Month: March 2022

Musicians interact with their fans on different levels, and Charli XCX takes an especially hands-on approach. In fact, she regularly chats with a major Charli fan account on Twitter.

A new Rolling Stone UK feature notes the person who runs the Charli XCX Updates account, which has over 40,000 followers and keeps fans in the loop on everything that’s going on in the Charli universe, says Charli told them about the idea for her 2020 album How I’m Feeling Now before she made that information public. They also noted they and Charli have continued to keep in touch, saying, “The kind of advice she has for me has been both personal and professional. Every time I want to know her point of view on certain things, she has taken the time to respond to my messages.”

Charli also said of her fan base, “I really respect my fandom and I’m really grateful that I have them. I don’t think they’d be good Charli XCX fans unless they were a bit opinionated, so I’m happy that they have opinions and they’ve got some sort of spice and sass to them, I suppose.”

She also addressed the day she announced she was thinking about taking a break from social media, saying while “becoming tearful”:

“I’ve been feeling quite low throughout 2022, to be honest. I feel like my mental health has really taken a toll. I’ve never cared if you like my music or hate my music — don’t listen to it if you don’t like it — but I think at a time when I was already feeling quite low, that kind of rhetoric honestly just really hurt my feelings. There is this misconception that people in the public eye are able to take any sh*t that you throw at them and yes, we do have to learn how to handle negativity and criticism because it comes with the territory, but at the same time, everyone’s a f*cking human being. I guess on that day that I messaged that, I felt more human than ever.”

Read the full feature here. Rolling Stone UK also shared a behind-the-scenes video of the photo shoot, so check that out below.

Charli XCX is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Who heists the heistmen? A bunch of thieves in Paris, apparently.

The set of Lupin, Netflix’s mega-popular heist show, was victim to a real-life heist last month. “Part 3 of Lupin was shooting when approximately 20 people who had their faces covered broke onto the set after throwing mortar fireworks,” Variety reports. “An estimated €300,000 ($333,000) worth of equipment was stolen, per the report.” A representative for Netflix confirmed the life-imitating-art news, saying, “There was an incident on Feb. 25 while filming the upcoming season of Lupin.” No one was injured.

This was, incredibly, the second robbery of a Netflix show in February.

Thieves have stolen over $200,000 worth of props from the set of Netflix series The Crown while the production was shooting nearby. Over 350 items were taken during the heist, including a replica Fabergé egg, a grandfather clock clockface, a dressing table, crystal glassware, and silver and gold candelabras. South Yorkshire police are investigating the theft, which occurred when three vehicles were broken into in a lorry park in Mexborough in Yorkshire while a unit were shooting nearby.

Could the heists be related? Are the same group of thieves targeting only Netflix shows? This not only sounds like the plot of a future Netflix show, it could also explain why Stranger Things season four took so long to make. Someone — or someones — stole Will’s bowlcut. If only they took Anna Delvey’s accent, am I right?

(Via Variety)

On the heels of the release of her fifth studio album Laurel Hell, Mitski stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where she performed “Stay Soft.”

During her performance, she dons a draping white gown, and dances to the grooves of the bass guitars and drums. Mitski’s body is a vessel of emotion as her arms outstretch in line with the lyrics, “Open up your heart, like the gates of Hell.”

Her performance is perhaps as eerie as the song’s actual music video, in which she “gives blood to a greedy Venus flytrap, gets kidnapped, and dances under the moonlight with her captors. She eventually gets free, but at a price.”

Mitski is set to play a few festivals this year, including Day In Day Out and Primavera Sound Los Angeles. She will also appear on the Everything Everywhere All At Once soundtrack, set for release this April.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Mitski explained that the album’s title is inspired by a Southern Appalachian term for “the thickets that grow so dense and twisty.”

“They’re supposed to be hells that you can’t get out of,” Mitski continued “…I like the notion of being trapped inside this maze and possibly dying within it, but also being surrounded by these beautiful, explosive flowers.”

Check out Mitski’s performance above.

50 Cent’s Power series — along with its assorted spinoffs — has long been one of the hottest things on TV, driven by his fervent fanbase and strong social media buzz. However, that hasn’t stopped 50, who executive produces the shows, as well as having a recurring role on the original Power, from running into frustrations with Starz, the network that carries the shows. Although he’s expressed his feelings about the network before, apparently things have reached a new head, leaving the rapper-turned-mogul ready to pack his bags after his 2017 deal expires according to his latest post on Instagram.

Posting a string of images of luggage, including a gif from Oran “Juice” Jone’s “The Rain” video, 50 once again threatened to take his talents elsewhere. “This is me packing my stuff, STARZ,” he taunted in the caption of the gif. “Sucks, my deal is up over here I’m out. They renewed High Town and [Power Book IV] FORCE is the highest-rated show they have it sitting in limbo. If I told you how much dumb sh*t I deal with over here.”

In the other photos, he jokingly kept the motif running, as a series of dialogue exchanges with partners and employees. “Anil, get your f*cking bags in the car now, we are out of here,” read one. “take that f*cking sign off the door no more G-unit film and television over here.” Another cracked, “Michael, what the f*ck are you takings so long for, let’s go! Why are you folding all of your clothing so perfect, we can just get new clothes when we get where we going.”

Whether this tactic results in Starz renewing Force for another season or allowing 50 to truly walk out the door, one this is certain: 50 Cent will find a way to make even contract negotiations seem entertaining.

From pioneers in the music industry like Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Jill Scott to modern-day icons like Solange, Janelle Monáe, and Ari Lennox, Black women often create music as both an ode to their Black womanhood and social commentary of injustices rooted in misogynoir. Since the music industry has had a history of not treating them kindly, Black women have created a niche, a safe space within their lyricism that provides listeners with the chance to connect with their Blackness. These albums offer a light at a seemingly dark end of a tunnel, whether that reflects an unappreciated love of your culture or a reminder of solidarity.

It’s important to remember that Black women are not a monolith and exist in a multidimensional space within the music industry to explore genres like pop, rock, alternative R&B, and more, without being pigeonholed into a stereotypical genre that has been identified with Black culture. Artists like Rico Nasty and Willow Smith provide young Black listeners with representation of an alternative style of music with their captivating stage presence. Aluna Francis, who is known for her former electronic music duo AlunaGeorge, is an advocate for more Black dance artists to be given equal opportunities as their white counterparts throughout EDM, and she recently created her own festival, Noir Fever, to oppose this whitewashed space. Black women like Orion Sun and Arlo Parks are delivering warm melodies intertwined between the realms of indie and neo-soul. As they all create music that strays from the traditional route of R&B or hip-hop, listeners are reminded that they are multifaceted beings that can combine their knack for storytelling with their all-too-relatable cultural identity.

While existing in a predominantly white or male genre, Black female artists can build a connection for their listeners through empowering or emotional anthems that affirm Black identity and image, such as Beyoncé’s era during Lemonade. The conversation surrounding “Formation” and the singer’s unapologetic vocalization of her culture felt like a familiar feeling that most Black women can relate to. Public displays of Blackness for Black women are complex and can be a result of observing the participation of well-known Black figures like Beyoncé. Along with the Houston singer, neo-soul musician Jamila Woods expresses her adoration for Black beauty and, essentially, a manifesto to Black womanhood in her work. While weaving in the names of notorious Black writers, artists, and poets like Eartha Kitt and Zora Neale Hurston, Woods flawlessly tackles emotion policing and commemorates Blackness in her 2019 album LEGACY! LEGACY! Intertwining her identity and lyricism wasn’t a new concept for the Chicago singer, since her 2017 album HEAVN attested as the answer to questions like, “What does it mean to be a Black woman?”

Often, Black women aren’t extended the grace to express or ponder their emotions of rage, anxiety, despair, and forgiveness. In a music industry that results in little to no consequences for misogynoir, labels like the “angry Black woman” are thrown at Black women who are deemed unruly and outspoken for simply voicing our concerns and frustrations. Following the release of her 2020 track “Song 33,” Chicago rapper Noname questioned the policing of a Black woman’s tone as she coined herself the “new vanguard.” As an artist who isn’t afraid to make a controversial statement, her advocacy for Black liberation and justice for incarcerated folks is intertwined in her music, which is vital to young Black listeners that are searching for an artist that is for the people. While combining Blackness with musical expression, artists provide listeners with a socially conscious space to connect with their identity via music. These spaces of Black liberation are often accompanied by a reclamation of sexual identity, which is an intimate experience found while listening to an album like Jazmine Sullivan’s Heaux Tales. The EP combines sexually charged anthems with honest conversations surrounding heartbreak, deceit,` and love in the form of interludes. With a fan base of predominantly Black women, this nuanced album could’ve been sealed and signed as a love letter to Black women who have ever felt shamed in conversations about sex and relationships.

Meanwhile, at the intersection of Black identity and queer culture, Janelle Monáe will continue to explore what queer Black womanhood can be. The ArchAndroid and Dirty Computer are separate yet similar bodies of work where Monáe freely expressed her sexuality, womanhood, and Blackness. “Make Me Feel” was labeled the epitome of a bisexual anthem as the sexually liberated singer danced with notable actress Tessa Thompson in the playful neon music video. While tackling stereotypes of being too manly and incessant mansplaining, Monáe speaks her mind while sitting on her throne in the “Django Jane” music video. Throughout her expansive career, Monáe has given young Black queer women representation of on-air sexual fluidity, validity, and, overall, fun.

While finding meaningful music that coincidentally is worthy of being added to a playlist, there’s an unexplainable feeling of joy that can be shared when an artist seems to be speaking to the listeners throughout an entire project. For example, Houston-born artist and creative Solange Knowles is frequently praised for her third studio album, A Seat At The Table, which embodied her ethereal self while opening conversations about healing from trauma, dealing with microaggressions and policing. As she expressed her feelings of anger and vulnerability in the Lil Wayne-assisted song, “Mad,” it’s undeniable that she wrote this song with the intention of speaking to Black women and the policing of our anger. Tracks like “Don’t Touch My Hair” and “F.U.B.U.” with lyrics like “This sh*t is for us / Don’t try to come for us,” it felt as if Solange reached into the conversations of Black women with an anthem to reassure us that these feelings of rage and frustration are normal. As she lamented about her tales of sexing, drinking and spending her pain away, Solange shared her methods of coping in “Cranes In The Sky.” These themes aren’t limited to A Seat At The Table, since she continues her ode to Blackness and her Texan roots in her consequent album, When I Get Home.

Although Black female artists can be viewed as palatable for white audiences, it feels as if the act of creating songs like Solange’s “F.U.B.U.” or Monáe’s “Django Jane” is intentionally delivering a love letter to Black women listening at home. The art of storytelling has successfully been mastered by Black female artists that can produce stories of liberation, intersectionality, and self-love. Embracing your Black identity can be as minor as feeling represented within the lyrics of a beloved song or resonating with an artist’s political stance to create an empowering anthem. Often, our adored artists are influenced by their fellow Black predecessors and funnel their messages of self-love and unapologetic Blackness to their listeners.

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

Given the state of the world right now, putting out an album called Things Are Great seems like either an irreverent joke or an act of insane optimism. But for Ben Bridwell of Band Of Horses, it’s really just a declaration that he is, after a series of albums marked by compromise, finally doing things his way.

“The rawness of me playing guitar, I think, goes a long way,” he explained in a recent interview. “And not being afraid to play my sloppy, weird style of guitar.”

Things Are Great, which drops on Friday, is a conscious return to the brawny, vision-quest-y rock of Band Of Horses’ mid-aughts era, when they first roared to indie fame on the strength of their 2006 debut, Everything All The Time. Their next album, 2007’s Cease To Begin, continued their winning streak, spawning a hit, the affecting ballad “No One’s Gonna Love You.” After that, Band Of Horses entered the major-label world, signing with Columbia for their third LP, 2010’s Infinite Arms.

The band’s output gets spottier after that, an outcome that the candid and self-effacing Bridwell blames on his own lack of self-confidence. Too often, he says, he’s let other people goad him into artistic decisions he didn’t fully believe in. But that’s changed with Things Are Great, which was previewed last fall with the winning throwback single “Crutch.”

“I feel like I, at least, deserve a shot,” he said. “I, at least, deserve to have my chance to make the record I want. It’s been enough records, at least give me a damn shot to put more of a hand in the production to guide that ship into port. I feel the chickens have come home to roost that way.”

Bridwell talked about the ups and downs of Band Of Horses’ discography — and good-naturedly called me out on a review of one of those albums — in a recent interview.

Everything All The Time (2006)

I was in a fledgling sadcore band that had just broken up. And I didn’t want to stop being in a band, so I just started making songs — not knowing what I was doing, not knowing how to tune the guitar, not knowing how to sing. It seemed very unlikely that anything would really come from it. But then we put out a little self-recorded EP, and Sam of Iron & Wine — who’s a good old friend of mine — came to town and he had me open up for them. And Megan [Jasper] and Jonathan [Poneman] from Sub Pop bought our little demo EP that night. I couldn’t believe they cared.

They had me come in, and they wanted to pair me up with Phil Ek. I already knew Phil a little bit. It all seemed pretty daunting at the time, and even in hindsight, it seems so unlikely. There was a lot of growing pains for that record, just trying to figure out how to work in a studio like that with a producer like Phil, who commands respect and sometimes demands perfection when we were just such, well, novices.

I remember being very surprised when they picked “Funeral” to be the single. I didn’t want that song to even be on the album. I didn’t want to finish it. It seemed too hard. The guitar playing, I couldn’t seem to get it right. And I don’t think I was getting the lyrics correct. I wasn’t finding the right sentiment. I felt it was too trite, maybe. We had some other B-sides — what became B-sides — that I thought were just as good as that song. Sometimes when you’re making stuff, you’re the last to know what’s good or bad to other people. Lo and behold, I’m always wrong when it comes to picking a single anyway, and that continues to this day.

It was surprising when things like commercial licenses were coming up, because at that time, the idea of selling out was such a thing. I remember being a bit worried about what the perception would be there. This was also blog world times — everyone had a blog and there was plenty of anti-sellout sentiment going on.

Cease To Begin (2007)

After we started touring that first record, I made enough money where I could live in my own rental house by myself. By this point, we had moved to South Carolina, so it wasn’t Seattle rent. But I remember thinking, “At least I can keep this going for the length of the lease.” I was also thinking, “I might be able to have a family.” I’d met a girl and I was thinking about becoming an adult.

The second one came pretty quick thereafter. I had some stuff in the tank, like “No One’s Gonna Love You.” I think that that was maybe the second single off that record, but it ended up being a big song, at least for us. I remember being in my apartment in Seattle before committing to writing the words and having to force myself just to write down what I think it should say. I was like, “Oh man, is this too cringey?” But then, I had to remind myself I grew up with a lot of soul music, a lot of Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye and things like that, where the strongest dudes aren’t afraid to be that vulnerable and to say those kind of words. I had to talk myself out of editing what I thought it needed to say and I’m really glad I did.

I remember having a couple good tracks I was working on. I was like, “Let’s just get it going.” I’d gotten my first laptop and was starting to experiment with recording at home — didn’t know what I was doing, still kind of don’t. By this point, we had shed a few band members already and acquired one, an old friend of mine in South Carolina. I was really dead set on a regimented work day, to make sure we could hit this quick because I was afraid that the success that we just experienced would be fleeting. I figured if we could hit them quick, people wouldn’t forget about us and we might be able to carry this on a few more years.

As far as the recording goes, we went to Asheville, North Carolina with Phil Ek, and it was fraught with some tension because Phil’s always been tough on Creighton, my best friend and the drummer in Band of Horses. I knew that we were going to have a pain in our ass with Phil just being tough on him. Also, in that kind of recording situation, you can’t do nothing until the drums are done. We might play the bass and drums at the same time and get lucky, but the pressure was really on Creighton. That’s where some cracks started to appear in that relationship with Phil, because I was going to stand up for my dudes no matter what.

I also remember feeling like we had seven songs that we needed to push to 10 somehow. That’s why you have an instrumental song on there. My first experimentation of recording alone, that’s why it sounds so crappy. We were pushing to find more songs. I had a demo for “Is There a Ghost?” Phil heard that demo and was like, “We can make that into a song, even though it’s only got 12 words.” That ended up being the first single.

Infinite Arms (2010)

We went back to Asheville to Echo Mountain Studios. Phil came with us. It’s a residential studio, so there’s a band house down the road and we’re all in each other’s faces all the time. Those same cracks from before immediately caused some trouble. Creighton’s worried, and Phil’s talking to me behind Creighton’s back, about hiring another drummer. It was aggravating. Just a distasteful vibe going on. Phil was also like, “I might get this Strokes record coming up.” He was being considered for that job, and he was like, “I can’t commit to these dates.” Once we got done with one session out there, we were like, “Let’s do it ourselves.”

Now we’ve got two new guys in the band with Tyler Ramsey and Bill Reynolds, and Rob Hampton had left, but we still got Ryan, Creighton, and me, so now we’re this five-piece. These guys are cats, they can run circles around my ass playing anything. By this point, I have a child, too, so my life’s changed. I moved up to Minnesota for a while, while I was writing this album, had a baby, and then moved back down. The pressure cooker was definitely going now.

We have new management. Our Sub Pop deal is done, so we’re going to be signing a new record contract with somebody. Once we did sign, we had a much bigger budget. This was with Columbia. We’re out in L.A., kind of idle at times, just a totally different vibe. A “lunatics running the asylum” kind of thing.

With “Laredo,” I’ve written that same song so many times, starting with “Weed Party.” Some of it has to do with the weird tunings I use, there’s only so much I can do within them or have figured out how to do within them. But I think it’s all one song in a way.

Mirage Rock (2012)

It got the worst review I’ve ever heard in my fucking life. Don’t you remember? I got it pulled up.

[holds up phone showing a 4.0 review from Pitchfork written by me]

I’ve been waiting for that.

I’m not that crazy about it, either. It was a tough time, too. Who gives a shit about record sales? Well, the record label does. I remember feeling that pressure cooker, for sure. I did, in a way, get pushed around a little bit by the industry at this time. My intentions were not to make that record the way it was made, but that’s cool. I got to hang with Glyn Johns, who’s a friend to this day, and it was an eye-opening experience. I do remember, during the recording of it, feeling like, “This is like a time warp.” We get to be in the studio with Glyn and work the way that he wants to work and create a loose piece of art and maybe it’ll feel like a live record.

In hindsight, though, I don’t think I was writing the best songs. There were lots of songs to choose from, but now you got so many damn people’s voices in your ear, not to mention that pressure cooker ever-heating up and wanting to perform better for the label and not get dropped. I remember thinking it was good when it was done, but quickly thereafter feeling like we didn’t exert our own control over our art enough. We got pushed around and we could have done better and chosen different material. But I look on it fondly, with getting to work with Glyn and I try not to disparage it too much. But I don’t play those songs too much, I can tell you that.

Why Are You OK (2016)

I am friends with Jason Lytle from Grandaddy. I was interested in talking to him about producing a Band Of Horses record, and I knew that he was ready to make a new album. I just knew that he needed to get out and start making music again, so it was kind of a ploy to get him out. I was like, “Oh, there’s a really cool studio, north of Sausalito, that looks beautiful. If you want to hang out for a couple of days and play me some music, we can talk about it then.” We rented this little barrelhouse, like an old water tower thing that’s been converted into an Airbnb.

We end up going out there, and I swear for two or three days we hung out, we toured the studio up the hill, but we didn’t talk about us working together, or I don’t think I played him any demos. We just listened to music that we love. He’s probably playing me ELO, I’m sure, and I’m trying to show him the Dead Kennedys. We’re just riffing and being friends. We get done with the trip and he’s like, “Shit, let’s do it, man.”

Jason works so meticulously. So meticulously. The joke with Jason is he’s going to ask the engineer, “Can I get a keyboard track?” He’s always asking for a keyboard track. All of a sudden, he starts to drive your song a little bit more than maybe you’re comfortable with, so there’s a little bit of friction there, especially because we’re friends, like older brother/younger brother. You don’t want to stand up to your older brother too much, especially when you hold him in such high regard. It ended up being really fun. We went out to Asheville again to do some overdubs and then up to Fredonia, New York with Dave Fridmann,

Dave would mix and Jason and I were just stuck in Dave’s studio house, seething at each other and also walking on eggshells a bit, because I’m with these two absolute studs that I revere, and I’m not sure how much push I can give my own opinions when they have such keen ears.

We had already been dropped from Columbia, so now we’re going to have to shop this record. You want to make it as good as possible. Stylistically, I did want to return more to playing guitar again and to not be too slick, but I think in the end it has a lot of slickness to it, because Jason can fill any crack with delicious sounds. It becomes a bit larger than maybe I saw it. Then, you get Fridmann’s wild ass, the way he mixes things, which is so psychedelic, amazing, and sometimes terrifying.

Things Are Great (2022)

There’s always been a lack of confidence on my part. It comes from never having been a singer, never having been a guitar player or a bandleader or running a business like this that now has crew members and CPAs and shit. I think my lack of confidence has always stayed the same, no matter how big we got. It’s always been easy to get pushed around in the studio setting, especially, because someone is looking over your shoulder.

There was an original album that we scrapped for Things Are Great. We recorded it with Jason Lytle again and mixed it with Dave Fridmann again. I was just like, “I don’t think this is good enough.” I was at that breaking point, where I’m like, “I want to take back control of my band.” No disrespect to them because that version of the record was really cool. It just sounded so much like the last one that I was like, “I’m tired of not being able to get the sound that I want.”

The rawness of me playing guitar, I think, goes a long way. And not being afraid to play my sloppy, weird style of guitar. I don’t mean to disparage it, but it took a good friend to kick me in the pants a bit to say, “Your wack style is a strong point of the band.” Instead of always cleaning things up, let’s let the warts be displayed, if not celebrated. I always think of coming at this as a dirt bag. I want to be safe sometimes and I just forget, again, that self-confidence thing. I start to defer to people, and this dude showed me that we can accentuate those frailties.

I feel like I, at least, deserve a shot. I, at least, deserve to have my chance to make the record I want. It’s been enough records, at least give me a damn shot to put more of a hand in the production to guide that ship into port. I feel the chickens have come home to roost that way.

It’s a breakup record in so many different ways. But definitely lots of hard stuff going on personally and obviously professionally. There’s a lot of sadness that permeates these songs. I really wanted to tell my stories without being too metaphorically slick. I really wanted to get my thoughts out the way I say them, even if it’s saying the words “fuck” and “shit.”

It seems so strange that I would’ve fallen into this thing, whatever it is. It’s not a job, but there’s a lot of work to do. I’m still as wide-eyed and surprised as ever. To go through the catalog, I’m like, “Shit.” It is like a personal timeline, especially thinking about all the stuff that was going on and what informed the records. I tend, though, to be a bit on my heels with all of it still. Some young kid will send me a damn Instagram message asking me if I’ll sing backup on his song that’s going to be on Bandcamp, and I’m like, “Hell yeah.” I’m still innocent, I think. I still feel like a kid in this game and I’ve got plenty more to say.

Throughout Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s contentious divorce proceedings, Kanye has maintained that he does not want to split from his wife, cycling through a number of attorneys and strategies ahead of the court hearing that would declare the couple legally separated. Yesterday, just a day before that hearing, Kanye changed lawyers again according to Billboard, firing Chris Melcher and replacing him with Samantha Spector, who represented Dr. Dre’s ex-wife Michelle Young in their recent divorce.

The hearing today will focus on arguments from the two legal teams about whether to officially end Kanye and Kim’s marriage with assets and custody matters to be sorted in a future hearing. Kardashian requested the arrangement, hoping that accelerating their legal split could finally impress upon Kanye that their marriage is over so that they could focus on hashing out the custody of their four children. The couple already had a prenuptial agreement that kept their assets separate, although Kanye tried to argue that the agreement was invalid, hoping to exploit a loophole and delay their divorce.

However, through it all, Kim has maintained that she has no desire to reconcile with Kanye, who has lashed out at her new beau, Pete Davidson, in his music and on social media. It’s not clear what effect he thinks changing lawyers at the eleventh hour will have on the outcome, but come this afternoon, he could very well be single again.

In the Netflix documentary, The Tinder Swindler, a scrupulous Casanova named Simon Leviev (real name: Shimon Hayut) was slapped with detailed accusations of duping multiple women out of thousands of dollars by claiming to be a member of a wealthy diamond tycoon family. After briefly wooing them with lavish dates, Hayut would then concoct elaborate plots about his life being in danger to gain access to the women’s cash and finances.

Since the documentary blew up on the streaming platform, Hayut has been banned from dating apps, and now, he’s being sued by the actual Leviev family, who understandably did not enjoy having their name attached to the Tinder Swindler’s schemes. Via PEOPLE:

The lawsuit, filed in Tel Aviv, Israel, claims that “for a long time, he [Simon Leviev] has been making false representations as being the son of Lev Leviev and receiving numerous benefits (including material ones).”

The family alleges that Hayut has been “cunningly using false words, claiming to be a member of the Leviev Family, and that his family will pay and bear the costs of his benefits.”

The Leviev family lawsuit will almost definitely put a hamper on Hayut’s effort to clean up his name since being the subject of the documentary. In a recent interview, Hayut claimed to be a legitimate businessman who truly is rich thanks to getting in on the ground floor of Bitcoin. He also wants to become a “dating guru,” so he can help others find true love in this digital dating world filled with, well, people like him.

(Via People)

When Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019, her body became the subject of conversation. Often posing nude in her Instagram photos, Lizzo is comfortable in her body, and even proclaimed “I am body goals” on her 2021 Cardi B-assisted single “Rumors.”

In a recent interview with People, Lizzo called herself a “body icon” and expressed hopes to change beauty standards as we know them, saying:

“I think I have a really hot body! I’m a body icon, and I’m embracing that more and more every day. It may not be one person’s ideal body type just like, say, Kim Kardashian might not be someone’s ideal, but she’s a body icon and has created a modern-day beauty standard. And what I’m doing is stepping into my confidence and my power to create my own beauty standard. And one day that will just be the standard.”

In the same interview, Lizzo expressed the desire to be free from stereotypes, including “The funny, fat friend… Or the friend who is gonna beat your ass ’cause she’s big. Or it’s the big girl who’s insecure ’cause she’s big. I don’t think I’m the only kind of fat girl there is. I want us to be freed from that box we’ve been put in.”

This month, Lizzo is set to premiere her reality competition show Watch Out For The Big Grrrls on Amazon Prime Video, in which she searches for other “big grrrls” to join her troupe of background dancers.

Check out the full interview here.

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

Last October, Badbadnotgood released Talk Memory, the first album in five years from the psychedelic jazz jazz ensemble/hip-hop instrumentalist trio. While the track “Open Channels” — which sees BBNG sounding like true disciples of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew — appeared across all physical releases, it was not widely available on streaming services. Today, though, the Canadian band have added the song to the album’s tracklist across all music streaming platforms and have shared a trippy new short film for the track.

Directed by Sylvain Chaussée, the new clip is largely done in black and white, but with swaths of psychedelic colors soaking into the film. The band trudge through the snow, carrying their instruments, only to settle into an ominous blacked out performance space where only they are lit up. The color splashes flow like a lava lamp, adding detail to the saxophone, drums and bass.

The release comes ahead of Badbadnotgood’s tour, which begins on March 7th at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. A slew of March dates through the US will lead into their two Coachella festival performances, which sandwich two nights at The Novo in LA alongside Freddie Gibbs and Madlib. They’ll then embark on two separate stints of European tour dates.

Watch the video for “Open Channels” above and stream Talk Memory here.