the billion-dollar threshold and is being credited with helping save movie theaters after a rough couple of years, and now that it’s been out for a little over a week, fans are sharing their reactions and debating some of the film’s plot points. Those fans include Long Beach rapper Vince Staples, who has — as usual — some uniquely funny takes on some of the film’s action.
Here’s why I give you a chance to click the little “X” in the corner or hit [command+w] or close your laptop or — come on guys, there are hundreds of ways to avoid spoilers. If this “ruins” the movie for you, blame yourself.
Vince was less than enthused about the death of one character in particular, demanding a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the sole purpose of revenge. “Oh it’s up,” he wrote. “They just flipped Aunt May in the lobby!” This development led to more of Staples’ signature snark as he promised, “They need me in the MCU if they tryna have some real get bacc. Where is the vengeance?” He then made his bid for a role in a potential future film and gave a pretty solid reason: “Put me in X-Men I’m marking everything out,” he vowed. “[On the] Dead homies.”
While there aren’t many characters in the X-Men comics that match Vince’s physique, that shouldn’t be a bar from giving him a role; after all, half of the Eternalswere recast as people of color, and cape films have shuffled characters’ appearances before. Just imagine Vince Staples as Wolverine. Now, that I’d gladly pay to watch.
