You might think that Ed Sheeran would take it easy now that his second studio album, x (pronounced “multiply”), has been released. You know, kick back, stare at a couple of Drake-inspired needlepoints hand-stitched by BFF Taylor Swift — the yooj. But you’d be wrong.

In lieu of relaxation, the “Sing” crooner is celebrating his LP release by landing the cover of VIBE‘s Summer 2014 issue alongside his fellow “Soul Brothers” Mack Wilds and August Alsina. Ed Instagrammed the cover, captioning: “Happy to be [the] first British dude on the cover of Vibe magazine. Issue out next week.” I think I speak for everyone when I say: Pip pip.

VIBE via Instagram

VIBE‘s Music Editor, John Kennedy, even goes so far as to say that Ed and his fellow cover dudes “represent for the future of R&B.” As if the Brit didn’t have enough to celebrate today!

Now, let’s get this party started. Bring out the Muppets and strippers! It’s about to get weird up in here.

John Walker

It’s a good thing A Day To Remember waited a week to release their new video for “End Of Me.” Otherwise it might’ve made for some seriously awkward Father’s Day discussions.

The video, directed by Shane Drake (Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco), is a rather bleak meditation on the relationship between a teenage boy and his indifferent, emotionally distant father, which reminds me, I’ve got to go think about some things for a while, I’ll be right back. :(

Anyway! Right, the video. We follow the boy as he labors to scrub a staircase clean like the cutest little metalcore Cinderella, and picks up after his regularly passed out father. An older sister packs her bags and gets out, something the boy can’t do. Instead he’s trapped in the prison of his own home, a point that’s made pretty clear by his scratching X’s on the walls and freaking out. As the slowly unfolding power-ballad screeches to its inevitable crescendo, the boy takes out his building frustration on his room with a baseball bat.

“You know me all too well/ And I can’t suppress the memories,” Jeremy McKinnon sings, kind of making me miss the goofy, slapstick sense of humor the band showed off in their last video from Common Courtesy, “Right Back At It Again.” Then again, we’ve always known these guys have enough heart to reveal their softer side and tackle the serious stuff, too.

A Day To Remember kick off ...

Kevin Hart is your new box office king.

Well, not really new: he’s been the box office king for all of 2014, from when “Ride Along” dominated the box office for weeks starting in January, and then when “About Last Night” overperformed on its opening weekend.

It should’ve come as no surprise to hear that “Think Like a Man Too” was number one at the box office this past weekend, earning upwards of $30 million* on a budget a third of that, playing on thousands of fewer screens than runner-ups “22 Jump Street,” “How To Train Your Dragon” and “Jersey Boys.”

There are a few reasons “Think” did so well, all of which would be worthy of, er, think pieces: mainly that it targeted an African-American audience that is largely ignored by Hollywood; and it featured a diverse cast with crossover appeal.

But the three main reasons the movie dominated? Kevin Hart, Kevin Hart and Kevin Hart.

Hart has been giving the moniker as the hardest working man in show business, and it’s not hard to see why. He’s already starred in three movies in 2014, and his IMDB page lists seven additional future.

Getty Images

The fact is, Kevin Hart’s movies are successes now because he’s a movie star.

Don’t believe me? Let’s look at the numbers. Hart’s last three films have all made at least four times their budget back. “Ride Along” made $125 million ...

It looks like Lana Del Rey isn’t the only person displeased with how her recent interview with The Guardian turned out. Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of Courtney Love and late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, has taken issue with the “Shades Of Cool” singer’s much-publicized “I wish I were dead” comments.

In a series of tweets posted late Sunday night, the 21-year-old expressed her disappointment with Del Rey for romanticizing “the death of young musicians,” invoking her father’s suicide in 1994 to get her point across. Perhaps to keep the more easily agitated Twitter users at bay, Cobain concluded that she was not attacking the singer, who she finds “too talented to waste it away.”

Although Lana has yet to respond to Frances Bean’s tweets, the singer — who celebrated her 28th birthday over the weekend — has since distanced herself from the Guardian article, claiming that interviewer Tim Jonze’s “leading questions about death and persona were calculated” in a series of since-deleted tweets.

In response, Jonze posted a two-minute recording of the section of the Del Rey interview in question, adding that: “Ultimately, the problem with Lana’s complaint is that she doesn’t seem to know what she’s actually complaining about … She’s not alleging that I made up her quotes, nor is she claiming that they’ve been ‘twisted’ or that we’ve printed them out of context.”

John ...

Jun 23, 2014 | No Comments on Frances Bean Cobain To Lana Del Rey: Don’t ‘Romanticize’ The ‘Death Of Young Musicians’

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Don’t even bother trying to understand Azealia Banks’ reasoning. The Harlem rapper has become notorious for feuding with other artists (for no legitimate reason), and after she spent last week hurling insults at T.I. and his family, now she’s praising Lana Del Rey and Kesha. What?

On Sunday, Banks was probably browsing Spotify, or her iTunes library, because she started to tweet about both singers. First she wrote, “Ultraviolence is amazing. I love Lana,” and then added, “I really like ke$ha. She lives in her truth.”

Now, we’d like to point out that Lana Del Rey’s authenticity has been questioned over and over again, since she emerged in the spotlight, and yet she’s the artist that Banks is in love with? Maybe Azealia Banks just has a really soft spot for pop stars?

(T.I. on Azealia Banks’ hating ways)

Nadeska Alexis

A native of Grenada, a product of Brooklyn, a student of hip-hop. Hi, I'm @neweryork.

The “Age of Extinction” is nearly upon us.

Michael Bay’s fourth “Transformers” film hits theaters this weekend, bringing with it all of the ferocity of a badly injured Autobot with his back against the wall. (Something we definitely see on more than one occasion in “Age of Extinction,” by the way.)

If you’ve seen the previous “Transformers” movies, chances are you already know whether or not you’ll be checking out the latest installment on the big-screen. In case you’re on the fence, here are seven reasons to push you over on why you should check out “Transformers: Age of Extinction.”

1. It’s Almost Three Hours of Pure Bayhem
If it’s Bay’s unique method of madness you’re looking for, it’s Bay’s unique method of madness you’re going to get. The film clocks in at around two hours and 45 minutes, an astonishing runtime that’s likely to turn off some moviegoers, and excite others. Moviegoers itching to see nonstop explosions and slow-motion action are definitely getting their money’s worth when they pay to see a three-hour “Transformers.”

2. There’s Nonstop Robot on Robot Action
There’s very little filler in “Age of Extinction,” with a handful of scenes focusing on fleshing out the human heroes played by Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor. They’re important to the story, but the show belongs to Optimus Prime, his allies and their enemies. The movie features no fewer than three absolutely massive action set pieces, and that’s not counting the smaller skirmishes in between. The robot-on-robot ...

“Guardians of the Galaxy” is finally almost here. Soon we’re not going to have to listen to “Hooked on a Feeling” or “Spirit in the Sky” longingly, hoping that someday we’ll get to see Marvel Studios’ first space epic.

Now that we’re almost a month away from “Guardians,” Empire is rolling out their big cover story on the film, complete with two different covers: one featuring the ragtag band of heroes and another featuring their outer space adversaries.

The baddie variant is especially cool since it offers out best look yet at Ronan the Accuser, played by a heavily made-up Lee Pace.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” opens in theaters on August 1.

Kevin P. Sullivan

Demi Lovato, will you be our life coach? If she ever gives up her day/night job (Demi, please don’t do that!), she’d make an excellent one. After all, she’s written “Staying Strong,” a book of inspirational quotes, and as August’s Seventeen Guest Editor, she doles out sage advice and opens up about what she’s learned after checking herself into rehab in 2010. Beyond coming to the realization that confidence doesn’t come from what other people think (and that includes boys), but from within, Demi shares the importance of friendship and how to overcome obstacles.

“I tell myself five things that I’m grateful for, for every negative thing that I think,” Demi said, explaining her personal confidence boosters. On supporting friends’ confidence, she added, “Another cool thing girls can do: You know how people have swear jars, where if you swear you have to put a dollar in a jar? You could do that with feeling insecure — every time a friend says something bad about themselves, they have to put a dollar in a jar. [And then] you can donate it to charity.”

You know how they say you can tell a lot about someone by who they choose as friends? Demi shared what she’s learned about surrounding yourself with good people: “I like to have friends in my life who believe they’re going places and are working towards their dreams. When you’re growing and the people around you aren’t, That’s when you ...

We’ve long since learned that characters like Woody and Wall-E and Remy the rat are capable of teaching us far more about how to care about another person (or robot, or soup) than their actual human counterparts. You don’t need two legs and manual dexterity to tell an amazing story, and if anything, eliminating the human condition from the equation can actually give your story more freedom to explore some really cool issues, without the harsh constraints of reality. (Did you ever think that one of the best and darkest looks at love, loss, and impermanence would come from “Toy Story 3?” No, no you did not.)

But back in 1989, before “The Lion King” or “Toy Story” or even “The Little Mermaid” (by a few months) were around to show us that movies about anthropomorphic creatures could actually be just as effective for adults as they were for children, there was only “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” Actually, to be specific, there was only Antie the impossibly heroic ant from “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.”

Buena Vista Pictures

We knew straight off the bat that Antie wasn’t going to be your run of the mill bug. The rest of the mindless drones in his backyard colony spent their time ruining picnics and sucking up to their elusive queen, but not Antie. Antie wanted more. Antie wanted bigger.

And for a very brief time, he got it. When a group of hapless, unfortunately tiny children exploded onto the scene, Antie ...

When you get a case of the munchies, do you raid the fridge for foie gras? Do you know what foie gras is? Not to worry, it’s irrelevant.

Conceived by resident MTV jokester Rob Dyrdek, the network’s new cooking competition series, “Snack-Off,” will feature munchie aficionados facing off to determine who can whip up the most memorable dish using random kitchen ingredients like fish sticks, canned oysters, chocolate and much more. As host and chef Eddie Huang puts it in the trailer below, this show is for “dumpster divers and fridge forgers.”

Huang will mentor the contestants throughout a series of snack-inspired challenges, while the playful judge’s panel — model and foodie Chrissy Teigen, chef Jason Quinn and stand-up comedian Yassir Lester — will decide the cheftestants’ fate each week. By the looks of it, some of the plates will be a hit with the trio. Others, not so much.

So what are these guys and gals playing for? A cash prize, their recipe published in the “Snack-Off” cookbook and the highly coveted golden spork necklace! Yep, it’s gonna get ugly.

Catch a first look at “Snack-Off,” and be sure to bring your appetite when the show premieres Thursday, July 10 at 10:30/9:30c!

Jordana Ossad