Late one September night in Atlanta, Killer Mike picked me up frommy hotel in a black Chevy Silverado. He’s a heavyset man with a dense beard, alittle over six feet tall, thick and stocky and built like an offensivelineman. “For all my proclivities for thuggery, I am a typical middle-classdad,” he…

Omar Bustamante/FUSION Over the past few months, Mark has gotten fairly intimate with the feeling of paranoia. On August 18, his name appeared among millions of others outed as members of the adultery dating website Ashley Madison. Four months later, his wife still has no clue. He worries almost…

I recently caught a CityNews report in Toronto on medical cannabis dispensaries that left a very bad taste in my mouth. In the segment, the reporter visits about five medical cannabis dispensaries in the city “undercover”- later revealing their identity on film and confronting the front line workers…

Then One/WIRED Kevin Owocki woke up at 4am this morning with an idea. When someone visits a news site and their web browser uses an ad blocker, he thought, what if the site replaced ads with an invitation to donate a fraction of a bitcoin? Even in blocking its ads, readers could instantly contribute…

Every year, roughly 40,000 people die in Minnesota. For some, it’s weeks or months before anyone finds them. Meet the crew who comes in to clean up the mess. By Andy Mannix | December 3, 2015 MinnPost photo by Mike Dvorak Editor's note: This story contains graphic descriptions that may be unsuitable…

This story was originally published on December 8, 2015. Shortly thereafter, Craig Wright scrubbed much of his digital presence and disappeared for months—until May 2, 2016, when he publicly announced that he is the creator of Bitcoin. A monthlong Gizmodo investigation has uncovered compelling and…

We've seen a lot of aesthetic trends in the games industry that ape older graphical styles, from cel shading to the retro 8-bit look. The next one could well be the most surprising: a lo-res monochromatic black and white, with only patterns of differently-spaced dots to create the illusion of…

In recent weeks, we have sadly witnessed an endless amount of news, images and discourses on the Syrian refugee crisis. In fact, we all know it is not a new phenomenon. It is the new version of a story told for the thousandth time, which narrates the tale of those human beings who seek something…

It approaches again: the music industry’s annual memoriam of itself, in which thousands of music-industry luminaries (and just as many who’d like to think they are) lavish mucho pomp and drawn-out circumstance upon a set of artists basically nobody else agrees are the best of the year. 2016’s Grammy…

In 1995, a lucky stop sign in Pleasant City, a neighborhood in West Palm Beach, found itself draped in a drool-repellent Skyywalker Records varsity jacket. Estimated hang time: seconds. I imagine some kid on a bike squeaking off in a flash of satin green, with a dancing bass cloud stitched to his…

The provocative album art that defined an era In 2001 , I went to an exhibit of record album art at a gallery in New York. The walls were papered from floor to ceiling with covers of every description. The crowd was enthralled, pointing at familiar pop stars, reminiscing about where they were when…

How music’s biggest stars defy categorization — and challenge the industry to keep up By Steven J. Horowitz N ext year could mark a memorable shift for the GRAMMY Awards. As the Dec. 7 announcement for the ceremony’s nominations loom closer, it’s increasingly evident that the notion of genres and…

Late October '14 I woke up driving an eighteen-wheeler 60 miles per hour through a field east of Amarillo, Texas. My partner was screaming as he bounced around in the back; he had just woken up, too. Everything in the truck rattled and shook. Baggage rained down on me from the upper bunk. The view a…

I t is a bleak time for the Republic. It is a period of great struggle for the entire planet, and not only is the dark side winning, it’s no longer clear any other side even exists. Seriously, you guys – Earth is messed up. Just ask a polar bear, or an almond farmer, or a GOP debate moderator. Or…

exclusive In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, the adult-film superstar, who stands accused of sexual assault by nine women, opens up about the allegations against him. exclusive Kurt Krieger/Corbis After a lengthy back-and-forth with James Deen’s publicist and lawyer, the embattled porn…

Street life near the Capital building, Havana, Dec. 22, 2014. Photo by Michael Christopher Brown/Magnum Photos Back in April, at the Nasdaq marketplace in Times Square, a few hundred interested parties gathered for a daylong conference. It was labeled the “Cuba Opportunity Summit: High-Velocity…

Welles causes endless trouble because of his unstable place in the American cultural hierarchy of high and low. Photograph by Skrebneski The most popular Orson Welles video on YouTube, edging out the trailer for “Citizen Kane” and “The War of the Worlds” broadcast of 1938, is called “Orson Welles…

Omar Bustamante/FUSION Along with the ability to hail a ride from our phones, the app era has pioneered a great cultural shift, a mass willingness to, say, let a stranger spend the night in our homes or meet up with a cute random guy after just a few texts. But our newfound propensity for trusting…

Spike Lee and rappers from Chicago's drill scene—who helped coin the term that became the movie's title—state their cases On a recent afternoon, Spike Lee sits in a Waldorf Astoria hotel suite overlooking Chicago’s posh Gold Coast neighborhood. Clad in a trendy green vest with a black beret…

Photograph by Bruce Weber. Off on the Road to Morocco Bill Murray and I ride the dark highway between Fez and Rabat. We are on Murray’s “party bus,” rented for himself and two of his sons for a seven-week shoot in Morocco for a movie we’re working on, Rock the Kasbah. The bus’s Kool Aid-blue disco…

R. Kelly is a musical genius — and he’s been accused of some awful things. Photo: Bobby Doherty The R.Kelly Problem He’s a musical genius — and he’sbeen accused ofsome awful things.Is it okayto listen to him? Photograph by Bobby Doherty R. Kelly whirls around, straining to look out his car’s rear…

Finland’s government is drawing up plans to pay every citizen a basic income of euros 800 ($1,165) each month, scrapping benefits altogether. Under proposals drafted by the Finnish Social Insurance Institution (Kela), the tax-free payments would replace all other benefit payments, and would be paid…

Kayla Newman started her Vine account to record herself commenting on the minutia and mundanity of high school life. This was nearly two years ago, when she was 16. For her handle, Newman chose a nickname made up during an annual visit to her grandmother in Georgia: “Peaches Monroee.” She added the…

When Ducky Doolittle opens a package, she unloads the contents and asks herself: How many ways can I fuck this thing? It's a question she has to answer pretty regularly, as the main buyer for Komar , a wholesale sex toy distributor. She's trying to calculate what she calls "orgasms per dollar"—the…

Ricky Gervais recently took a break from Twitter flame wars about atheism in order to address the “strange myth” that he leans heavily on antagonism in his act. As Gervais (correctly) recalls, he did not transgress any of the written rules of civilized society while hosting the Golden Globe Awards…

We need to talk about the ever increasing number of men like James Deen who utilize feminism as a marketable identity to cover up their abusive behavior. ETA: As of November 29th, Tori Lux has now also come out with a statement of her own experience of assault from Deen . Also notable is this older…

Why women want to believe Our Dudes are the exception Illustration by Nicole Rifkin A ny woman can spot an anonymous misogynist. A man might flick his tongue as we pass on the sidewalk, or sprawl all over a seat on the bus when we’re carrying three bags. He might jerk off in front of us or be that…

A few months ago, a friend told a juicy story about another friend’s hookup with a male pop star. “She said she was on her period, and he said he was into it. Like, it’s his thing. ” The story involved period blood all over the musician’s face and the menstrual version of a shit-eating grin. “ Ewwww…

The comedian Jim Gaffigan shares a two-bedroom apartment in New York City with his wife, Jeannie, and five children. If that sounds like the start of a joke, it’s because his TV Land comedy series, “The Jim Gaffigan Show,” is loosely based on his life and informs much of his standup act. “I love…

I can’t stand Elmo, just can’t deal with this damn Muppet anymore. He’s cute, he’s shrill, and he has made Sesame Street worse. Originally posted December 6, 2015. I write this knowing that many people love Elmo, but Sesame Street ’s most-marketed character is an over-exposed drag. He has managed,…

Performers and a former employee say that Kink.com has a worker safety problem. Another performer says it's "the safest place to make a BDSM porn." Afp / AFP / Getty Images When Kink.com severed ties with adult film star James Deen, the company’s disavowal was swift and unwavering . Two days after…

There are twelve of us left. The first thing the prosecutor did during voir dire was ask all the men of color whether we trusted cops. Every black man had a story: police harassment, spurious arrests, intimidation. They were all eliminated. I was asked if I had any experiences of this kind, and I…

HitFix’s Drew McWeeny has a from a Los Angeles press screening of “ The Hateful Eight ” in Quentin Tarantino ’s preferred medium of 70mm film went horribly awry: “From the moment the film began with the OVERTURE card depicting a horse-drawn carriage riding through snow in front of a stylized…

Written by Harry Allen What is People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm — A Tribe Called Quest’s debut album — about? That is, all art is about something. There is always an element, or energy, with which its creator — or creators, in this case: Jarobi White, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Phife…

The old adage dictates that money can’t buy happiness, but anyone without money can say with all certainty that it sure makes it a hell of a lot easier. That saying is predicated on two core assumptions, both of which Steven Soderbergh’s 2009 film The Girlfriend Experience effectively overturns. The…

Way back in 2014 when President Obama announced that U.S. relations with Cuba would be normalized, I knew I had to make a move. While “tourist” travel is still prohibited, 12 new options became available in January 2015. So, I went with my girlfriend. Upon returning we’ve been inundated with…

Since this story appeared in Vogue’s December 2015 issue, there have been 17 mass shootings in America , including the June 2016 rampage at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people, and the shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas strip on October 1, 2017, where…

Throughout my working life as a web programmer I have always hadaccess to cheap or free databases. Databases are specialized software forcreating, storing, managing, and analyzing data. Data is just stuff, or rather,structured stuff: The cells of a spreadsheet, the structure of a Word…