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Mike

Rosalía, MIKE, Hayley Williams, and More: This Week’s Pitchfork Selects Playlist

by jummy84 November 10, 2025

written by jummy84

The staff of Pitchfork listens to a lot of new music. A lot of it. On any given day our writers, editors, and contributors go through an imposing number of new releases, giving recommendations to each other and discovering new favorites along the way. Each Monday, with our Pitchfork Selects playlist, we’re sharing what our writers are playing obsessively and highlighting some of the Pitchfork staff’s favorite new music. The playlist is a grab-bag of tracks: Its only guiding principle is that these are the songs you’d gladly send to a friend.

This week’s Pitchfork Selects playlist features Rosalía, Hayley Williams, Grace Ives, Oneohtrix Point Never, a Smerz edit featuring MIKE and Zack Sekoff, and more. Listen below and follow our playlists on Apple Music and Spotify. (Pitchfork earns a commission from purchases made through affiliate links on our site.)

Pitchfork Selects: November 10, 2025

Smerz: “You Got Time and I Got Money” [ft. Elias Rønnenfelt & Fousheé] [MIKE + Zack Sekoff Edit]
Rosalía: “Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti”
Grace Ives: “My Mans”
Hayley Williams: “Showbiz”
Oneohtrix Point Never: “D.I.S.”
Hydroplane: “Houdini’s Plane”
Wata Igarashi: “Shockwave”
JT: “Girls Gone Wild”
Lerado Khalil & Surf Gang: “Nobody Calls”
WNC Whopbezzy & 70th Street Carlos: “WTF”

November 10, 2025 0 comments

Music

Trailer Park Boys’ Mike Smith Charged with Sexual Assault: Report

by jummy84 November 10, 2025

written by jummy84

Mike Smith, best known for playing Bubbles on the cult comedy series Trailer Park Boys, has been charged with sexual assault, reports CBC News.

According to court documents obtained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Smith was charged on October 2nd in connection with an alleged assault that took place on December 30th, 2017, in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Smith has been ordered not to communicate with the alleged victim, whose name has not been made public due to a publication ban.

According to a statement from Trailer Park Boys Inc., the company that oversees the show’s production and merchandise, Smith has “stepped away” from his role as managing director.

Killer Mike, J.I.D. Inducting OutKast Into Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame

by jummy84 October 15, 2025

written by jummy84

OutKast will receive one of the highest honors in music next month when they are inducted into the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Killer Mike, J.I.D., and Sleepy Brown will be in the building to properly cement the momentous occasion.

The official Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Instagram account announced that all three Atlanta artists will be at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Nov. 8, and the specific “take the stage” language suggests that the trio will be performing as well.

Each artist also has a unique relationship with the legendary duo. Mike was part of the Dungeon Family, home to OutKast and Future, and appeared on their albums Stankonia and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. J.I.D. has called the “Roses” artists one of his biggest influences, and worked alongside Big Boi on Masego’s “Garden Party.” Sleepy Brown helped to craft their iconic sound and contributed to their albums ATLiens and Aquemini.

OutKast’s inductee class includes Salt-N-Pepa, The White Stripes, Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Cyndi Lauper, Joe Cocker, Soundgarden, Warren Zevon, Thom Bell, Nicky Hopkins, Carol Kaye, and Lenny Waronker. They will mark the 13th Hip-Hop act added to the prestigious club, joining the likes of JAY-Z, The Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, Eminem, Missy Elliott, and A Tribe Called Quest. The ceremony will stream live on Disney+.

The duo has primarily operated as solo acts in recent years. Big Boi appeared on “High Rise” with Sleepy Brown, Akeem Ali, and Organized Noize earlier in 2025. He also collaborated with Brown on Big Sleepover, a 15-song joint project in 2021.

André 3000 famously released a full flute album, New Blue Sun, in 2023. He also joined Killer Mike on “Scientists & Engineers” from his 2023 LP Michael. Most recently, 3K shared the seven-track EP, 7 Piano Sketches. Listen to the project below.

October 15, 2025 0 comments

(All photos by Anthony Batista. Styled by Louise Donegan. Custom stage clothes by Alexander Wang)

Music

Producer Mike Dean on Making Music That Stands the Test of Time

by jummy84 October 13, 2025

written by jummy84

As I greet Mike Dean over a video call, it’s five days until the closing of the first round of voting for the 2026 Grammy Awards. His production work on the Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow is up for 10 categories. I ask him if there’s a particular category he’d like to win. “I’ve never won Song of the Year or Record of the Year…” he says, sitting in the kitchen of his California home, wearing a gray T-shirt, sipping a glass of ice water, and occasionally inhaling from his bong. “I’ve been nominated several times, and just never got the big category.”

Dean’s not nervous, though. His life doesn’t depend on it, he says. After all, the producer, audio engineer, and multi-instrumentalist has been nominated for 19 Grammy Awards, winning seven of them, most recently in 2022 for Best Rap Song as one of the songwriters for Kanye West’s “Jail,” featuring Jay-Z.

Over his more than 30-year career, Dean—who’s known for his synth-heavy production sound—has worked with 2Pac, Scarface, Madonna, Selena Gomez, Lana Del Rey, and countless others. He’s also released his own music, the six-album 4:20 series.

Dean started out in music as a pianist and keyboard player, eventually getting into synthesizers in high school.

Fresh after graduating in 1983, he started playing with Mexican-American singer Selena. “I’d be in the studio with her, and that’s whenever I started hitting record and overdubbing keyboards and producing,” he says. “That was the beginning of it, I guess, with Selena.”

Dean eventually got into hip-hop, working alongside artists such as Scarface, Geto Boys, and the Dogg Pound before forming a partnership with West as a producer, engineer, and multi-instrumentalist on almost all of his albums. Then there’s Travis Scott, with whom Dean has collaborated on all of his music since 2013.

But it’s Dean’s creative long-term team-up with the Weeknd, of course, that’s been keeping him busy lately, having just finished touring with him on his After Hours til Dawn stadium tour. Dean was not only the opener, but on some dates, he performed alongside Playboi Carti and Kaytranada.

Now, as Grammy season rolls around, Dean has solidified his status as a legend in the field, with way too many accomplishments to mention here. In our brief chat, we only scrape the surface of all that he’s done throughout his career, how he approaches producing, and how he wants to be remembered.

How do you approach sound design? Do you approach it differently now than when you did back in the ’90s?

Not so much, really. Just still trying not to overproduce and make enough space for every instrument that’s there, instead of putting too many things and then having to fight it in the mix to make it all work. It’s much easier with computers instead of back then, [when] we were using drum machines and tape and SMPTE time code, locking things up. It was a lot harder to get into making beats. You couldn’t just go out and buy loops and figure out with YouTube how to make beats. Back in the day, you’d buy an MPC drum machine, you had this thing with 16 sounds in it that sucked, and you had to find sounds and put them in there and make songs, you know? It’s a different era.

You’ve said before that you “let the synths talk.” What does that mean to you creatively?

You’re always turning knobs trying to find something new or different. And then you’ll have those happy accidents. That’s where all the cool stuff happens. I might play a keyboard part on one keyboard and then assign it to another keyboard, and it does something crazy.

How much of your process is about technical perfection versus emotional instinct?

It’s a natural balance, a yin-yang type of thing…half technical experience, from doing the same thing over and over and seeing when you’re going down bad paths and stuff, and half just emotional flow state, as people are starting to call it.

Like getting in the zone?

Yeah, stream of consciousness.

You’ve worked in a lot of different genres. What do you think ties all of your work together sonically?

My chord voicing and leading notes. I choose to put chords together, and what note goes on top, that turns into what inspires the singer or the rapper.

You’ve worked with Kanye, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Beyoncé, so many major artists. What do you think makes a collaboration truly work?

Patience and trust. They have to trust you to let you do your thing, which everybody does now. Earlier on, I had to push more to get my ideas across. Now, I just put too many ideas and let the artists pick through it a lot of times, let them thin it out, sit with me, and arrange stuff.

Is it a back-and-forth type thing, where you’ll let them listen and then they come back with feedback?

Beyoncé is a good example of that. It was her Renaissance album I worked on. I did all those songs. They sent me the songs to work on, and I just sent them the fuck out. I just played synths all over them, and then sent it back to her and she’d sit with her engineer and arrange what I played and where she wanted it. I never heard it again until it came out. That’s one work state that I don’t do very often, but I do enjoy it.

How do you balance contributing to an artist’s vision while keeping your own creative identity? Is that something that you even think about?

Not really. It just happens. I don’t really need a producer tag. I kind of have a sound people can feel, and it’s me. Or hopefully, they can. Sometimes you get into a flow state with the artist where that’s like the perfect situation. Working with Abel [The Weeknd] on this last album, towards the end of the album, me and him were just in the studio, just locked in, just finalizing stuff. And that’s when it gets exciting to me. It’s when you have 72 hours to turn in and you have 144 hours of work to do, and you just do it.

You’re deadline driven.

Yeah, I like a deadline. That’s the only way I got my 4:25 album done. I knew I wanted to drop it around 4/20 this year, and I just fucked around and fucked around and didn’t start it until 4/10, you know what I mean? I literally did it in 11 days. And then the album came out really, really good. It’s really cohesive because it’s made in such a short time period.

You’ve mentored a lot of younger producers. What’s the biggest mistake you see up-and-comers make?

Business. I think business mistakes…not standing up for themselves. It’s hard. I know some of the DSPs [digital service providers] are changing. It’s hard to get the credits all right, which is very important to up-and-coming producers. I know some of the DSPs, I won’t mention any names, but they’re working on updating their stuff. I’m kind of working with them. I hope to work with them more and get where everybody’s recognized that works on this music, behind the scenes. You used to get recognition during physical projects because it was all printed out. Now, they only put certain credits online. It’s not really fair. Anyway, that’s my preaching for that.

You’ve had a hand in some of the most influential albums in the past three decades. Do you think about your legacy at all?

I think about it. Like I was thinking, what do I have left to prove? I can make a good record. Now I’m kind of doing what I want to do, not so driven by trying to get so many projects out. I used to try to do six albums a year or something. Now, I did two albums last year. Or one really. I did Abel’s album and then toured for four months, working on a few things I can’t talk about yet.

When you look back on your catalog, what moment feels like the biggest creative breakthrough for you?

Probably 2011, 2012, whenever I really made the move from being more of a mixer-engineer, to being a producer. I mean, I was a producer in the ’90s. All the beats we did by ourselves. We didn’t have producers. And then with Kanye, I was just mixing for the first two albums, and then the next two albums is where I kind of came into my own, adding synths and guitar solos. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy uses that growth, you know?

You’ve said before that you can see sound visually. Can you describe what that looks like when you’re in a session?

It’s kind of like a real-time analyzer (RTA), when you see the frequencies. Before there were RTAs, I would always just kind of see it like that. I’d stare between the speakers and see a mountain of low frequency over here and high, you know? George Augspurger, the guy who designed most of the studios in California and made the famous speakers, he taught me how to tune rooms and he always said that doing music in a room is like pouring water from a pitcher into a glass. If you pour it too fast or pour too much, it just splashes everywhere. You want to pour it in smoothly. And that’s the way I look at sound, too, like water flowing. Too much of one frequency and it shakes everything up. You’ve got to balance everything.

What’s the most misunderstood part of being a producer?

That it’s really easy and you just hang out and smoke weed and listen to music real loud. Yeah, it’s a little more than that.

How do you define success at this point in your career?

I don’t know…just helping more people come up in the business. To have more people that I work with be successful. That’s important to me. And just continuing to push the envelope with sounds and technology.

Do you feel like you still have anything to prove?

I mean, nothing to prove, but I want to keep on the forefront of everything, just keep in tune with the youth and what they’re doing.

I want to be remembered like all the greats one day. In 200 years, hopefully people are still talking about Mike Dean’s music, you know? How did he make so much music in his lifetime?

October 13, 2025 0 comments

TV & Streaming

Cinema United Elects Harkins Theatres’ Mike Bowers as New Chair

by jummy84 October 9, 2025

written by jummy84

Harkins Theatres president and CEO Mike Bowers has been elected chair of the executive board of Cinema United, the international organization of movie theater owners. Bowers will take over from B&B Theatres CEO Bob Bagby, who will remain on the executive board.

“Delivering an amazing cinematic experience has been my life’s work,” says Bowers. “It’s a true honor to serve the passionate people who bring the magic of moviegoing to communities across America and around the globe.”

Bowers has been president and CEO of Arizona-based Harkins Theatres since 2006. Also making up the executive board are Cinemark’s Executive VP and Chief Marketing and Content Officer, Wanda Gierhart Fearing, who will serve as Vice-Chair; Colleen Barstow of Nebraska-based Main Street Theatres who will become Treasurer, and Bo Chambliss of Georgia Theatre Company who will continue as Board Secretary.

“I am extremely excited to work with Mike and the leadership team to continue to support and promote this great industry. Mike brings years of experience building a successful circuit, and he will work tirelessly to support all of exhibition. The entire leadership team will bring energy and insight as we continue to drive toward the next great era in cinema,” says Cinema United president & CEO Michael O’Leary. “I also want to acknowledge and thank Bob for successfully leading Cinema United these past
two years. He will remain on the board and continue to be a leader for years to come.”

Cinema United represents more than 33,000 movie screens across the U.S. and Canada and an additional 30,000 more in 81 countries worldwide.

Thursday, October 9

Mischa Barton Bends Reality in ‘Glitched’ Paranormal Sci-Fi Comedy Film

Mischa Barton (“The O.C.”) will star in the paranormal sci-fi comedy, “Glitched,” which is set to make its world premiere at the La Femme Film Festival in Los Angeles on Oct. 17.

After turning their grandmother’s castle into a virtual reality playground, “Glitched” tells the story of a set of ambitious twins trying not to get stuck in the afterlife after accidentally opening a supernatural portal.

Rounding out the cast are Abigail O’Regan (“Spellbound”), Donal Brophy (“Sleep No More”), Jack McEvoy (“Vikings”) and Elijah Rowen (“Vikings”) and John Connors (“Crazy Love,” “Re-Creation with Jim Sheridan”).

Directed by Alaskan filmmaker Zoe Quist, the genre-bending project is a women-led production that established mentorships across all key departments to create pathways for new voices and ensure economic diversity on set.

“Glitched” is written by Steve Grabowsky with Maria O’Neill p.g.a (“The Black Guelph”), Susan Wright p.g.a. and Quist as producers.

Five Participants Selected for the Annual Native American Unscripted Workshop

The Native American Media Alliance has selected five storytellers to participate in its 5th Annual Native American Unscripted Workshop: a five day talent development program that aims to help Native American filmmakers, journalists and media artists launch their careers in the unscripted film and television industry.

Guided by experienced unscripted producers, the program offers mentorship, creative seminars, meetings and networking opportunities for these emergent voices. At the end of the five days, participants pitch their projects to panels of creative executives and producers.

This years’ participants are Alana Tiikpuu, Evan L. Chouteau, Jenna Monroe, Joshua Emerson and Tammy “TS” Botkin. The program is sponsored by Comcast NBCUniversal, the Los Angeles County of Arts & Culture and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

Freestyle Digital Media Acquires “Stationed At Home”

Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution arm of Allen Media Group, has acquired the VOD distribution rights for “Stationed At Home.” The film will be available to rent and own on digital platforms and DVD in North America starting Nov. 11.

Directed by Daniel V. Masciari, the film is an indie drama following a lonely taxi driver in 1998, whose night takes bizarre turns as unexpected faces and figures float through his orbit. The film stars Erik Bjarnar, Darryle Johnson, Eliza VanCort, Jamie Donnelly, Peter Foster Morris, Jeff DuMont and Alek Osinski.

Wednesday, October 8

Art House New York Launches Regional Alliance to Support Indie Film Exhibition

Art House New York has officially launched with an inaugural week-long audience development campaign designed to bring audiences back to explore the vibrant and diverse independent cinema landscape in spring 2026.

“Our goal is to strengthen ties between art house cinemas and with the film industry, creating new opportunities to connect audiences together,” Art House New York director Allason Leitz, said in a statement. “Alone, art house cinemas are hidden gems, but together, we are a cultural force.”

With the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment as a founding partner, Art House New York is a regional alliance strengthening independent film exhibitions in New York City through audience development, research and strategic initiatives. Paula Scher, who created the Art House New York logo and brand identity, will also develop the 2026 campaign.

Art House New York was founded by Lesli Klainberg (former president of Film at Lincoln Center) who tapped Allason Leitz of Third Industry Strategies to design its formative vision and serve as the initiative’s director.

Leaders from across the film industry on the advisory council include Kazembe Balagun, Executive Director, Maysles Documentary Center; Dori Begley, Co-CEO, Magnolia Pictures; Matt Bolish, Deputy Director, Film at Lincoln Center; Mark Boxer, Head of Distribution, MUBI; Karen Cardarelli, Executive Director, Facets & Chicago Alliance of Film Festivals and Gary Faber, President, ERM Research.

They are joined by New York Film Commissioner Pat Swinney Kaufman; Klainberg, AHNY Founder, former President, Film at Lincoln Center; Lela Meadow-Conner, Board President, Art House Convergence; Dara Messinger, Director of Programming, DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema; Rajendra Roy, Chief Curator of Film, MoMA; Shannon Treusch, Partner, Falco Ink.; Jesse Trussell, Director, Film Program and Strategy, BAM; Barbara Twist, Executive Director, Film Festival Alliance and John Vanco, Programming, Paris Theater (Netflix).

Jackson Wild and Earth Alliance Awards $60,000 Grants to Documentary Filmmakers

Jackson Wild and Earth Alliance have revealed the conservation and wildlife filmmakers selected for their inaugural Impact Pitch grant program, which aims to fund projects that shift the narrative toward solutions and actionable outcomes.

The program awards up to $60,000 in funding to support filmmakers and impact campaigns associated with their films.

Jigar Ganatra’s film “Chameleon Corridors” will receive $30,000 and strategic support to help implement its impact campaign. The “Chameleon Corridors” team will work with local partners in Tanzania to screen the film for farmers, students and Tanzanian authorities to dismantle ingrained superstitions around chameleons and educate communities about reforestation programs.

Sally Snow’s “Iyo Ang Dagat (The Sea is Yours),” which explores the deep and complex relationship between people and sharks in the Philippines, will be awarded $15,000. The grant will help raise awareness about the value of sharks and rays and the ongoing efforts to protect them in Palawan and support working alongside key stakeholders to draft and pass legislation regulating marine and wildlife tourism in Palawan.

Michael Salama and Gastón Zilberman’s “Qotzuñi: People of the Lake” will also receive $15,000 and is set to use the funding with the Uru Indigenous Nation and local partners in Bolivia to improve food security for communities, support sustainable livelihoods, and create fellowships for Uru youth in communities surrounding Lake Poopó.

Other finalists include Danny Schmidt’s “Book of George” and the Environmental Justice Foundation documentary “Pantanal.”

Tuesday, October 7

Tribeca Festival and AT&T Launch Applications for Untold Stories With $1.2 Million in Prizes

The Tribeca Festival and AT&T have increased their AT&T Untold Stories program’s top production prize from $1 million to $1.2 million for the festival’s 25th anniversary in 2026. The program, which provides funding, empowerment and support for emerging filmmakers, is the largest unrestricted film production award of its kind in the world.

The program launched in 2017 and each year awards one new filmmaker full funding to produce a feature along with mentorship, support and a guaranteed premiere at the Tribeca Festival. Since its inception, the program has supported 40 projects and produced eight winning films, some of which have garnered distribution on major platforms such as Netflix and HBO Max.

“Independent filmmaking has never been tougher, and too many vital stories never make it to the screen. Untold Stories changes that,” said Jane Rosenthal, CEO and Co-Founder of Tribeca Enterprises. “It doesn’t just give filmmakers the means to create — it helps ensure their work is seen. With funding, mentorship, and distribution support, the program opens doors that might otherwise stay shut. This expanded prize will give bold storytellers the chance to dream bigger, go further, and reach the audiences their stories deserve.”

Applications for the 2026 Untold Stories award are now open and close on Feb. 6. The winner will receive the $1.2 million grant at next year’s festival.

Filmmakers can apply now at tribecafilm.com/untoldstories.

Tello Films Network Releases Trailer For Lesbian Holiday Romcom “The Christmas Writer”

The trailer for “The Christmas Writer” has been released online, courtesy of Tello Films Network.. The film will premiere on Nov. 18 on VOD.

The film follows a bestselling lesbian Christmas author loses her holiday muse and experiences writer’s block, setting her off on a journey to return to her quaint hometown in search of renewed inspiration, finding an unexpected love story.

“The Christmas Writer” stars Shelby Allison Brown as Noel, Callie Bussell as Callie, Jordan Myrick as Paulette, Kendahl Landreth as Erin, Stacey Lee Powell as Jillian, Karen M. Chan as Grandma Robbins, and June Tuss as Pepper. The film was directed by Tello Films founder & CEO Christin Baker, and co-written with Katie I. Williams. “The Christmas Writer” was produced by Andrew James Myers and Trenton Julius.

The film will also be available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple, YouTube Movies and other VOD platforms.

Watch the trailer for “The Christmas Writer” below.

Monday, October 6

Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Reveals 2025 Student Academy Awards Placements

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have unveiled the recipients of this year’s Gold, Silver and Bronze placements and universities around the world at the 52nd Student Academy Awards ceremony. The recipients were chosen from 3,127 entries from 988 colleges and universities worldwide.

The Student Academy Award placements for 2025 include:

Alternative/Experimental

Gold: Xindi Zhang, “The Song of Drifters,” University of Southern California

Silver: Vega Moltke-Leth, “Without Perfection,” University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Bronze: Mati Granica, “flower_gan,” London College of Communication, United Kingdom

Animation

Gold: Tobias Eckerlin, “A Sparrow’s Song,” Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Silver: Lucas Ansel, “The 12 Inch Pianist,” Rhode Island School of Design

Bronze: Sofiia Chuikovska, Loïck du Plessis D’Argentré & Maud Le Bras, “The Shyness of Trees,” Gobelins, France

Documentary

Gold: Tatiana McCabe, “Tides of Life,” University of the West of England Bristol, United Kingdom

Silver: Rebeka Bizubová, “Confession,” Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia

Bronze: Jane Deng, “I Remember,” New York University

Narrative

Gold: Jan Saczek, “Dad’s Not Home,” Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School, Poland

Silver: Meyer Levinson-Blount, “Butcher’s Stain,” Tel Aviv University, Israel

Bronze: ZEFAN, “Kubrick, Like I Love You,” Columbia University

The Student Academy Award-winning films are now eligible to compete for the 98th Oscars in the Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film or Documentary Short Film categories.

October 9, 2025 0 comments

rapper-killermike-mike-reacts-steph-curry-checks-him-shady-comments-ayesha-video

Celebrity News

Killer Mike Apologizes To Steph, Ayesha Curry For Marriage Jabs

by jummy84 October 2, 2025

written by jummy84

It’s been about two weeks since Steph Curry clocked Killer Mike for speaking on his marriage to Ayesha. A TikTok user had posted a video dragging the pro-athlete’s wife, says she’s struggling not to cheat on her husabnd of 14 years. In an interview with Shannon Sharpe, Mike finally cleared the air. Though he cracked a few jokes in between, he apologized to the married couple for cosigning the shade.

RELATED: Aht! Aht! Steph Curry Calls Out Killer Mike For Seemingly Cosigning Creator’s Shady Video About His Wife Ayesha

Killer Mike Says Sorry After Steph Curry Calls Him Out

In the moment with the Sharpe chat, Killer Mike said he was trying to tell the TikToker user who made the shady comments about Ayesha to take it easy. Instead, he “wrote something stupid,” Mike said.

He apologized for his “statement being misconstrued.” Mike said he was “stoned” trying to make a joke. However, he clarified that he agrees with his wife’s advice to mind his business. He also shared that his two daughters, his homeboys, and his friends in the NBA called him out, too. Mike also said that he appreciates Steph Curry checking him and takes it as a sign of respect.

After the callouts, Killer Mike said he reflected on his viral comment and understood how it could be taken adversely. At that moment, he also addressed Ayesha Curry directly.

“It won’t my business like my wife said. Steph did something that all us brothers with women should do and that’s stand up and defend…,” Killer Mike said, giving an example of someone stepping on their ladies’ foot. “…So let me say again, Ayesha, Steph excuse my I apologize deeply. And I’m searching for your address so I may send y’all some of this Paloma so y’all may make more love, make more beautiful lightskin babies for us.”

Steph Wasn’t Playing Behind His Wife

As previously reported, the “clock it” moment between Steph and Mike went down shortly after Bookie Woodz popped off in a September 5 post. While sitting in his car, the video creator accused Ayesha of desiring public lust. “She can just smell an opportunity to embarrass this man, because she gets on every interview telling everybody about just how frustrated with his success,” Woodz said among other comments. It was his second time that week calling out Mrs. Curry for openly speaking about adjusting to her husband’s fame in interviews.

In the comment section of the second video, Mike wrote “My n***a said she wanna go be Glo!! Man, Steph doesn’t deserve the embarrassment frfr. God bless him.” Though rare, Steph Curry stepped into the comment and not only blasted Bookie Woodz as a “clown,” but called out Killer Mike for being “better than that.”

“Stay in your lane and let God keep blessing me like he is,” Steph Curry wrote. “We r good over here.”

RELATED: Brittany Renner Seeks MAJOR Child Support Increase To Match PJ Washington’s Lavish Lifestyle, Wife Seemingly Reacts (UPDATE)

What Do You Think Roomies?

October 2, 2025 0 comments

Music

Killer Mike Apologizes to Steph Curry & Ayesha Curry: ‘I Was Stoned’

by jummy84 October 2, 2025

written by jummy84

Killer Mike has apologized to Steph Curry and the NBA star’s wife, Ayesha Curry, following his comments reacting to a TikTok video ridiculing Ayesha.

The Atlanta rapper broadcast his apology during an appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay on Wednesday (Oct. 1), chalking it up to his words being “misconstrued” and saying that he was high at the time.

“Steph Curry, Ayesha Curry — boy, my wife done cussed me out,” Mike admitted. “My oldest daughter called me. My youngest daughter called me. … Homeboys that have played in the NBA called me.”

Killer Mike continued: “And I realized that maybe I shouldn’t smoke and get on Instagram. So let me say this, ’cause I appreciate you checking it; it shows you have a tremendous amount of respect for me. Mrs. Ayesha Curry and her husband Steph, I apologize for my statement being misconstrued.”

Mike’s comment stemmed from his reaction to content creator BooWoodz’s skit teasing Ayesha Curry, poking at her alleged thirst for attention to take the spotlight from her Hall-of-Fame hubby.

“She wants to be GloRilla or some sh–,” BooWoodz said in the clip posted in September. “Like we get it, bro. Just drop an an album or some sh–. Stop embarrassing this man, bro. This sh–‘s getting pathetic.”

Killer Mike had a laugh at the video and hopped into the comments, writing: “My n—a said she wanna go be Glo!!!” he wrote. “Man Steph doesn’t deserve the embarrassment frfr. God Bless him.”

Steph Curry got wind of Mike’s comments and he replied, defending his wife. “Naaaa not you Mike,” the Golden State Warriors superstar wrote, checking the rhymer. “I’m cool [staying] silent and letting these other clowns have [their] moment! And you’re the worst of them [BooWoodz]. But you’re better than that [Killer Mike]. Stay in your lane and let God keep blessing me like he is. We r good over here.”

Mike clearly realized he was in the wrong and continued to repeatedly apologize, as Shannon Sharpe ribbed him throughout the interview.

“I was just stoned up, trying to make a joke,” the Run the Jewels rapper offered up as an excuse. “It wasn’t my damn business, like my wife said. So, I’m sorry, y’all.”

Watch the clip of Killer Mike’s apology below.

October 2, 2025 0 comments

Riot Mike hard at work with his many whiteboards. (Photo courtesy of Riot Fest.)

Music

Riot Mike Talks Riot Fest at 20

by jummy84 September 21, 2025

written by jummy84

In 2005, what began as a modest multi-venue, fan-driven punk event in Chicago has morphed into a large-scale outdoor event that continues to mark its territory as one of the most impressive independent music fests in the country.

Over the years, it’s ballooned in popularity thanks to its anything goes and everything happens here reputation. Where else could you see this year’s lineup of Jack White, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Idles, Mac Sabbath, Hanson, and Rilo Kiley play on the same bill? What other event offers carnival rides, a wedding chapel, arcade, wrestling match, and museum to catch in between acts? Who else would stalk John Stamos for 12 years in a bid to try to get the fictional Jesse & The Rippers to reunite? (Organizers played the long game well as Uncle Jesse has finally agreed to make an appearance this year with the Beach Boys.) Riot Fest has led the charge in actual impressive reunions, too, like goading the Replacements, the Misfits, and Jawbreaker to take the stage together again. And they’ve been instigators for a range of exclusive full album plays—this year alone features Weezer playing the Blue Album, the Pogues delivering Rum Sodomy & The Lash, and Bad Religion doing a front to back of Suffer, among a dozen other bands taking part.

A view of the crowd during Riot Fest 2021 at Douglass Park on September 17, 2021, in Chicago. (Credit: Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images)

This is all to say it’s unfathomable that it almost never happened. Co-founder Mike Petryshyn (aka Riot Mike to many in the music community) can still remember a time when he never saw the homegrown event getting past a year-one fling.

“After 2005 was done, I didn’t want to do it anymore,” he admits during a recent call from Riot Fest HQ on the west side of Chicago. In the beginning, he was just a fan who worked days at a law firm and had a pipe dream to see all his favorite punk rock bands like Dead Kennedys, the Misfits, and the Germs play the same weekend. By the end of it, though, he was exhausted, stressed to the max and wanted out. “I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know the music business. I just did it by cold calling bands,” he adds. But one MySpace message in the spring of 2006 changed everything.

It was from Eric Spicer, drummer of Naked Raygun, Chicago’s legendary punk rock band whose influential sound—a blend of near-hardcore and melodic hooks with an underbelly of lyrical realism—helped develop a local breeding ground, extending its tentacles in Pegboy, the Effigies and Steve Albini’s Big Black while fostering a future line of descendants like Rise Against, Fall Out Boy, and Alkaline Trio. “They were the most important band to ever come out of this city. … And they changed the trajectory of Chicago music. One case in point is me,” says Petryshyn. When he got the memo from Spicer, Petryshyn recalls, “I didn’t believe it was real. He was like, ‘I saw what you did last year. I thought it was pretty cool. Would you ever consider Naked Raygun for it?’” At the time, the band had been dormant since 1992. But within a few months, Spicer, vocalist Jeff Pezzati, guitarist Bill Stephens and late bassist Pierre Kezdy were rehearsing again and Riot Fest was back on. “Without them, there’d be no Riot, nope. Zero chance,” says Petryshyn. “I would have never done year two.”

Riot Mike is just one of a handful of card-carrying members in the Naked Raygun fan club. Another is Dave Grohl. In his Sonic Highways documentary, Grohl tells of catching a pivotal 1982 show from the punk rockers at Chicago’s Cubby Bear club, which laid the seeds for his own music career. “And Billie Joe,” pipes in Petryshyn. “Every time Green Day plays Chicago, it’s always, ‘This song goes out to Naked Raygun.’”

When it comes to the band’s legacy, which will be told in a forthcoming biography on PM Press in 2027, Petryshyn has his own point of view. “They are one of the smartest bands I’ve ever seen. What I love about Naked Raygun is that you could always tell who wrote the song. I mean, clearly you have Jeff who’s the main songwriter. But Eric’s songs are phenomenal. Pierre’s songs are deep and a lot are not what you think they’re about. But besides that, they have their own sound. Nobody sounds like them … it was very experimental and when you hear [albums] All Rise and Understand? and Jettison, they sound like Chicago.”

He adds, “In many ways, there’s this parallel to Minneapolis, and not that they sound like the Replacements or Hüsker Dü, they really don’t. But that same kind of feeling, like we’re not from L.A. or New York … They are of a working-class kind. They’re from Chicago. It’s tough. Chicago has always been an island. But the influence lived on years later into Nirvana, to Jawbreaker, because the music resonated. … Before anybody knew what Riot Fest was in the early years, if a band or somebody heard about Naked Raygun, it was like, holy shit that’s cool.”

Naturally, the punk vets will help fete Riot Fest’s milestone year this weekend with a just-announced closing night after show at Chicago’s Metro on Sunday. “There was no better way to end it than with the band that really started it all,” says Petryshyn of the full-circle moment, which truly began when he first heard their music after picking up their CD at Home of the Hits in his native Buffalo, New York. “Daryl [Taberski] from Snapcase was working there because the band was in between tours. I went in and was like, ‘I’m tired of everything I’m listening to. Give me something different.’ And he was like, ‘You gotta listen to Naked Raygun.’” Years later, Petryshyn’s first time seeing the band live was their very first Riot Fest rehearsal in 2006, and it’s the only band he’d proudly tell the tale of breaking some ribs for while stage-diving.

“We did a couple of legendary secret shows. I saw [Pegboy’s] Larry Damore show up and stage dive. And he’s big, he’s like a linebacker. … So when he dove and he got caught, I’m like okay, I’m gonna pick my spot,” Petryshyn recalls. “One of my favorite songs is ‘Treason’ and when it gets quiet into that guitar solo … the best guitar solo in punk rock, that’s when I was like I’m going to do this. But yeah, nobody caught me and I slammed right into that hard floor at [Chicago’s] Cobra Lounge. I didn’t know right away that I broke anything. It wasn’t until the next day I went to the hospital and got an X-ray because I was having trouble breathing.” But if you ask Petryshyn if it was all worth it—the broken bones, the 20 years of making Riot Fest the unique unicorn it continues to be, he’s quick to answer: “Oh, absolutely.”

September 21, 2025 0 comments

Music

The Avett Brothers, Mike Patton Team For First Album

by jummy84 September 18, 2025

written by jummy84

Yes, you’re reading this correctly: the Avett Brothers have teamed with eclectic Faith No More/Mr. Bungle vocalist Mike Patton to form AVTT/PTTN, whose self-titled debut album will be released Nov. 14 through Thirty Tigers in association with Ramseur Records and Ipecac Recordings. The lead single, “Eternal Love,” can be sampled below.

The musicians are said to be longtime mutual fans of one another and birthed the nine-song effort by trading ideas from coast to coast. “Mike’s part of our DNA, like the fabric of our youth,” says Scott Avett. “Literally, we studied him. He’s a dear friend now, but when we were younger, I was imitating him.”

Adds Patton, “My peculiar challenge in this was to become a long distant cousin. A brother that was orphaned. Maybe they kept him in the chicken coop or some shit. They brought him out years and years later.”

AVTT/PTTN was produced by Patton, Scott Avett and engineer Dana Nielsen. It runs the gamut from the Avett Brothers’ stripped-down folk/roots sound to something more propulsive and unusual, as heard on songs such as “Heaven’s Breath” and “The Ox Driver’s Song.” “This is what art is,” says Scott Avett. “This is what making is supposed to be: in secret and with no ambition.”

There’s no word yet whether AVTT/PTTN will perform the new material live, but for now, the Avetts have a handful of fall shows on their schedule, including their bespoke Moon Crush Avett Moon festival in Miramar, Fla., on Oct. 3-5.

September 18, 2025 0 comments

Music

Liquid Mike: Hell Is an Airport Album Review

by jummy84 September 15, 2025

written by jummy84

As far as indie rock origin stories go, “mailman moonlighting as a rock star gets word-of-mouth breakthrough, no label needed” is about as cool as it gets. Mike Maple started driving for USPS in 2020, shortly before his band Liquid Mike released its first two albums. Since then, the prolific group has put out a record a year of high-octane garage rock, drawing in a cult fanbase: Its 2023 album S/T struck a nerve on Bandcamp and Twitter, despite having almost no formal promotion; then, 2024’s Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot earned the group critical buzz and support slots with bands like Descendants, Joyce Manor, and Militarie Gun.

Like other Midwest rockers before them—The Replacements, Hüsker Dü, and Guided By Voices all come to mind—Liquid Mike like their runtimes short, their guitars loud, and their hooks easy to sing along to no matter how many beers you’ve had. The band’s first five albums were mostly inspired by Maple’s time driving the mail truck around Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and the small-town shenanigans he and his friends got up to off the clock. Their discography is filled with “get out of this town” anthems—but on their sixth album, Hell Is an Airport, Liquid Mike asks what happens when a hometown hero’s journey takes him outside of his familiar surroundings.

A lot of what happens, it turns out, is more of the same. Most of these songs see Maple in head-on collision with the realization that the ennui of his home life won’t disappear once he hits the road. “What are you running from?/A middle-aged Houdini/Locked ice box/Works hard to take it easy,” Maple sings on “Grand Am,” pondering the hours he spent at previous dead-end jobs—now that his dream job has become his day job, was the less predictable path worth it? “AT&T” features some subtle record scratching underneath its shimmery guitar progression, as Maple drags out the line, “How the days move slow” in a way that could apply both to the hurry-up-and-wait of his life as a touring musician, or the grind that preceded it when this kind of success was just a daydream.

Maple’s fears of becoming an “out-of-touch out-of-towner” bubble to the surface of the speedy and metallic “Double Dutch,” though oftentimes Hell Is an Airport sees Maple and his band leaving town only to discover that the rest of the country embodies the same monotony they’ve been trying to escape. Abandoned malls, endless highways, and dead-eyed service workers are reminders of alienation on all fronts. Hell Is an Airport soundtracks industrial wastelands and suburban sprawl with wiry power-pop, crunched-up grunge-gaze, and even the occasional coughing fit of stoner metal.

September 15, 2025 0 comments

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