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For vegetarians looking for a good healthy meal in the fast food universe, few menus offer more options than Taco Bell’s. Whether you want to crush a burrito, indulge in some decadent snacks, or feel like tackling a black bean-based Crunchwrap Supreme, the Bell sports over 15 vegetarian options for you to choose from on its bloated menu (and yet for some reason they ditched the Mexican Pizza). If one of those doesn’t strike your fancy, with a few menu hacks you can turn almost any item into a vegetarian or vegan-friendly dish.

Despite all that variety, the chain inexplicably doesn’t have a plant-based taco on its menu. Crazy considering making a plant-based taco should be right in Taco Bell’s wheelhouse (god knows they’ve already dealt with “fake meat” accusations). But over the past half-decade, the Irvine-based company has seemed like they’d rather spend their time inventing whatever the hell the Mountain Dew Baja Blast is.

Thankfully, that approach seems to be shifting. Earlier this year Taco Bell introduced a plant-based version of their famous ground beef taco dubbed the Cravetarian in a small test market. We, unfortunately, haven’t tried that taco, but the Bell seems to be feeling pretty confident because they’re strutting their stuff and testing the waters with yet another new plant-based menu item. This time, Taco Bell is playing off of this month’s earlier new item, the Naked Chicken Chalupa — which we tasted a few years ago and was briefly “a thing” — by testing the Naked Chalupa with a Crispy Plant-based Shell. Yes, you read that right, you’re not high out of your mind, that’s its actual name. Taco Bell spent time figuring out how to turn chicken into a tortilla substitute, and then made a fake version of that chicken but didn’t spend any time figuring out what to call it. Priorities, Taco Bell!

The *deep breath* Naked Chicken Chalupa with a Crispy Plant-Based Shell is being offered for a limited time at a single Taco Bell location in Irvine California from now until June 27th. So, considering most of the world is going to have to wait to try this thing (if they get to try it at all), we trekked out to Taco Bell HQ to eat both Chalupas to see how the fake one compares to the real. Is Taco Bell nailing plant-based meat (shaped like tortillas, which are already plant-based)?

Let’s find out, starting with the Naked Chicken Chalupa.

Naked Chicken Chalupa

What’s In It?

Chicken, lettuce, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, avocado ranch

Calories: 440

What Does It Taste Like

Prior to arriving at Taco Bell HQ, all I knew was that Taco Bell introduced a new chicken-based taco to their menu (for the second or third time, for those keeping track at home). I wasn’t quite ready for the shock that I was essentially eating a salad wrapped up in taco shell-shaped piece of fried chicken. The “Naked” refers to the fact that aside from the chicken shell, there is no meat in this taco, just lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, and a generous squirt of avocado ranch, which I have to admit, is kind unexpectedly tame.

Taco Bell could’ve totally doubled down on the meat and put their ground beef in this chicken shell and they probably would’ve gone viral (again) on shock value alone. But they didn’t and they’re probably better for it.

The Naked Chicken Chalupa is actually pretty damn good. If you can get past the fact that they had to heavily process some chicken meat and flatten it out until they could fold it, fry it, and shove a bunch of other stuff in it, it provides a good mouthful of flavors. The crispy chicken shell is thick enough to be satisfying and coupled with the cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, and avocado ranch, the experience is akin to eating a heavy chicken salad with one hand.

The chicken shell has a pepper-forward savory flavor that pairs nicely with the avocado ranch, but I think an avocado-based salsa would’ve really elevated the experience by adding a nice spicy sensation to the whole thing. So you’re going to want to definitely hit this thing with your favorite Taco Bell sauce to take it to the next level.

The Bottom Line

If you don’t already frequent Taco Bell is this worth hitting the drive-thru over? Not quite. But if Taco Bell makes a regular appearance in your fast food diet, the Naked Chicken Chalupa is definitely worth indulging your curiosity for. It looks like Frankenstein food made for social media, but it offers more flavor than you’d expect.

Naked Chalupa with a Crispy Plant Based Shell

What’s In It?

Plant-based chicken shell, lettuce, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, avocado ranch

Calories: Awaiting Info From Taco Bell

I still can’t get over this mouthful of a name. The Naked Chalupa with a Crispy Plant-based Shell is almost completely identical to its chicken-ed counterpart, the only main visual difference is the plant-based shell is slightly thinner and less craggy, but that’s something only a side-by-side comparison would show.

The plant-based shell is made from a proprietary pea-protein blend that’s breaded and shaped into Taco Bell’s distinct Chalupa form factor, biting into the thing reveals a substance that looks almost identical to white meat chicken.

Texture-wise, the plant-based shell has much more chew to it, it takes a bit more effort to finish chewing the food down when compared to its chicken counterpart, which I had to admit, I don’t love. Flavor-wise, the plant-based version is a lot more neutral, the avocado ranch does most of the heavy lifting in the flavor department, so the (here we go again) Naked Chalupa with a Crisply Plant-based Shell is much more in need of sauce or another flavor to really elevate the experience.

Long story, short, you’re going to want to dip this in something.

While I enjoyed Taco Bell’s Naked Chicken Chalupa because of its salad-on-the-go form factor, I almost think the plant-based chicken meat would be better if it was cut up and thrown on top of an actual salad, or simply as a crispy plant-based option to go in one of Taco Bell’s burritos.

The Bottom Line

It’s interesting. The pea-protein plant-based chicken recipe is good and passable as chicken, but this feels like the wrong form factor for it. Slices of avocado or the inclusion of potatoes would do a lot to make this meatless Chalupa work, but as it is, I think Taco Bell has better vegetarian options on the menu that’ll leave you more satisfied. Don’t order this as a meal, order it as a side to your meal. For your money, it’s better to grab the Naked Chicken Chalupa, which is good news, because that one is available nationwide while this one isn’t.

You can try the Naked Chalupa with a Crispy Plant-Based Shell at the Taco Bell location at 2222 Barranca Pkwy, Irvine, California.

Through three playoff appearances, the Ben Simmons Experience has always been a matter of when, not if, the bottom falls out. He’s dominated each of his first-round matchups against the Miami Heat, Brooklyn Nets, and Washington Wizards, only to skew closer toward an offensive ghost than a bruising, 6’11 floor general who blends brilliant passing with interior scoring chops when the second round arrives.

One point in Game 2 against the Boston Celtics as a rookie. Five points in Game 5 against the Toronto Raptors the following year. And then, the potential coupe de grâce, 19 combined points over the final three games against the Atlanta Hawks, a tailspin that played a key role in the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers falling well short of their 2021 championship aspirations.

The first-year struggles were understandable: A rookie guard encountering a game plan designed by a shrewd opposing defensive coach with apt personnel to slow him. Speed bumps could be expected and dismissed under the justified belief that young players are forged through such trials. The second-year inconsistencies, while more damming, were still understandable — Simmons shifted to an off-ball-centric role as Jimmy Butler assumed grander creation responsibilities during the postseason, while the team on the other side of the floor was a defensive juggernaut.

But this year — nearly half a decade into his career, equipped with the experiences to rectify prior struggles, and fresh off of a regular season when Simmons was the supposed Robin to an MVP-caliber Batman on the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference — there is no legitimate justification for another second-round nosedive.

It was not just the scoring decline that encapsulated this offensive nosedive. For years, Simmons and his ardent supporters have implored critics to examine his game beyond scoring numbers. Whenever the media handed Sixers coach Doc Rivers an opportunity to do so this season, he harped on the concept. And to an extent, the general sentiment is correct, it’s just often applied to an extreme that seemingly devalues scoring altogether for an All-Star who prefers initiating the offense rather than being relegated to off-ball duties.

Simmons is an excellent player largely because of all his non-scoring traits — elite perimeter defense, rebounding, transition firestarter — but the scoring still matters. His deficiencies there, which are not mutually involved with the pesky jumper many groups fixate on, are why he’s failed to translate his All-Star impact after the first round in three consecutive playoff runs.

That talking point aside, a complete erosion of half-court offensive utility served as a much more prominent influence in Simmons’ faults against the Hawks. The scoring totals just provide a synopsis of the hardships. Play after play, he drifted into irrelevance once the ball left his hands.

He failed to roll with purpose after screening in dribble hand-offs or pick-and-rolls, a longstanding issue of his. He did not seek out off-ball screens to spring free shooters or cutters as the dunker spot morphed into his half-court home. He crashed the offensive glass less often than ideal; although in fairness, that very easily could’ve stemmed from a mandate to retreat defensively and slow Trae Young’s early offense profits.

While frequenting the dunker spot opposite Joel Embiid in the mid-post, he did not always seal off his man or attempt to do so and act as a release valve for the big fella. As is the case with many critiques of Simmons, some context helps absolve him — Embiid has not shown a willingness to toss that pass throughout the season, so it might help explain why Simmons’ motor in that realm faded. Either way, the inactivity in that spot further exacerbated his offensive hibernation.

For long periods in the second half of this series, the Sixers’ three-time All-Star and 2019-20 All-NBA guard merely existed in the half-court, failing to wield his size, frame, and basketball instincts for contributions. He floated, a footprint never to be left. He became so wired for passivity instead of aggression that in the fourth quarter of Game 7, he made a decision that will be talked about for years, bypassing an open dunk to feed a cutting Matisse Thybulle, who was promptly fouled and split a pair at the line.

You have likely seen that Simmons attempted three shots in seven fourth quarters against Atlanta, with his last attempt coming in Game 3. More broadly, he’s taken fewer than nine shots in 10 of 19 career second-round games (52.6 percent), an occurrence he’s only registered in 19.6 percent (54 of 275) of his regular season contests. He discernibly downshifts the aggression in these pivotal series and doesn’t compensate in other ways offensively, with the parts of his game that would be relied upon in these moments never being properly sharpened.

Simmons is 6’11 and 240 pounds, a freight train of a player capable of dislodging most opponents when he so pleases. He does not adhere to traditional requirements of the point guard mold. Screening, cutting, fervently rolling, rebounding, and being a connective passer in the half-court (a la Draymond Green) should be things he always does with vigor, not things that are tied to the ebbs and flows of his scoring. Those are low-hanging areas to remain useful offensively in all circumstances and leverage his size and intelligence. Yet while they may appear basic, Simmons hasn’t plucked them through four seasons and it bogs down his and the team’s offense considerably.

The most vocal retort to Simmons’ lack of big man skills is the Sixers’ inhibiting surrounding personnel. Ben Simmons needs to be surround him with shooters!, people declare. They’ll cite the post-centric offense catered for Embiid as a limitation for Simmons.

Yes, this is not the perfect situation for Simmons, but it’s fairly low on the list of problems restricting him. And here’s the thing: this year’s Sixers team, as well as the 2017-18 and 2018-19 versions, are damn good ecosystems for him — in the past, players like Robert Covington, Tobias Harris, J.J. Redick, and Dario Saric served as credible shooters who opened lanes to the paint and were beneficiaries of his drive-and-kick game, while other on-ball scorers like Butler took some of the onus off him to be the hub of the team’s offense. It’s not quite suited to optimize him, sure, but it is constructed rather well to enhance his steadfast strengths and cover for many of his gaps.

This season, his four starting peers shot 45 percent (Seth Curry), 41 percent (Danny Green), 39 percent (Harris), and 38 percent (Embiid) beyond the arc; the latter two were on relatively low volume, but it wasn’t as if defenses were abandoning those guys to mitigate Simmons’ interior scoring chances.

He had three guys commandeering heftier scoring loads. Dribble hand-off and pick-and-roll partners existed. None of them elite, of course, but undoubtedly of the caliber for him to embrace the big man responsibilities, aid his ball-handlers, and remain a terrific player (as he’s long been). More perplexing is that when he sets rugged screens and rolls with purpose, forcing the defense into a difficult decision, success follows. The outline of how well it could work with an elite ball-handler is there — and even how well it could work with the players at his disposal. The outline isn’t accompanied by routine, though, and that’s a much more damaging concern than the absence of an elite initiator.

When he was shifted to a role that demanded he hammer home these nuances against the Hawks, he seemingly treated them as a pass-fail assignment. Make the handoff, stand in front of someone to screen, and the job is complete. That cannot be the case, yet it was far too often — not every time, but at an unsustainable rate regardless.

Simmons likes to refer to himself as “a basketball player” instead of boxing himself into one rigid position, perhaps an ode to his wide-ranging skills. But as this year’s second round progressed, he resorted to a bystander more than a basketball player in the half-court offense. Some of that is tied to personnel, but so much was his own doing.

So, the narrative that Simmons needs a new home because of schematic or talent hindrances just should not and cannot resonate. A fresh start away from Philadelphia certainly could help and seems necessary for all parties at this juncture, but any sort of breakthrough is unlikely to be heavily correlated with on-court skills or factors — the Sixers have largely surrounded him with empowering teammates. Most stars are not entirely optimized, in large part because it is incredibly challenging to do that. Embiid, for example, has never been optimized in his career, yet has become an MVP finalist and displayed growth as a postseason performer.

Simmons has faltered in three separate second-round cameos, against contrasting opponents, with three different iterations of the Sixers. The onus should primarily fall on him for these blemishes, not the continually rotating cast of teammates. Embiid is the lone constant, but he’s a superstar who overwhelmingly simplifies Simmons’ job, one that sees him toggling between point guard and power forward, and unable to truly excel at either position full-time or part-time because of self-imposed sanctions.

Maximizing Simmons requires a daunting checklist, too: A stretch 5 who protects the rim, a lead ball-handler who shoots off the bounce effectively and is a plus distributor, and two more shooters, one of which probably should brandish significant on-ball creation equity. Assembling that quintet is arduous, rare, and likely expensive. Any potential trade suitor who conceivably rosters each of those archetypes probably has to part with one or multiple of them to acquire Simmons, who is a very good player and also owed nearly $150 million over the next four seasons.

Those archetypes are coveted, usually expensive, and would bolster the Sixers sans Simmons, anyhow. Optimizing Simmons better than his current context is pretty dang tough and more idealistic than attainable in almost every scenario, barring a gigantic leap from him to remedy much of the creation requirement. And besides, there’s no guarantee that going all-in on maximizing the skill set of exactly one player on an NBA roster would beget becoming a championship contender.

Some semblance of reliable half-court creation would alleviate many of the concerns that spur these yearly pitfalls and pose incongruity for his fit alongside a superstar big man. Embiid, while a subpar three-point shooter (32.9 percent in his career), commands attention beyond the arc because he’s one of the league’s preeminent scorers and exhibited a money midrange game this season. Ignoring him altogether affords a lethal bucket-getter space and freedom.

If Simmons touted a face-up or post-up game, rather than almost exclusively being a passer in those spots, Embiid could comfortably migrate beyond the arc and let his running mate cook on occasion. If Simmons did not contort himself around contact — instead, powering through with his strength and body control — and predominantly only finished with his right hand, Embiid could clear the lane and let Simmons drive. If Simmons committed to setting space-carving screens and rolling aggressively, rather than wandering into the lane, Embiid could spot up to give those actions room.

But Simmons doesn’t do those things, at least not to the degree in which they genuinely enhance his offensive malleability. That is what makes this inflection point of his career so bewildering, because he has sprinkled in flashes, even prolonged ones, of incredible two-way basketball. The run to end his rookie season. January 2020. His five-week, pre-All-Star Break surge of 2021.

He’s sliced and slashed with physicality, finesse, and craft to thrive as a finisher. He’s skillfully danced in the two-man tango of pick-and-rolls or dribble hand-offs, capitalizing on the scoring gravity of his teammates to convert inside. He’s functioned as a versatile offensive hub from the elbows and post, balancing facilitating and forceful rim attacks. There are multiple month-long stretches of him looking the part of a top-15 player, as if he’ll finally exorcise some second-round demons and turn the corner, waving goodbye to the offensive stagnation that has sat shotgun to his career thus far.

And then, these stretches evaporate. They leave Simmons as he’s always been, a confounding, anomalous star with glaring, detrimental playoff warts and the need to look inward and assess his self-inflicted, albeit correctable, flaws. They’re central to he and the Sixers’ inability to progress since his rookie season, each finding themselves in a similar position to that of three years ago: a second-round flameout. Only this time, there’s a whole lot less optimism and understanding.

After dancing since she was in elementary school, 17-year-old Canadian artist Tate McRae is seeing a successful launch of her singing career. “I always used to say ‘I’m a dancer who sings, not a singer who dances.’ That’s how it always went,” McRae told Uproxx in a recent interview. Now after dropping her debut EP Too Young To Be Sad, McRae has linked up with Khalid to flex some of her choreography skills in the “Working” video.

McRae’s “Working” visual opens with her feeling despondent at a high school graduation party before it gives a look at what she has in store for the rest of her summer vacation. She gets a job as a laid-back babysitter, watching the kids play video games and go for joyrides in the car, all while she can’t help but get a failing relationship out of her mind.

Ahead of the visual’s release, McRae told Uproxx that she doesn’t want to be pigeonholed into just one genre. “The crazy thing is that I’m still trying to find my sound,” she said. “I think there are a million different ways that you can play around, and a different million different artists [to work with] that will shoot you in different directions. But I can’t really define what I do [musically]. I think it changes every month… you can do so many things nowadays.”

Watch McRae and Khalid’s “Working” video above.

Candace Parker has been in Nneka Ogwumike’s shoes before. The two-time MVP and champion was at the center of one of the most controversial Olympic team cuts ever in 2016, and hasn’t participated in any Team USA event since. Five years later, it’s her former teammate, Ogwumike, who was surprisingly not included on the roster heading to Tokyo.

“I know there’s a lot of deserving women, but how many times are we going to say it’s unfair, right?” Parker said after the Chicago Sky’s win on Tuesday. “How many times are we going to say that it’s not politics? I think we all know that.”

Ogwumike, currently in her 10th season with the Los Angeles Sparks, won MVP for Team USA in the 2020 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament. She was also the only one of eight players invited to Team USA’s college tour against top-10 programs in 2019 to not make the Olympic roster with the exception of Elena Delle Donne, who is not expected to recover from a back injury in time to play.

Team USA head coach Dawn Staley alluded to injuries playing a factor in the decision to cut Ogwumike from the roster, but the All-Star’s sisters, Erica and teammate Chiney, have said that’s untrue. The Sparks released a statement on June 3 saying Ogwumike’s knee sprain would take 4-6 weeks to recover from. She’s suffered no setbacks since, and the latest end of the timeline would have her return July 15. Women’s basketball in Tokyo begins on July 26.

Connecticut Sun head coach Curt Miller, who is part of the USA Basketball selection committee, was asked about Ogwumike’s omission on Tuesday and deferred to national team director Carol Callan, according to The Hartford Courtant‘s Alexa Philippou.

“I hit Nneka,” Parker added. “I was like ‘Listen, it sucks. It’s unfair. All that. Blah, blah blah. You’re one of the greats. You’re the only MVP not to make the Olympic team.’ Which is bullsh*t. But that’s what it is, right? That’s why I’m commentating in Tokyo.”

Parker isn’t the only player to call out the program. On Monday, former WNBA player Devereaux Peters took to Twitter, calling USA Basketball “fraudulent as hell for eternity.” She added, “It’s politics, it rarely has to do with basketball as much as they try and “say”. If you look at the rosters each year you know damn well that’s a lie.”

Parker’s full quote can be seen below:

“Of course I’ve reached out to Nneka,” Parker said. “I think that there’s a number of women that are deserving. That’s not taking away from anyone on the team. Shoutout to Chelsea Gray for being the point guard. I was so excited that they didn’t mess that up, and put her on the team because she’s one of the best guards in the entire world. There’s a number of players that are deserving. I mean, when you’re the United States, you could field a first, second and third team and probably win gold, silver, and bronze. At the same time, I know there’s a lot of deserving women, but how many times are we going to say it’s unfair, right? How many times are we going to say that it’s not politics? I think we all know that. I hit Nneka, I was like ‘Listen, it sucks. It’s unfair. All that. Blah, blah, blah. You’re one of the greats. You’re the only MVP not to make the Olympic team.’ Which is bullsh*t. But that’s what it is, right? That’s why I’m commentating in Tokyo.”

Young Nudy runs a funhouse of horror in his eerie ‘Dr Ev4l’ video which dropped today supporting his album of the same name. The Atlanta rapper performs his rapid-fire verses in a darkened warehouse featuring demonic-looking props and a creepy fortune teller machine which gives him a ticket with one directive, “Kill Or Be Killed.”

The theme is appropriate for the album, which is inspired by Nudy’s love of horror films — something he shares with his cousin 21 Savage, who appears on the album single “Child’s Play.” The “kill or be killed” directive can also be seen as a nod to the Saw series, which Savage helped soundtrack as executive producer of the companion album for Spiral: From The Book Of Saw, which dropped the same haunting night as Dr Ev4l. Nudy also appeared on the project on the song “You Ain’t Hard.”

The duo’s shared love for horror havoc recently jumped into the real world when their collaboration “EA” soundtracked a viral video in which a group of partying college students stomped their way right through the floor of an Airbnb. The collapse caused $15,000 of damage, which they started a GoFundMe to raise in order to pay back the owner.

Watch Young Nudy’s ‘Dr Ev4l’ video above.

Dr Ev4l is out now via RCA Records. Get it here.

Very few 12-year-olds get the chance to make history, but a pair of skateboarding phenoms may be headed to Tokyo this summer to do just that as two of the youngest-ever summer Olympians.

Kokona Hiraki and Sky Brown aren’t you’re typical skateboarders, nor are they your typical preteens. You don’t get to the Olympics at 12 by being ordinary. Both girls have qualified to compete in the first-ever Olympic skateboarding event, with Hiraki skating for Japan and Brown representing Great Britain. Both girls compete in the park skateboarding event, which involves doing tricks on skate park-style ramps and bowls. Street skateboarding, which involves tricks done on stairs, handrails, benches, walls and slopes, will also be making its debut as an Olympic sport.

Brown currently ranks as the third-best female park skateboarding competitor in the world at age 12 (though she’ll be 13 by the time she reaches Tokyo). Hiraki ranks sixth in the world. At age 12.

Did I mention they are 12 years old? TWELVE. Unreal.

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Hiraki will compete as the youngest Olympian ever from Japan. Five of the top ten ranking female park skaters, including the top two, are Japanese, so competition from the country is fierce. But Hiraki told The Japan Times she didn’t let nerves get the better of her at the qualifier.

“I was enjoying it just as usual,” she said. “I wasn’t as nervous as usual.”

Sky Brown would have been Britain’s youngest ever Olympian if the Olympics hadn’t been postponed by a year, but that year turned out to be a good thing for her chances to compete anyway. In June of 2020, Brown suffered horrifying injuries during a training fall in which she fractured her skull and broke her wrist and hand. The fact that she was able to recover, continue training, and then take home second place in the Olympic qualifier is truly something.

Brown doesn’t seem too fazed by any of her skating success or the pressures many athletes feel trying to get to the Olympics. “I’m always wonderfully surprised to see where it takes me,” she told ESPN. “So, I’m not too stressed about the Olympics. I just want to see what happens and enjoy the journey.”

Gracious, these babies and their cool-as-a-cucumber confidence.

Last year, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk told ESPN that Brown is “a unicorn” in the world of skating.

“She has incredible potential,” he said. “She could definitely be one of the best female skaters ever, if not one of the best, well-rounded skaters ever, regardless of gender. She has such confidence, such force, even at such a young age. The way she’s able to learn new tricks and the way she absorbs direction, it’s so rare.”

Whether they end up medaling or not, to qualify for the Olympics at 12 is extraordinary and their futures in the sport are incredibly bright. Go, girls, go.

In a world where the American justice system relies on artificial intelligence…

That’s the basic pitch for Class of ’09, a new limited suspense drama series starring Kate Mara (A Teacher, Pose) and Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta, The Eternals) that will air exclusively on FX on Hulu. The official synopsis, according to a press release from FX, is as follows:

In Class of ’09, a group of FBI agents who graduated from Quantico in 2009 are reunited following the death of a mutual friend. Spanning three decades and told across three interweaving timelines, the series examines the nature of justice, humanity and the choices we make that ultimately define our lives and our legacy.

Henry and Mara will play FBI agents Tayo Miller and Amy Poet, respectively. Miller, according to FX, is “one of the most brilliant and unorthodox agents ever to join the Bureau, a man who seeks not merely to make his mark on the institution but to remake it entirely” while Mara’s Poet is “a woman who never imagined joining the world of law enforcement and finds herself at the center of its most pivotal moment of transformation.”

The series, which has received an eight-episode order, boasts an impressive array of talent—both in front of and behind the camera—who have worked on other FX series. Tom Rob Smith, who wrote and executive produced The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, which earned 20 Emmy Award nominations, will fill the same roles on Class of ’09. Meanwhile, Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson will also serve as executive producers—the same role they’ve filled on American Crime Story and Pose.

In addition to busy film careers, both Mara and Henry are familiar faces on FX programs. In addition to the recent FX on Hulu hit A Teacher, Mara’s relationship with FX goes all the way back to Nip/Tuck; she has also appeared in Pose and American Horror Story. Henry, meanwhile, earned an Outstanding Supporting Actor Emmy nomination in 2018 for his role as Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles in FX’s Atlanta, which is getting ready to launch its third season.

No release date for Class of ’09 has been set.

(Via Variety)

Amid an ongoing battle with business executive Scooter Braun to get the rights her masters back, news arrived that Taylor Swift’s entire music catalog had been sold for $300 million last November. Swift was publicly upset about Braun effectively owning her work, claiming that she faced “incessant, manipulative bullying” at his hands for years. But now Braun is saying that Swift’s reaction is “not based on anything factual.”

When the news of the masters controversy broke, Swift said she was denied the opportunity to buy back her masters without a clause that would keep her tied to her old label. But now, Braun discussed his side of the story in a lengthy interview with Variety. The executive claims he approached Swift and offered to sell her catalog back to her, but her team “refused” the deal:

“I regret and it makes me sad that Taylor had that reaction to the deal. […] All of what happened has been very confusing and not based on anything factual. I don’t know what story she was told. I asked for her to sit down with me several times, but she refused. I offered to sell her the catalog back and went under NDA, but her team refused. It all seems very unfortunate. Open communication is important and can lead to understanding. She and I only met briefly three or four times in the past, and all our interactions were really friendly and kind. I find her to be an incredibly talented artist and wish her nothing but the best.”

Braun continued that he disagrees with being labeled a “bully” by Swift, who claimed both Braun and Big Machine Records’ Scott Borchetta were “controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them.” “The thing that struck me the worst is the word ‘bully,’” Braun said. “I’m firmly against anyone ever being bullied. I always try to lead with appreciation and understanding. The one thing I’m proudest of in that moment was that my artists and team stood by me. They know my character and my truth. That meant a lot to me. In the long run, I’m happy for my life’s work to be the legacy I leave behind.”

Swift is currently undergoing a massive campaign to re-record each of the six albums owned by Big Machine Records. So far, she’s released “Taylor’s version” of her Fearless album and has announced plans to re-release her Red album next.

Read Braun’s full conversation with Variety here.

The wheels keep turning in the surreal visual for Chattanooga rapper Isaiah Rashad‘s latest The House Is Burning single, “Headshots (4r Da Locals).” Opening with Isaiah participating in a support group called Agony Anonymous, the video — which is directed by Jack Begert and Mez Heirs — uses moody lighting and symbolic imagery to depict the cycles of depression and anxiety in which the rapper feels trapped. It’s also a not-so-subtle reference to his own recent stay at a rehab clinic earlier this year, which TDE’s Top Dawg got him into when he couldn’t finish the album.

Isaiah revealed the depths of his depression and struggle with substance abuse in a recent cover story for The Fader, telling Jeff Weiss about the time he wrecked Top Dawg’s car and had to get it fixed without his label boss knowing and how he spent most of his rap money buying “really expensive sandwiches.” A stay at Dana Point Rehab got him back on track, leading to him finishing The House Is Burning and restarting the hype train with his Duke Deuce-featuring single “Lay Wit Ya.” He was apparently so productive he wound up with more songs than he wanted, sharing “200/Warning” on social media, telling fans it didn’t make the cut. The album is set to release sometime soon.

Watch the “Headshots” video above.

Isaiah Rashad is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

WARNING: Spoilers for Loki will be found below.

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While “Lamentis,” the third episode of Loki, had the shortest runtime yet, it was definitely not short on critical reveals. In the final moments of the episode that forced Tom Hiddleston’s Loki variant and Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie (a maybe, maybe-not Loki variant herself) to work together to escape a doomed planet, Sylvie shares some very information about the Time Variance Authority that changes everything that Loki and the audience knew about the mysterious, all-powerful organization.

According to Sylvie, the employees of the TVA are also variants. This information flies in the face of what Loki was told during his orientation with Miss Minutes in Episode 2. The cartoon clock told him that all of the employees were created by the Time Keepers to protect the Sacred Timeline, but that is apparently not the case. As with all things Marvel, the “TVA employees secretly being variants theory” was bouncing around Reddit after last week’s episode thanks to Owen Wilson’s Agent Mobius sharing his seemingly random obsession with jet skis.

While Mobius love of the aquatic machine’s “beautiful union of form and function” sparked a tsunami of memes, it also had Marvel fans theorizing that Mobius was not willed into existence by the Time Keepers, but instead, was plucked from a timeline in the ’90s sometime near the birth of the jet ski. With Sylvie “confirming” that the TVA employees are variants (don’t forget she’s still considered a Loki variant, which includes his gift for lying), social media erupted with Mobius jet ski theories, and man, do people really want to see Owen Wilson crushing waves before Loki comes to an end.