Month: July 2021

This article originally appeared on 01.20.16

Privilege can be a hard thing to talk about.

Oftentimes, when it’s implied or stated that someone is “privileged,” they can feel defensive or upset. They may have worked very hard for what they have accomplished and they may have overcome many obstacles to accomplish it. And the word “privilege” can make a person feel as though that work is being diminished.

The key point about privilege, though, is that it doesn’t mean that a person was raised by wealthy parents, had everything handed to them, and didn’t have to do much other than show up.

---

Privilege means that some of us have advantages over others for any number of reasons we don’t control — like who we are, where we come from, the color of our skin, or certain things that have happened in our lives.

Even when things haven’t come easy for some people, they can still have privileges that others don’t have.

Illustrator Toby Morris did some thinking about the concept of inequality and privilege, and he found one major problem.

He did a lot of research to learn about it, but as he started to really understand privilege, he found that a lot of the information about privilege felt very academic and technical. He felt it was important to “talk about this heavy stuff in a really simple and clear way,” Morris explained to me in an email interview.

That’s what led him to create and illustrate this incredible comic on privilege for the The Wireless.

He did an amazing job. Check it out:

This comic is property of The Wireless, where it originally appeared. It’s shared here with permission.

This is a great way to explain privilege to someone who’s having a hard time understanding — or someone who doesn’t want to recognize it.

“Comics are very human and accessible — they’re non-threatening and quite inviting to a reader,” Morris said. “It’s a lot less daunting than picking up a giant book or trying to decipher a really long or really dense article.”

True story.

Make no mistake: Morris isn’t taking away from hard work in his comic.

“I’m not trying to say I’m against that idea that if we work hard, we succeed,” he said. “I would like to think that is true, for the most part, but I just think people often forget or don’t realise that our starting points, or our paths to success, aren’t all even. Some people have to overcome more obstacles in the path to succeeding than others.“

He was also quick to point out that this isn’t about anyone needing to feel bad or guilty for the privileges that they have, but rather it’s about honesty and understanding — because maybe that’s what could lead us to a better place.

“Acknowledging the issue is one step towards addressing it hopefully,” he said.

Ultimately, success — or lack thereof — can be about hard work and other factors, some of which are beyond our control.

A lot of people have been able to relate to this comic — both sides of it — and have reached out to Morris to share.

“Personally, I’ve grown up somewhere in the middle,” he said. Because his dad was in the army, Morris moved around a lot as a kid. “I experienced a lot of different neighbourhoods and schools and friendship groups — some well off, some not so much — and that experience lead me to this belief that ultimately people are all pretty similar wherever you go, we just don’t all have the same chances in life.”

Kanye West fans were excited this week by sparse footage emerging from a recent listening event for his new album during which he revealed some of the guests for the album. According to attendees and one clip that surfaced on Twitter and Instagram, the features include usual Kanye collaborators like Travis Scott and Ty Dolla Sign and newcomers like Baby Keem in addition to the previously rumored Tyler The Creator.

However, one name fans won’t find on that list is Lil Durk, who was apparently invited to the recording sessions but was unable to attend — at least, that’s the inference from Durk’s comment on a post about the listening sessions on Instagram. Replying to a post featuring a screenshot of comedian Justin LaBoy’s recap tweet of the event, Durk expressed his regretful reason for not being on the album: “I missed the jet.” However, he also expressed hope for the future, writing, “Well next album.”

Durk, who looked up to Kanye as a fellow Chicagoan, paid homage to the hometown hero in the video for “Kanye Krazy” from his recent album The Voice, recreating some of Kanye’s own videos like “I Love It” and “Bound 2.” Meanwhile, fans who missed out on the Las Vegas listening event will get another chance at it, provided they can get to Atlanta by Thursday. He’s holding another event there at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but he has yet to announce a new release date after pushing it back multiple times.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have appeared in the same movie multiple times, most recently 2019’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, but Good Will Hunting was the only screenplay they wrote together, Oscar-winning or otherwise, until The Last Duel.

Based on author Eric Jager’s novel The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France and directed by Ridley Scott, the historical drama stars Damon as Jean de Carrouges, a knight whose wife Marguerite (Killing Eve great Jodie Comer) has accused squire Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) of rape. Affleck has a supporting role as Count Pierre d’Alençon. The Last Duel is Scott’s most Gladiator-looking film since, well, Gladiator. That worked out pretty well for him, and the combined efforts of Affleck and Damon writing the screenplay with Academy Award nominee Nicole Holofcener (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) could lead to more Oscar glory.

Here’s more on the book that the movie is based on:

Based on extensive research in Normandy and Paris, The Last Duel brings to life a colorful, turbulent age and three unforgettable characters caught in a fatal triangle of crime, scandal, and revenge. The Last Duel is at once a moving human drama, a captivating true crime story, and an engrossing work of historical intrigue with themes that echo powerfully centuries later.

The Last Duel opens on October 15.

Clairo recently declared that she won’t tour unless she’s able to have additional security at her shows to keep her audience safe. Well, she got that security, because Clairo announced a 2022 North American tour today that will stretch from February to April.

Press materials note of the tour, “Clairo has partnered with SafeTour and Calling All Crows to provide a safe and harassment-free concert experience. Clairo is integrating a dedicated representative from Calling All Crows into her touring team who will respond to requests for support through a text helpline and proactive canvassing of each concert, and provide messaging and educational support so that attendees can take part in making these shows and their own communities safer. Together, SafeTour and Calling All Crows will provide sexual harassment prevention and response training to the full band, crew, and interested venue staff to create safe and inclusive environment on the road.”

Clairo also said, “Now that shows are starting to come back into our everyday lives, it’s important to prioritize everyone’s experience to the fullest. Everyone deserves a resource and everyone deserves to enjoy the show in peace. I want the audience to know that there is someone who will listen and believe them at every show”

Check out the full list of tour dates below. All dates are with Arlo Parks and Widowspeak except for the final three, which will only feature Widowspeak.

02/16/2022 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore
02/17/2022 — Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
02/19/2022 — Washington, D.C @ The Fillmore Silver Spring
02/22/2022 — Richmond, VA @ The National
02/24/2022 — New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
02/26/2022 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
02/27/2022 — Boston, MA @ House Of Blues
03/02/2022 — Montreal, QC @ Mtelus
03/04/2022 — Toronto, ON @ History
03/07/2022 — Cleveland, OH @ Agora Ballroom
03/08/2022 — Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore
03/10/2022 — Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre
03/18/2022 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore
03/20/2022 — Denver, CO @ The Fillmore
03/23/2022 — Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
03/25/2022 — Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Hall
03/28/2022 — Vancouver, BC @ The Orpheum
03/30/2022 — San Francisco, CA @
03/31/2022 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
04/02/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre
04/03/2022 — Anaheim, CA @ House Of Blues
04/05/2022 — Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre
04/07/2022 — Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom
04/09/2022 — Austin, TX @ ACL @ Moody Theater
04/10/2022 — Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center (fka Revention)
04/13/2022 — Miami, FL @ The Fillmore Miami Beach
04/14/2022 — Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live
04/16/2022 — Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

The scrutiny that young women — hell, all women – face within the music industry is well-documented. With “Blouse,” the sole single released from her sophomore album, Sling, Clairo adds her own grievances to that lengthy petition. Movements like #MeToo and an increased emphasis on diversity and equality have reflected a more public longing for a cultural shift, but not much has budged. Perhaps it’s young women who are the most shocked by how little the status quo of sexism and misogyny seems to change, despite lip service to the contrary. Older generations have grown weary, or wiser, in the fight. Or, simply absconded away from the unsafe offices of leering executives, opting to pursue a different kind of life. On Sling, Clairo is both weary and absconding — both suit her incredibly well.

At 22, Claire Cottrill is still young, two years younger than her frequently-cited peer and now collaborator, Lorde, though the two women share the unsettling-but-coveted experience of teenage stardom. “What this industry does a lot is drain young women of everything until they’re not youthful any more,” Cottrill remarked to The Guardian in one of her few interviews in support of her second album as Clairo. She prefaces that thought with the implied premise: “‘There’s a lot more that we can squeeze out of her before she’s done.’” Within that context, it’s not surprising that a famous teen — crowned the next big indie star, then immediately torn down for her father’s corporate connections — would eventually fantasize about a life of rural domesticity. Committing to care for herself and others is a way of reclaiming a connection to the joy of youth, a respite from the calculating prurience of record labels. Isn’t the mother the dichotomous opposite of the whore?

For Sling, the would-be pop star has turned to the piano palette of Randy Newman, Jackson Browne, and Carole King, as a late 2020 King/Browne cover hinted, employing honeyed ‘70s melancholia to chronicle her own shift from glum dorm-room phenom to the splendid isolation of a listless twenty-something. Except Clairo found meaningful companionship in the meantime, not just in best friends and sometimes bandmates of Claud and Josh Mehling, but in caring for an adopted rescue dog, Joanie. Even the album artwork centers this caretaker relationship, with Claire gazing down, a latent paw indicating Joanie’s presence. Over what could be a Billy Joel piano riff, Cottrill harmonizes with herself on her dog’s namesake tune, foregoing lyrics for the sake of the melody’s own storytelling. It’s a playful, off-the-wall kind of track, and an indication of just how different this record is from her stark, shimmering 2019 debut, Immunity. (Rostam wouldn’t have let this fly, but Antonoff loves a scribble — the emotional resonance the song shares with Chemtrails is striking.)

After a year spent in lockdown with her family, Cottrill understandably made changes to the architecture of her personal life, committing to care for Joanie, and opting to split time between a Brooklyn apartment and renovating her newly-purchased house on a five-acre plot in a tiny Massachusetts town. That house, along with the remote mountaintop location of Allaire Studios in upstate New York where the album was recorded under Antonoff’s wing, seems to animate the atmosphere of Sling as much as any lived experiences. In interviews, Clairo talks of encountering her mother’s memories of life prior to the roles of wife and mom, an experience that thrust this era of her own life into stark relief: Is pre-motherhood Claire simply a chapter her own daughter will forget to imagine for a few decades? The gentle, Lorde-featuring “Reaper” gets into this thought pattern with even more depth: “I keep forgetting that I’ll have a family,” and “I’m born to be somebody, then somebody comes from me.” This, too, is armor against the youth-draining objectification her time spent on stage hammered home.

Even the album’s name isn’t taken from the more familiar slingshot, but the cloth wrap that a parent uses to nestle a newborn, a subtle shift that recasts the tone of the songwriting. “I could wake up with a baby in a sling,” she sings on the uneven “Zinnias,” painting the picture further: “Just a couple doors down from Abigail / My sister, man and her ring.” It’s not a far-off dream, but one that resonates because of its simplicity, and the perceived distance from rooms where stories like the one told on “Blouse” take place. In that way, Sling is a document of the distance between what Clairo’s life has been, and what she’d like it to be. Sans any features, aside from backing vocals from Lorde on two songs, the record is a singular document in our current collaborative environment. If there’s one area where Clairo doesn’t need any help, it’s in knowing what to say. Her strength has been and continues to be translating the ennuis of her generation into songs that make sense to people of all ages. These songs are piano ballads, but they’re also quietly ambitious, a memento of her life as it is now — more than enough, until another chapter unfolds.

Sling is out now via Fader Label/Republic Records. Get it here.

A few weeks back, HER announced another edition of her personally curated Lights On Festival in Concord, California, happening over two consecutive days in September. (The first Lights On went down in 2019, if you’ll recall.) Now, Lights On is making its way to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center the following month.

Also curated by the Grammy-winning performer, the East Coast iteration of Lights On also goes down on two consecutive days — October 21 and 22 — and features performances from HER (and friends), plus R&B favorites Maxwell, 6lack, Bryson Tiller, Ari Lennox, SWV, Queen Naija, Lucky Daye, Chloe Bailey (of Chloe x Halle), Blxst, Victoria Monet, Skip Marley, Joyce Wrice, and Tone Stilth, with more to be announced.

As previously reported, Lights On Festival is making its way to the Concord Pavilion in Concord, California on September 18 and 19 with performances from HER, Erykah Badu, Tiller, Ari Lennox, Ty Dolla Sign, Keyshia Cole, Masego, Lucky Daye, Kiana Ledé, Fousheé, and lots more. According to today’s announcement, tickets for the Barclays show in Brooklyn are set to go on sale this Friday, July 23, at 10 a.m. ET, though fans can get pre-sale tickets today, July 20, at 12 p.m. ET. Get tickets here.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In a jarring move considering how certain Fox News hosts (Tucker Carlson) are pushing COVID vaccine misinformation, if not outright conspiracy theories, Sean Hannity stopped his program on Monday evening to urge his viewers to take the coronavirus “seriously.”

“Please take COVID seriously, I can’t say it enough,” Hannity said (via NBC News). “Enough people have died. We don’t need any more deaths. Research like crazy, talk to your doctor, your doctors, medical professionals you trust based on your unique medical history, your current medical condition, and you and your doctor make a very important decision for your own safety. Take it seriously.”

However, despite Hannity’s assertion that “I believe in the science of vaccination,” his message came sandwiched between two sketchy anti-vax segments, including one where he challenged universities that are mandating students be vaccinated before returning to campus. It was yet another odd moment in Fox News’ whiplash-inducing approach to the COVID vaccine as it scrambles to both cater to a MAGA audience who have grown increasingly anti-vaccination and ensure that its own staff is protecting itself from the pandemic.

Before Hannity’s Monday night show, CNN reported that Fox News has quietly implemented its own vaccine passport system internally, which directly flies in the face of its most prominent personalities like Tucker, who has called a passport system the new “Jim Crow.” The internal system is reportedly called Fox Clear Pass, and according to an HR memo, “providing this information to FOX will assist the company with space planning and contact tracing.”

(Via Sahil Kapur on Twitter, CNN)

Even though he finally fulfilled his dream of playing basketball professionally earlier this year with the Basketball Africa League, J. Cole has still been keeping up his skills practice. He recently worked out with NBA trainer Phil Handy and the Lakers’ Talen Horton-Tucker, and it looks like he’s still playing pickup ball pretty regularly. At a recent run with even more NBA trainers, he picked up a teammate who knows a little bit about playing with pros: Carmelo Anthony.

Footage from the session was posted to social media depicting Cole and Melo teaming up at a run that also featured the Houston Rockets’ Kevin Porter Jr. Cole appears to be keeping up, sinking a pull-up jumper in transition and feeding Melo for an easy top-of-the-key, catch-and-shoot three. Of course, Melo’s highlights dominate the clip as he pours in bucket after bucket from seemingly everywhere on the floor.

Judging from the fact that Cole has been popping up with NBA trainers, it doesn’t look like he totally satisfied just with playing overseas. He’s certainly received some positive feedback from many of the players he played with for Rwanda, although he received his share of criticism too. Whether he’s still pursuing the NBA or just working on improving his skills, the work ethic he spoke about leading into the release of his new album The Off-Season looks to be intact as he prepares to go on tour with 21 Savage and Morray to promote the new project.

On the surface, it’s a little weird that here’s Henry Golding, a man with, indisputably, movie star handsome looks, coming off the enormous success of Crazy Rich Asians, and now his first big action movie is Snake Eyes. Now, the “weird” part is Snake Eyes, the character, is a member of the G.I. Joe team that is best known for always wearing a mask and never speaking. Look, I’m not a businessperson, but if I’m casting Henry Golding, he’s going to speak and audiences are going to see his face. And, rest assured, in this origin story, that’s exactly what audiences are going to get. When I asked Golding what happens if he does 10 of these movies, if eventually he’ll have to wear a mask and not speak, he is delighted by that idea and jokes that would be an “easy job.” Touché.

Snake Eyes is, strangely, being marketed as a spinoff movie, when in reality it’s the first entry of a complete reboot of the G.I. Joe movie series. The events in Snake Eyes have nothing to do with the previous two movies. The origin of Snake Eyes in the Larry Hama comic books from the ’80s depict Snake Eyes as a white guy who, injured during the Vietnam War and losing his ability to speak, travels to Japan and trains to be a ninja alongside his sometimes friend, often times foe, Storm Shadow. As Golding explains, he’s now talked to Hama at length and, back then, the pressures from above, in the end, gave us the good guy who is white, and the bad guy who is Asian. Now, with Snake Eyes, the film, that aspect can be corrected. Snake Eyes, in the movie, is still very much an American, but now he’s an Asian-American who travels to Japan, as we see an updated version of that origin story.

Golding also made some news a couple months ago when he inserted himself into the New York City mayoral race by tweeting at then-candidate Andrew Yang, calling him “a twat.” Yang had just tweeted about the unrest in Israel, a very complicated situation, for what appeared to be political gain. Golding hesitates before getting into this because, as he says, he doesn’t like talking about politics publicly, but then explains what was going through his head that day and why he decided he couldn’t just stay silent about this.

I’m trying to picture, after the massive success of Crazy Rich Asians, someone saying to you, “Hey, you know this character most known for not speaking and wearing a mask at all times? What do you think?”

Of course that’s the first thing that goes through everybody’s head, and that’s something that I had to sort of take into account…

I assume early on they said, “You’re not going to wear a mask much and you get to talk.”

Exactly. We meet him right at the beginning of the film as sort of a mystery, as a bit of, I suppose, a no-namer. He’s been wandering around with this thought of vengeance with trying to do justice with these injustices that have happened to him and his family. This being the start of something huge, you need that foundation to get behind a character like that.

So what was your familiarity with G.I. Joe in general? Because outside of the United States, it’s not as popular as it is here. I feel that’s accurate, right?

It’s 100 percent accurate. But for me, I would catch the Saturday morning cartoons. They would have them broadcast once in a while, probably in some of Malaysia or in the UK. So, of course, we were highly aware of it. And the comics really traveled. My brother was a big comic book fan. Mainly sort of the Marvel stuff, but he had a couple of the Transformers and G.I Joes…

Right, they would team up and fight each other.

As a kid you’re like, oh my God, this is the most insane comic book ever! So that’s what I kind of knew of as G.I. Joe, but then it wasn’t until, of course, later in life when the movies came out, that you’re aware of how huge a G.I. Joe was, especially in America, and how much it means to the past.

Speaking of the comics, the Larry Hama Marvel stuff was pretty amazing.

No, it’s true. He puts so much meaning into these endless characters, that pretty much an infinite amount of G.I. Joes keep popping up. “Oh, there’s this guy who does that. Oh, this guy who does that.” But for him, he really fleshed out these characters. Talking to him was amazing.

Oh, you talked to him?

He was on set with us.

Oh, that’s great.

I’ve been in a couple of Q & A’s with him. With fans who ask him, “Oh, why did you choose this?” Or, “Why did you create this?” Sometimes he’s just like, “Well, that’s what was in my head at the time. There’s no meaning behind it.” So some of what fans would presume is really sort of intricately thought out moments, were sometimes Larry just thinking off the top of his head. That’s the magic of comic books, is that you roll with this character building, and you create, and you layer, and you build. So yeah, Larry’s an absolute genius.

During filming did you ask him for advice on how to portray Snake Eyes?

To be honest, no. Not really. I think what we really discussed was why he made the yin and yang of the characters of Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes. What he felt was necessary. Why, originally, did he have the Asian character as turning into the bad guy?

What did he say to that?

There’s a lot of pressure from up above. A lot of these decisions sometimes come from outside of his control. So, it’s interesting to hear about some of those pressures because at the end of it he worked for a studio and worked for a publication. So, to be able to define a relationship between two men from different cultures, it was easier to sort of say, “Right. This is the white guy. This is the Asian guy. Put them two together and let’s see what happens.”

Speaking of that original origin of “the white guy and the Asian guy,” people have been pretty on board with you playing Snake Eyes, right? Even as a kid, Snake Eyes, a ninja, just being this white guy didn’t make a lot of sense.

It’s also the fact that we are in such a global world right now. Our culture is so meshed. Cultures are so meshed in a kind of transient and weird way. We don’t have to identify purely with the fact that it’s black, or it’s white, or it’s Caucasian, or it’s Asian. You can be Caucasian and still feel out of place in somewhere like Europe where you have no standing. But, back in the comic book days, when Larry was making it, the only understanding of this would be, “Oh, let’s take a white guy and let’s bring him to Japan so he can learn the way of the ninja and then come back and take the secrets and whatnot.” But you could do that with anybody not from Japan now. So, for us, it wasn’t as important to make that distinction of race. We wanted to make it so much more up-to-date. I think that’s the way that we went, and I think that’s the future.

So what happens if you wind up doing 10 of these? The last seven, are you just going to have to wear a mask and not talk? That aspect of this character has to go away, right?

[Laughs] That’d be the easy job!

You’re in the suit, you’re doing it all, but you don’t have to talk. Yeah, I guess that makes your job easier.

Then you’ve got to think, would you really think they wouldn’t come up with some sort of voice box? If they can create a synthetic voice for anyone in the world, do you think that maybe he’ll opt for once in a while saying something through this little helmet that he has? Unless he took the vow of silence, that’s different.

I feel like the vow of silence could come in handy in real life, too. Just, look. I’ve got the vow of silence. I’m sorry.

He will be on a silent retreat throughout the majority of the second film or the third film.

It’s interesting people have it in their head Snake Eyes can’t talk. When I first had the action figure, the comic wasn’t out yet, there was no cartoon yet. He spoke a lot in my backyard.

Exactly!

I would assume, going forward, since you’re a famous movie star, they’re going to want you to say stuff. I don’t think they’re going to make a version where you don’t get to talk.

Do you want to be the writer of the new Snake Eyes films? Because I like the direction you’re going.

Also, why is this movie referred to as a spinoff? I don’t think this is a spinoff. This seems like a complete reboot. Am I accurate?

It’s 100 percent just wiping the slate clean and setting the tone in the movies going forward, with this sort of very grounded in reality kind of tone.

Yeah. The tone is much different.

You have the magic of the movies, and the magic of Cobra and G.I. Joe, but in the real sense of it is this journey of a human kind and issues that they come across.

When I spoke to Jon Chu for In The Heights, who directed G.I. Joe: Retaliation, he said you two spoke a little bit about you joining the G.I. Joe universe. What advice did he give you?

It was a crazy set of circumstances. He found me for Crazy Rich Asians. I would stay in his guest room coming over from Singapore. And I was staying with him in LA, and he would have Snake Eyes on his wall.

Oh, wow.

He has a cinema room. Then I came to him and I was like, “Dude, I think that they’re considering me for the role.” And he just looks up at his wall and he was like, “That guy?” But, yeah, that was this weird roundabout of circumstance, which just kind of put us both together in multiple ways.

I promise I’m not trying to get you in trouble. As a New Yorker, I noticed when you tweeted at Andrew Yang. Again, as someone who lives here, I get it, but I also want to know where’d that come from and why’d that happened?

You are an actual twat.

— Henry Golding (@henrygolding) May 11, 2021

I usually don’t talk about politics… but I think accountability for your supposed sort of heroes and people you look out for is something very important in this day and age. I think it was a slightly reckless tweet to put out at a very sensitive time. I think it is such a layered and complicated issue that’s happening over there, that you cannot and should not tweet, in a position that you are in, something like that for the sake of the mayoral run. That was my, simply put, condensed version of that in a very naughty, bad tweet.

I believe you used the word “twat.”

But that was my meaning. I shouldn’t have… Maybe I should have bit my lip, but I’m glad I didn’t. I think it rose a lot of questioning to people with, “Hey, you can’t do that. It’s got nothing to do with you.”

People seemed pleased you did that.

You’ve got to understand, I’m definitely not used to usually putting my nose in that business because I’m a very straightforward kind of guy. But I thought that was a step too far with somebody from, especially, our community trying to do good. I understand. Perhaps it was a misstep, or whatever it was. But I think, I hope, it made him – well, made the party or whatever it is – just think twice about what you spout because it does have really negative effects. Islamophobia is real. Antisemitism is absolutely real. So do not stoke those fires either way, that’s what I say.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

This week in the best new pop music saw some anticipated releases. Normani teamed up with Cardi B for a career-defining single, Conan Gray fired off a lovelorn tune, and Shakira ushered in a new era of music with a hip-shaking track.

Each week, Uproxx rounds up the best new pop music. Listen up.

Normani, Cardi B — “Wild Side”

Following her internet-breaking track “Motivation,” Normani took a hiatus to focus on her craft. The nearly two-year wait clearly paid off with her new Cardi B collaboration “Wild Side.” The bass-driven track features a skittering beat commanded by Normani’s heart-tugging vocals. Cardi’s verse arrives partway through the track, offering a raunchy contrast to Normani’s fluttering voice.

Shakira — “Don’t Wait Up”

After vaguely teasing a new project last week, Shakira is an impatient lover in her “Don’t Wait Up” single. The rhythmic track is the singer’s song of the summer entry, combining a hip-shaking beat drop at the chorus with Shakira’s recognizably textured vocals.

Conan Gray — “People Watching”

Conan Gray rose to prominence with his relatable reflections on romance. But with his new, vulnerable track “People Watching,” Gray admits he’s never really been in love. The fluttering single details the feelings that arise when Gray witnesses cutesy couples. He’s happy for them, but can’t help feel a twinge of jealousy. “I’ve never dated anyone in my entire life, so I’ve spent so many years of my life watching perfect couples sit in cafes and share coffee, whispering sweet nothings to each other,” he said about the song. “I can’t help but fantasize about what it must be like to feel that emotion.”

Caroline Polachek — “Bunny Is A Rider”

Former Chairlift founder Caroline Polachek pivoted to a solo career with her 2019 LP Pang. Now teasing the possibility of a sophomore release, Polachek returns with the irresistible alt-pop number “Bunny Is A Rider.” In a statement about the single, Polachek said it’s her version of a summer jam. “‘Bunny Is A Rider’ is a summer jam about being unavailable,” she says. “Bunny is slippery, impossible to get a hold of. Maybe it’s a fantasy, maybe it’s a bad attitude. But anyone can be bunny, at least for three minutes and seventeen seconds.”

Chvrches — “Good Girls”

Continuing the rollout of their album Screen Violence, Chvrches returned this week with the kiss-off track “Good Girls.” Over sizzling synths, vocalist Laura Mayberry’s unassuming vocals sing of destroying harmful double standards. “Women have to constantly justify their right to exist and negotiate for their own space,” Mayberry said about her inspiration behind the single. “We’re told that Bad Things don’t happen to Good Girls. That if you curate yourself to fit the ideal — keep yourself small and safe and acceptable — you will be alright, and it’s just not f*cking true.”

Tones And I — “Just A Mess”

Tones And I has come a long way since the release of her smash-hit “Dance Monkey,” which reach No. 1 in several countries. This week, the Australian singer dropped magnetic 14-track debut LP Welcome To The Madhouse. Songs like “Just A Mess” show off the singer’s more vulnerable side. The cascading tune features honest lyrics about pickup up the pieces following painful heartbreak.

Haim — “Cherry Flavored Stomach Ache”

It’s been just over a year since the Haim sisters released Women In Music Pt. III, their strongest effort yet. They’ve been steadily dropping remixes of tracks from the album, but this week, Haim shared the brand-new song “Cherry Flavored Stomach Ache.” The jaunty tune was originally written for the soundtrack for the upcoming Shailene Woodley-starring film, The Last Letter From Your Lover, which is set to be released on Netflix later this month.

Alessia Cara — “Sweet Dream”

Following up on her Not Another Love Song EP, Alessia Cara continues to stun with her new singles. Her latest, “Sweet Dream,” is a saccharine and snappy tune. Over a wonky beat, Cara sings a whimsical tune about coping with racing late-night thoughts.

Chet Faker — “It’s Not You”

Chet Faker, moniker of songwriter Nick Murphy, dropped his anticipated Hotel Surrender album this week. His track “It’s Not You” exemplifies the album’s groove-driven sound, drawing on funky instrumentals and Murphy’s soaring vocals for comforting tune. “The great lesson for me was that I could write from a place of joy,” Murphy said of the release. “I was also just being kind to myself. None of this music was hurting, it just felt good. It made me feel better, and it helped me be better.

Anne-Marie — “Beautiful”

Offering another taste of her upcoming album Therapy, Anne-Marie shared the carefree track “Beautiful.” The joyful pop song was co-written by Ed Sheeran and Max Martin and speaks to the importance of shirking harmful societal standards and instead finding beauty within.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.