OVERWORLD:
-Saving the world with fuckable AI.-

ONE BETWEEN:
- Can the WNBA make money?-

THE DEPTHS:
-Remembering Nas’ Illmatic, 30 years later.-

“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.”
— Fyodor Dostoevsky

✦TREND PICKS✦

▶️ YouTube:
SALIMATA - u kno who u are (feat. MIKE)

👽 Reddit:
Human skull with stage 1 bone cancer

✖️ X:
Steve Jobs on how to resolve conflict.

❓
Random 

Tech

This guy says he’s saving the world by creating fuckable AI.

“Existing toys for men are dead, limp, flaccid, gay,” Bryan (last name unknown) told Sam Cole of 404Media.

"... Nobody has had the balls to make a sex toy, for men, that isn't a total piece of shit, until now.”

Bryan is the inventor of the Orifice, a translucent, blue-glowing, toaster-esque, fuck box powered by AI.

Using computer vision, an LLM (large language model, ex. ChatGPT), and generative moaning, it's supposed to transform modern male pleasure completely.

It's equipped with computer vision and generative moaning. So, inserting a finger, or an incel loser cock in the Orifice makes it spew AI dirty-talk.

And of course, it's political. According to Bryan, the Orifice will "save the world."

As Sam Cole notes, Bryan bases this on a long-standing incel pro-natalist ideology - any sex outside of procreation must be forbidden, because it doesn't contribute to society.

When men pleasure themselves with the Orifice instead, human intercourse becomes about productivity, not pleasure. Thus, Bryan has averted the worldwide population decline threat.

"When men stop seeking non-reproductive sex from human women, it's going to lead to an increase in reproductive sex. And it's going to save the world,” Bryan says.

✦The insane advertising✦

In a viral ad for Orifice, an AI-generated girl sits on a bed, her appearance changing every time an off-screen male voice says “no”.

Finally, a blue-haired girl is generated - the video quickly snaps to a hand opening up the Orifice. Fade to black. Tagline: "Now you get to swipe left."

Here’s the video:

It’s hard to tell whether Bryan is positioning his project like this to go viral, or if it’s his actual belief. Chickens and eggs, you know?

Whichever it is, he's directing giant traffic to himself. His promo video has 25 million views in a week on X - and it keeps growing

Some people are hailing him as a hero of the realists, while others see nothing but a technologically literate psychopath.

According to Sam Cole, Bryan has gotten 50 death threats so far.

This Overworld piece was based on this fantastic 404Media article.

✦QUICK HITS✦

Michael Saylor, founder of MicroStrategy and a Bitcoin maxi, sold 370,000 of Micro Strategy shares for $372.7 million under a pre-set trading plan. There’s two camps responding to this: 1) He knows something, sell your shares. 2) This is part of his pre-decided program, nothing unusual.

Tesla halted all Cybertruck deliveries and recalled all trucks after a viral video showed how the accelerator pad could get stuck in full throttle. Yikes.

This guy bought 300 emoji domain names from Kazakhstan and built an email service so people can have emojis in their emails.

Apple removed apps like WhatsApp from its China Store on government orders, citing security concerns, escalating U.S.-China tech tensions amid new legislation against TikTok.

Sick ass album: Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee (2024). It recently got a 9.1 from Pitchfork. Cindy Lee is the alter ego of Patrick Flegel, former Women frontman. The project is unavailable on streaming, and only listenable on YouTube unless you buy it. Rare.

Netflix is very healthy. Its Q1 report showed them adding 9.3 million subscribers to what is now 269.6 million global subscribers. Also, $9.4 billion in revenue and $2.6 billion in operating income. Sweet.

O.J. Simpson’s legendary white Ford Bronco which he used in his televised police chase might get sold. The vehicle's three owners are considering selling it due to heightened interest after his death, targeting a minimum of $1.5 million. Fun fact: 95 million people watched the O.J. Simpson chase on live TV.

Watch: Never seen before footage of an army of baby penguins jumping off a cliff into water

For developers: Programming Is Mostly Thinking

Read: Why Everything Is Becoming A Game

⛹🏻‍♀️ Can the WNBA make money?
Ladies playing with balls is historically a winning concept. It just took a while for WNBA to capitalize on that.

With last week’s drafts pulling 2.4 million viewers, a 307% increase from last year, and Indiana Fever’s No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark, prices are fucking soaring. Still, the WNBA is actually not making that much money.

Exhibit A: Clark is a scolding hot star, her popularity got her on SNL, got her deals with Nike, and a sick ass Prada look on the orange carpet. Despite all of this, Clark’s starting salary is a modest $76,535/year.

This discrepancy proves the persistent financial challenges within women's sports: there’s not enough money. The WNBA generates $200 million annually compared to the NBA's $10 billion.

So despite the 307% viewership increase, issues of funding and recognition in women's sports aren’t that leveled up. Would be sick to see these ladies make 100s of Ms, though.

THE DEPTHS

Music

Remembering Nas’ Illmatic, 30 years later.

Last Friday, April 19 2024, marked three decades since Nas dropped his debut album Illmatic. And that is really, really important.

For 30 years, Illmatic has stood as a hip-hop monument. Today, any and every new hip-hop release is a statement relative to Illmatic. Did a newcomer pay homage to the school of Nas, neglect it, or reimagine it?

For years, both scholars and enthusiasts have tried to pinpoint and put words on exactly what made it so iconic. And honestly, there’s a rainbow spectra of reasons - some logical, and some inexplicably emotional.

A logical reason would be timing: Illmatic came about during the golden era of hip-hop, from 1988 to 1996. At the time, hip-hop wasn’t the biggest genre out there, but it had matured and gained new-found mainstream appeal.

That meant big commercial success, diverse styles, international reach, and an influx of skilled rappers and producers who had grown up with hip-hop.

And so, Illmatic came through in a hip-hop landscape that was contemplative of not only its past, but its future.

And almost as a symbol of hip-hop’s self-reflective in-between point was Illmatic; groundbreaking, yet timeless, an underdog and a giant - just like hip-hop.

An emotional reason would be sound: Illmatic’s production pioneered a modern norm - a different producer for every track.

This was hugely different from the Quincy Jones, Steve Albini-style method of one dude producing a whole record. Instead, Illmatic brings together a curation of producers like DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and Q-Tip.

The result was dynamics unlike any other record at the time - not only in the emotion of the tracks, but in the texture of the production.

Moreover, Nas' rapping is freakishly good. On the record, he comes a painter of grimy, realistic landscape portraits of his home of Queensbridge, New York. He’s a sort of hodge-podge of Kool G Rap, Rakim, the Last Poets, and William Shakespeare.

It was unique then, and it’s unique today.

If an album like that were to come out today, everybody would know about it instantly (labels would make sure of it). Virality comes hand in hand with influence these days. It’d bounce all across TikTok sounds and be served on a silver plate à la the algorithm.

Illmatic's 1994 release tells us of a time that wasn't so. Sure, it was critically acclaimed in music circles. But it totally flew under the mainstream’s line of sight.

It came out quietly, with close to no significant media buzz and just a few thousand copies sold - a total slow burn.

By the time it became a platinum record, Nas' second album It Was Written had already been platinum for several years.

But the status compounded, and the album’s influence has soared over the decades, culminating in its induction into the Library of Congress.

Over the years, Illmatic has transcended the sound experience. It's a culture in and of itself, celebrated with remixes, documentaries, and live performances.

Now, in 2024, a slow burn is a detriment. To have any type of considered significance you have to go from 0 to 100 in days. Was it really a hip-hop classic if it didn't sell 250,000 copies in the first week?

Sadly, we rarely give hip-hop the luxury of marinating into the cultural time fabric anymore. Perhaps we're neglecting an Illmatic-tier release as we speak.