Month: September 2024

In June, it was announced that Rihanna is now the new face of Dior J’Adore, a classic scent. Charlize Theron was previously the face of J’Adore campaigns for 20 years, and now she’s the brand’s style and jewelry ambassador. Now, Rihanna has officially taken over Theron’s old post, unveiling her first J’Adore ad yesterday (September 1).

The minute-long video (watch it here) checks all the classic perfume ad boxes: luxurious environments, sexy poses, surreal environments, bold looks down the barrel of the camera, and so on, all with Rihanna’s signature confidence.

Rihanna previously said in a statement, “Being the new face of J’Adore is both an honor and a mission. This scent that I have known and loved for so long means so much to women. I am especially looking forward to joining this adventure and contributing to it through my world, my story, my roots, as well as my creativity and my own femininity.”

Véronique Courtois, CEO of Parfums Christian Dior, also said, “The unusual talent, audacity, and captivating beauty of this absolute star are the ideal embodiment of dazzling, powerful Dior femininity that transcends generations. Her golden dream promises to be unique, reflecting a fragrance that is present for women and retains its radiance.”

A month ago, Cardi B announced she was pregnant, and over the weekend, she offered an update on her journey by sharing an ultrasound photo of her unborn child. That arrived alongside some maternity photos of Cardi baring her belly as she sits on a motorcycle.

“I wanna meet my little boo boo soo bad already,” Cardi wrote.

Fans are having fun with this, by re-sharing the ultrasound and giving Cardi’s baby some thematically appropriate names, given that one of her other children is named Wave.

“Cardi shared an ultrasound pic of baby tsunami,” one fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Cardi responded, “Y’all and these names [laughing emojis].

Another fan wrote, “Cardi shares ultra sound pic of baby ‘Hurricane,’” to which Cardi replied, “Who???.”

Cardi previously wrote when announcing her pregnancy, “With every ending comes a new beginning! I am so grateful to have shared this season with you, you have brought me more love, more life and most of all renewed my power! Reminded me that I can have it all! You’ve reminded me that I never have to choose between life, love, and my passion! I love you so much and can not wait for you to witness what you helped me accomplish, what you pushed me to do! It’s so much easier taking life’s twists, turns and test laying down, but you, your brother and your sister have shown me why it’s worth it to push through!”

Big Sean had one of last week’s big releases with Better Me Than You. New albums are always prone to sharp-eared listeners looking for disses, and they think they found one here.

Did Big Sean Diss Lil Yachty On Better Me Than You?

As HipHopDX notes, On the Pressure Edition bonus track “Wire Me,” Sean raps, “I mean, I might have to even throw ’em a lil’ boat — pff / I’m seein’ n****s gettin’ drowned out ’cause they can’t switch up the flow / Just give ’em a year or two, and they gettin’ exposed.”

But, Sean says he didn’t diss Yachty despite the “lil boat’ reference. In fact, Yachty actually appears on the album. Sean told Complex:

“I wasn’t talking about [Yachty]. Yachty is on the album as well. On ‘Yes,’ he’s doing ad libs with me. I’m glad you said that, no I’m not taking a jab at Yachty. It was like a whole double entendre. [If I was referencing him] that would have been a whole other entendre [laughs]. He was in the studio with me while I was making the album. He actually has a verse on [‘Yes’], too. I might throw it on there later.”

He also said of the “n****s gettin’ drowned out” line, “To be real with you, when I thought of the bar, I just thought it was clever. I just see a lot of times where people get bored with people’s flows. Sometimes it’s the same flow. I’ve seen that in a lot of artists.”

The Kansas City Chiefs were already an emerging dynasty coming into the 2023 season, with some immensely popular players among football fans, headlined by Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. However, once Kelce started dating Taylor Swift, they saw a whole new group of fans flooding in, as Swift’s extremely loyal (and massive) fan base became heavily invested in the Chiefs as they went on another Super Bowl winning run.

As the 2024 season gets set to start in Kansas City on Thursday night, with the Chiefs facing one of their top challengers in the AFC, the Baltimore Ravens, all eyes are on Mahomes, Kelce, and how Kansas City will begin another title defense. Among those watching will be Swift, as she and Kelce have become a serious couple, with Kelce a fixture at Swift’s Eras Tour shows in Europe, and even showing up on stage in London. When that happened, plenty of people (including myself) made the joke that Kelce has to return the favor and get Swift some snaps for the Chiefs, and while that won’t happen, it might not be all that far-fetched that Swift will have an impact on the field this season.

Patrick Mahomes recently sat down with NBC’s Chris Simms and, naturally, the conversation shifted to Swift towards the end, where Mahomes talked about how “genuine and cool” Swift has been, despite being the most famous person in the world. He also noted she’s gotten very into football, going so far as to start drawing plays in her spare time (~22:50 of the below video).

“And then meeting Taylor and realizing how genuine and cool she is,” Mahomes said. “I mean, that’s been special to me, because she is, like you said, the most famous person in the world, she could not be. And she’s really interested in football and she asks a lot of great questions. She’s started drawing up plays, so we might have to put one in.”

The Chiefs offense is willing to try just about anything if they think it can work, so I don’t think this is just lip service by Mahomes about possibly putting in a Taylor play. We’ve seen the Chiefs try all kinds of wild designs, from spinning huddles to behind the back passes and more, so don’t be surprised if we learn after a game that a redzone TD came off of something drawn up by the biggest pop star in the world.

Grimes is one of the more tech-forward musicians working today, so it’s not surprising that she has spend some time considering the relationship between music and the emerging field of generative AI. Over the weekend, she shared some of her thoughts on the subject, writing at length.

In response to a tweet about claims that artificial intelligence cannot make art, Grimes wrote a post that starts, “I think we should fight for the specialness of humans, but I think there’s a lot of room for ai in art.”

From there, she wrote about her specific use case: Instead of using AI to generate full songs (“I haven’t ever heard an ai music generation that is good on its own,” she said), she uses it as “basically a sample generator,” using AI to generate components of songs.

Read Grimes’ full post below.

“I think we should fight for the specialness of humans, but I think there’s a lot of room for ai in art.

I haven’t ever heard an ai music generation that is good on its own, but what I have found is that the ai stemming tech is SO good that I can use the ai music apps as basically a sample generator where I have way more control- then I stem separate and have rly cool samples I was able to curate to an extent rather than just going to splice or smthn which is limited to what genres are popular that they think producers will want to sample

It also works way better if u actually make music. Like it’s so good if you write ur own lyrics and then make it generate melodies on lyrics that would usually be considered too wordy to fit into a pop context.

I think overall the music generation at least rewards genuine collaboration, talent and effort. Obviously this can change

I do think there’s fair arguments that art is a sacred thing that works best when it teaches us how to be more human, connect to each other. Someone said to me once that music is sex, and when I write to seduce myself or others I make better stuff. There’s something rly human about art and I think ai making art is the hardest argument for ai that will upset the most ppl cuz art might be the most human thing.

I’ve noticed that No matter what amazing job ppl have, friends who design rockets or robots like… all secretely have an art hobby. So there’s smthn that feels a bit dark abt ai art specifically

At the same time I think the art high is also the best feeling in the world (hence everyone kinda wanting to be an artist) and I’ve made midjourney accounts for so many friends who felt they’re totally un creative and it’s so beautiful to see like a tired mom friend get the art high for the first time and open part of her soul she’s never had access too.

If u look at the data, the vast vast majority of ai artists are hobbyists not professionals, the majority of ai art doesn’t get published, and the anger at ai art has caused most professionals to avoid it – at least around me. And maybe that’s for the best?

Like being an artist is winning the lottery of life, and while the moral outrage feels a bit uninformed I think it is serving the purpose of keeping ai art as mostly a mental health thing for people who aren’t profiting off it.

The few ppl who are deeply innovating like claire silver and kngmkr are actually all professional non ai artists and tech experts first and foremost and are still using a lot of traditional skill in their output.

Overall I feel like it’s more that it’s sad that the outrage economy hurts everybody mentally but we’re moving towards an ethical balance with how ai art is used that seems best for everyone.

And the truly profound ai art that has hit me hardest has been stuff like @repligate that is basically a new medium. It’s not replacing anything, it’s almost like a new branch of philosophy if anything- and part of why it also feels genuine is there’s at least an illusion (if not a reality) of the ai mind actually caring about what it’s making.

Seems like all of this rly is teaching us that honesty, genuine care, talent, practice and intentionality in art rly does matter to us after all, and I think it’s pretty beautiful that this whole saga is reminding the whole world that art matters.”

Halle Bailey and DDG are both stars, and now so is their son Halo, as a photo of him has become the subject of a terrific meme lately.

The photo in question is a screenshot of a video DDG shared in August, of Wave on what looks like a mall train ride for children. In the viral screenshot, Wave is making a facial expression that’s a mix of concern and fear.

The image has made the rounds online and people have been having fun with it. That includes DDG: On August 30, he tweeted, “who made my son into a meme [laughing emojis].”

He also shared a tweet using the image that reads, “me looking at my bank account after a spending spree.” He added in another tweet, “my son more lit than me, i love it [teary eyed emoji].”

Sexyy Red got in on the fun, too, sharing a clip from the video and captioning it, “Me look at da 7 [black woman emoji] in a Nissan Altima Fly Pass Me Blasting Sexyy Red (I’m Doing 120).” Bailey shared that post and added a simple crying emoji.

Bailey, meanwhile, just made good on her promise of new music in August by releasing “Because I Love You.”

Louis Partridge was at the Venice International Film Festival this weekend for the premiere of his Apple TV+ limited series Disclaimer. In attendance by his side was Olivia Rodrigo, and as The Hollywood Reporter notes, this was their “public debut at an official event.”

The publication also relays they “did not pose on the red carpet together outside Palazzo del Cinema,” but they did “attend a cocktail reception at the Hotel Excelsior before the world premiere as well as a post-screening reception at Palazzina Grassi.”

This comes after months of dating rumors. In October 2022, Rodrigo and Partridge were spotted in London, which first sparked rumors. On December 8 Partridge was seen supporting Rodrigo at her NYC Jingle Ball performance. The next day, he was spotted at the December 9 Saturday Night Live afterparty, for the episode where Rodrigo performed as musical guest. Then, on the 13th of that month, TMZ shared photos of the pair at a New York City gas station, and they were holding each other intimately and kissing.

Meanwhile, Rodrigo is in the midst of her Guts World Tour, and she recently wrote in an email letter to fans, “I just wanted to send a little note to say thank u so much to everyone who has attended the GUTS world tour so far. I am having the time of my life singing my heart out with u guys every night.”

The opening verse of the Ed Sheeran classic “Thinking Out Loud” goes (per Genius):

“When your legs don’t work like they used to before
And I can’t sweep you off of your feet
Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love?
Will your eyes still smile from your cheeks?
And darlin’, I will be lovin’ you ’til we’re 70
And baby, my heart could still fall as hard at 23.”

Sheeran had some fun with that in a TikTok video shared over the weekend. In the clip, he packs up his guitar and flashes his middle finger as he leaves the room, with the video captioned, “When they turn 71.”

For one fan, this video sparked a revelation, as they commented, “I THOUGHT IT SAID 17.” Sheeran responded, “You’re on a watch list somewhere.”

Sheeran, meanwhile, has kept busy lately. This summer, he hopped on the Boston Celtics bandwagon. In August, he popped up at one of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour concerts at Wembley Stadium to perform their collaborations together. He also purchased an ownership stake in Premier League soccer/football club Ipswich Town. At one of his own concerts, it was his turn to host a guest, as he had Chris Hemsworth playing drums.

Many of music’s biggest names have not yet commented on the Palestine and Israel conflict. While others including Macklemore, Kehlani, and Roger Waters have fiercely thrown their support behind Palestine.

The latter has even found himself in a media war with a fellow musician. During an appearance on Reason podcast (which was then covered by Independent), Nick Cave referred to Waters’ support of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement as “deeply embarrassing.”

So, yesterday (August 31), Waters issued a scathing response to Cave’s callout by way of a video uploaded to his official Instagram page. “Dear Independent, here is my response to the Aussie bloke,” he said. “Nick Cave. Nick f*cking Cave. The Palestinian mother/father carrying the bits of her or his dead child back along the bitter road to nowhere in a plastic bag pauses on the roadside to scratch a message in the rubble. Nick, here’s the message. Dear Nick Cave, we, the Indigenous people of Palestine, in this agony, implore you, please don’t cross the BDS picket line to sing for your supper in Israel. It’s not complicated, Nick. It’s not complicated.”

In the caption of the video, Waters continued to plead his case. “Hey, Nick Cave, it’s ok to be wrong mate,” he wrote. “Obviously you not opposing genocide is a biggy? But hey! Nobody’s perfect? Just say you’re sorry.
Not to me and Brian Eno, we don’t give a f*ck. No, say you’re sorry to the Palestinians. Join BDS and we’ll let bygones be bygones.”

Nick Cave hasn’t issued a rebuttal to Roger Waters’ comments.

Sabrina Carpenter’s breakout hit “Espresso” made the singer a pop music mainstay. But another culinary delicacy will have her name on the lips of foodies around the country.

Yesterday (August 31), Crumbl Cookies used its official X (formerly Twitter) page to tease its next crossover collaboration. “Me when my friend says they want a mini n’ sweet treat,” read the post.

Based on the post’s subtly, it seems that Sabrina Carpenter’s latest album, Short N’ Sweet, will seemingly be immortalized in the bakery world with a specialty menu item.

But the promotional graphic, recreating Sabrina Carpenter’s album cover was all the confirmation users online needed. Although frequenters of the establishment were excited about the upcoming drop, one fan base appeared to be a bit more bitter.

After launching her GUTS World Tour, Olivia Rodrigo revealed that a celebratory treat would hit select Crumbl Cookies locations. Underneath the companies’ teaser post about Sabrina Carpenter, Rodrigo’s fans were sure to remind other users of this fact.

“She really stole Olivia’s whole rollout ,” wrote one user.

“Her and her weirdo team really said copy/paste all of Olivia’s ideas and rollout,” penned another.

“Oh, the Olivia Rodrigo influence,” added another.

Others stepped in to neutralize the unnecessary tension. “Livies in the replies and quotes are so miserable. It’s just a cookie stop crying. Crumbl cookies do collab with many big artists,” chimed one user.

Welp, whoever said delicious treats are supposed to be a great unifier was sadly mistaken.