Nicki Minaj has long been a pioneer in the realm of hip-hop brand sponsorships and launching business endeavors outside of music. It looks like the latest market she wants to dominate is the shoe game. On Instagram, she announced the impending launch of her own sneaker line, which won’t just be one or two pairs but an entire range of designs — 11, to be exact — to be released on April 12.
“4/12 = 11 new pairs of my OWN sneaker,” she wrote. “11 completely different designs for you to choose from. An absolute dream come true. I can’t WAIT for you guys to see my 1st collection!!! … Thank you to my team for helping me make this dream come to fruition. This isn’t a sponsorship. I’m an owner & partner & we will be showing you the first complete collection on 4/12.”
However, more recently, it looks like hip-hop has been looking to carve out its own space in the sneaker game independent of big brands like Adidas and Nike. J. Cole recently previewed his new Dreamer Indie 5000 after previously releasing two pairs of sneakers with Puma. If this is going to be the new wave, there is definitely room in the market (for now, at least) and it will be fun to see how rappers use the space to express their creativity even further while retaining ownership and possibly innovating the next wave of footwear for the streets.
While Nicki’s sneaker does indeed look more like a collab with existing apparel company Løci, it’s still a fascinating possibility to consider.
Any parent knows that kids can be surprisingly astute little philosophers at the most unexpected times. One minute your child is throwing a tantrum because you sliced their sandwich wrong, and the next they are blowing you away with their deep preschool thoughts. It’s enough to give you whiplash, but it’s also one of the most fun things about being around kids. You never know what they’re going to say and sometimes what they say is just awesome.
Case in point: This 5-year-old who gave his mom some sage advice about handling her nerves.
Twitter user @Eprecipice (StressieBessie) shared the story in a tweet thread. She wrote:
“When talking about our agendas for the day, I told my 5yo I was a little nervous about a meeting I have today. He said, ‘Mama, I am nervous all the time. I know what to do.’ So friends, here is all the advice he could fit into the drive to school:”
1. “You gotta say your affirmations in your mouth and your heart. You say, ‘I am brave of this meeting!’ , ‘I am loved!’, ‘I smell good!’ And you can say five or three or ten until you know it.”
Okay, first of all, the fact that this kiddo knows what affirmations are is awesome. Some people have questioned whether this advice really came from a 5-year-old because of the vocabulary, but kids are sponges and affirmations aren’t rocket science. It’s become quite common for preschools and kindergartens to teach kids things like this, so it’s not actually surprising to hear him talk about affirmations. It’s just adorable to hear the ones he suggests.
When talking about our agendas for the day, I told my 5yo I was a little nervous about a meeting I have today. He said, u201cMama, I am nervous all the time. I know what to do.u201d So friends, here is all the advice he could fit into the drive to school:
2. “You gotta walk big. You gotta mean it. Like Dolly on a dinosaur. Because you got it.”
Okay, so this actually is sound advice. Researcher Amy Cuddy gave a whole TED Talk about how our minds respond to our own body language, and how using confident body language can actually release chemicals in our brains that make us feel more powerful and self-assured. So “walk big” like you mean it is legit.
2. u201cYou gotta walk big. You gotta mean it. Like Dolly on a dinosaur. Because you got it.u201d
No idea what this means, but it’s definitely solid wisdom.
4. “Think about the donuts of your day! Even if you cry a little, you can think about potato chips!”
I’m genuinely not sure if this is referencing real donuts or not, which is part of what makes it delightful advice. Metaphorically, “the donuts of your day” could be the positive things that happened, and focusing on those instead of the negative is basic positive thinking. Then again, if you cry and think about potato chips, perhaps he’s just referencing comfort with food. Either way, totally feeling it.
4. u201cThink about the donuts of your day! Even if you cry a little, you can think about potato chips!u201d
5. “You gotta take a deep breath and you gotta do it again.”
Pretty much every therapist from every psychological school of thought will tell you that breathing exercises are one of the quickest ways to calm your body and mind. Simple, but seriously sound advice.
6. “Even if it’s a yucky day, you can get a hug.”
Even though that sounds like a pretty typical thought for a kid, it’s also good well-being advice. According to The Conversation, the chemicals released when we hug can help us manage stress, reduce anxiety and manage our emotions.
Smart kid.
He added one more piece of advice for good measure as well for those of us who tend toward distraction.
6. u201cEven if itu2019s a yucky day, you can get a hug.u201d
Seriously, if you ever want to hear some of the most oddly profound things you’ll ever hear in your life, spend some time interviewing a 4- or 5-year-old. They really do say the darnedest things. And if you’re nervous about something, just keep telling yourself you’re “brave of” it. If nothing else, it’ll bring a smile to your face remembering this delightful thread.
If you’re a mom, you know how difficult it is to plan a time to get together with another mom friend, especially if your kids are in different stages of life. It’s a common theme amongst moms that spills into mom groups where we joke about having to plan time to hang out months in advance, complete with fancy RSVPs. You wind up being consumed with your responsibilities of work, kids activities, appointments and overall managing a household.
By the time you finally find time to yourself, you wind up falling asleep on the couch with your streaming platform asking if you’re still watching. It certainly doesn’t take long to feel like you’ve lost yourself to motherhood, which can feel extremely isolating. So you really focus on making the effort to spend some kid-free time with a mom friend, only for someone’s kid to fall ill or a spouse to work late.
Recently, a good friend and I found ourselves in this endless loop after having coordinated one glorious child-free evening together eating pizza and watching television. Weeks after getting to experience our “moms night in,” we simply could not find time to hang out again but we also realized how beneficial the time was to our mental health. We were both stuck in the “busy working mom” hamster wheel desperately wanting to rest our feet.
During one of our back and forth scheduling marathons, I had an epiphany. Gen Z share their locations with their friends and don’t think twice about it. Sharing location lets them know when one of the friends they want to hang out with is working, at practice or hanging out with other people so they can move along to texting someone who is free.
The thought of teens sharing locations made me question why there wasn’t an app that could sync up mom friends’ calendars. It would allow you to see where the holes are in the calendar so you can more easily schedule times to hang out. As far as we knew, there was no app that did that but most calendars have features where you can share it with other people.
It took about five seconds to link our Skylight calendars. While you may not be interested in sharing your calendar with every friend you have, it can certainly help with closer friendships, and you don’t have to have a fancy calendar to do it. You can add anyone to your Google calendar and limit it to where they can only see times blocked off but not what you’ve got going on. Google calendar actually has a handy feature that does allow you to click a button that will scan the schedule of the people trying to schedule time to meet then propose times that work best for everyone’s schedules.
If you have an iPhone, you can share you iCalendar with other people that also have iPhones or other Apple products. Granted, this solution may not be for everyone but trying to meet up with mom friends is like trying to assemble the Avengers. It shouldn’t take this much effort to meet a friend for lunch but it can and let’s be honest, moms have enough pressure on them without having to worry about RSVPing three months in advance to have an 80s movie marathon with their bestie.
In today’s age of the overbooked, there’s not a lot of wiggle room for spontaneous pop ups. Calendar sharing seems to be the next best option for busy moms to find time for kid-free playdates.
It’s an all-too-common scenario: after months of being MIA in each other’s lives, you and a friend have finally been able to procure a night free of any work obligations or family commitments or any other non-negotiable responsibilities to actually see each other. Huzzah, May the joyful merriment commence!
…But, when the meetup that you both moved heaven and earth for finally does happen, all you do is regurgitate recent events. Making things feel unsatisfying and anticlimactic.
At the end of the night, you’re left feeling no closer to the person than before. And still you say:
“Let’s catch-up again soon!”
If this never ending cycle sounds familiar, you’re not alone. It’s a loop so many of us are stuck in.
Back in January, a woman named Bianca Stelian even went viral on TikTok for seemingly coining the term “catch-up friendships,” and perfectly summing up how this phenomenon pops up in our adult lives.
In the clip, Stelian recalled how spending tons of time with friends was the most natural thing in the world in college, saying, “everyone you love is in one convenient five block radius.” Because of this, you already kind of know what’s going on in each other’s lives, so instead of catching up, you could connect by watching a movie, hanging in silence, or simply coexisting.
Then cut to post-grad life, and life becomes too demanding to maintain friendships as you once did. Enter the “catch-up friendship.”
“Everytime you talk, you have to start the conversation with a big load of life updates. You have to hit every category: family, work, dating, social life, health, you get it. And before you know it you’ve essentially spent 45 minutes interviewing each other like you’re on a reality show without really breaking past the surface,” Stelian explains.
And once you’ve done this even a couple of times, it becomes a habit. And soon friendships are “a lot less about coexisting and more about organizing discreet dinner or drinks or FaceTimes or phone calls to catch-up,” she laments.
Stelian adds that while there is nothing “inherently horrible” about this type of relationship, “it takes away a lot of the joy of what made your friendship special in the first place.” In essence, you lose the trees for the forest—all of the small joys that came from sharing a life together get overshadowed by all the “big picture stuff.”
It might be common for our friendships to fall lower on our priorities the older we get, but study after study shows us how detrimental the lack of that particular connection can be in our lives.
Luckily, there are other ways to spend time with friends that don’t require going over everything you did the past few months, like running errands together, or revolving the meet-up around a recreational activity.
Stelian also had a few suggestions for breaking the rut, like posting your little life updates to your Instagram stories, so that less catching up would be required (we’re all on social media anyway), sending voice notes (long rambles welcome), creating a public journal or email newsletter and sending vlogs (like voice memos, but “elevated”).
Bottom line: we know friendships are important. We also know that life doesn’t alway make maintaining friendships easy. But a little creativity goes a long way, and the benefits are well worth the effort. Hopefully these tips can help add a little spice to your catch-ups.
Word spilled out earlier this week that HBO’s already delayed third season of Euphoria was indefinitely paused with its cast freed up to pursue other projects. The big three, of course, are Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, and Jacob Elordi, who are all juggling a variety of roles elsewhere, and Variety has now published an extensive dive into the “fight” to save this show from withering on the vine without a definite return date. It’s an engrossing read with plenty of possibilities thrown into the air, like an alleged idea to continue the show without Sam Levinson despite the recent insistence that “HBO and Sam Levinson remain committed to making an exceptional third season.”
It must be noted that viewers are already accustomed to some WTF developments from this show, and it’s been understood that the third season would also include a time jump, which makes even more sense with the formal extension of the hiatus. However, Variety details word from their sources on how Levinson’s scripts were seriously out-there when it came to Rue. Zendaya herself also reportedly tossed out a bit of an unexpected pitch:
When Levinson turned in his revised scripts in late 2023 and early 2024, HBO execs were now the ones feeling unsatisfied. There was a new arc for Zendaya’s Rue, whose character in Levinson’s first pass had been relegated to the background in a somewhat surprising storyline about her working as a private detective, which HBO had immediately vetoed. Among many other ideas for the rewrites, Zendaya had pitched an idea in which Rue, who is now sober as a twentysomething young woman, would be a pregnancy surrogate. But insiders say the new scripts simply didn’t feel like the show tonally.
Apparently, it’s now back to the drawing board, and Variety makes sure to note that The Weeknd and Levinson’s The Idol debacle has reportedly resulted in HBO holding firm on how scripts must be in hand and complete before filming begins. Surely, there will be more revelations to come, but for the moment, everything is on hold for Euphoria.
Two of Texas’ rising titans of trash talk link up in the video for Maxo Kream‘s new single, “Talkin In Screw,” as the Houston native taps Bay City up-and-comer That Mexican OT to trade rapid-fire verses and a hook paying homage to one of their home state’s heroes. Over a slamming “saw whistle” beat, the two Lone Star spitters chop it up over the staples of their home region’s subgenre of brash street rap: Swangers, grills, wood grain, and of course, lean.
Aside from being the duo’s first song together since OT’s “Opp Or 2” in 2023, it’s also apparently the first single from Maxo’s upcoming follow-up to his well-received 2022 album, Weight Of The World, on which Uproxx’s Wongo Okon wrote, “the rapper insists on carrying this weight” of his “responsibilities, pains, and traumas.” While it’s still early days, Maxo sounds revitalized on his latest single, and ready to once again pull the rap world’s focus toward Texas.
Once it’s there, That Mexican OT is well-prepared to accept his share of the attention. Making a splash in 2023 with his breakthrough single “Johnny Dang,” OT impressed fans and critics with his debut studio album Lonestar Luchador, which confidently combined both Texas rap stereotypes and his love for the culture of his stage name. He followed up early this month with Texas Technician, proving that there’s a lot more gas in the tank.
Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.
Whatever you might be into, each month brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody. Some stand out above the rest, naturally, so check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of March below.
Rosalía — Motomami + (Reissue)
Columbia
It’s been two years since Rosalía came through with her beloved third album, Motomami. She followed it up with a deluxe edition called Motomami + not long after, and now that version of the album is on vinyl for the first time ever. This pressing comes on clear-colored vinyl and comes with a poster.
On December 31, 1973 at Chequers Nightclub in Sydney, Australia, AC/DC played their first concert. That was over 50 years ago now, and the band has marked the occasion with a gorgeous series of gold vinyl reissues. Among the projects included, of course, is the iconic Back In Black, which, like the rest of the reissues, are available in the US exclusively through Walmart.
Musgraves graced March with the release of her sixth album, Deeper Well. It’s an often-gentle album, which goes great with the gorgeous “quilted picture disc” vinyl pressing of the album that you can snag (for now, anyway, as it’s a limited collector’s edition). The color and texture on the vinyl make it a truly special album, and you get to listen to a strong offering from one of our favorite contemporary country voices, to boot.
Indiecast host Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen went over Adrianne Lenker’s new solo album in a recent episode, and indeed, it’s a project worth picking up, especially on vinyl. This pressing comes on recycled vinyl, meaning that each individual copy will have a unique look to it and it may not look quite like the image above, making the unboxing a fun surprise.
The Cure is an exemplary live band and has been for a long time. If you want proof of that in your vinyl library, the group just reissued their 1992 live album Paris. The 2LP set marks the release’s first time on vinyl in 30 years and it was remastered by Robert Smith himself (along with Miles Showell) at Abbey Road Studios. If you missed out on seeing the band’s acclaimed live run last year, this might provide some temporary solace.
Alice In Chains — Jar Of Flies (30th Anniversary Reissue)
Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings
30 years ago now, Alice was in chains and flies were in jars. To mark this momentous occasion, Alice In Chains has delivered a reissue of Jar Of Flies. It has perhaps the most perfect vinyl coloration ever, too, which makes it look like actual flies are trapped in the record. Classics like “Nutshell” and the hit “No Excuses” have never sounded so good.
Rhino has been dropping off a series of high-fidelity vinyl reissues throughout 2024, and the latest classic release to get this treatment is a Grateful Dead favorite: American Beauty. This is truly a premium edition, as it is a AAA cut from the original stereo master tapes, pressed on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl, and features an insert with notes by Grateful Dead historian David Gans.
After establishing their legacy with Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and Wu-Tang Forever, Wu-Tang Clan further cemented themselves (and showed they hadn’t run out of ways to name an album after themselves) with their third LP, 2000’s The W. This Vinyl Me, Please reissue is pressed on striking gold and black galaxy vinyl and comes with brand new listening notes.
For Dry Cleaning, it began with two EPs: Boundary Road Snacks And Drinks and Sweet Princess. Now they’ve remastered the EPs and smushed them together for a new reissue that combines the two releases. The reissues also serve as an excuse for the band to hit the road, so learn more about their upcoming tour dates on their website.
Sometimes, a vinyl pressing is just *chef’s kiss*, and such is the case with that of Faye Webster’s latest, Underdressed At The Symphony. Playing off the album cover’s bold use of blue, the vinyl includes a ring of blue in the middle, bordered by a semi-translucent white vinyl, playing off the bright accents on the cover.
America and European countries share many similarities in culture and governmental structures. They are democracies with similar legal systems, innovative in science and technology and have a significant influence on the world through art and culture.
That being said, there are some glaring cultural differences that are fun to point out. The broad generalization is that Europeans have refined cultural tastes, whereas Americans are a bit more brash and believe that bigger is always better. These are stereotypes, of course, and there are plenty of brash Europeans and Americans with refined tastes.
One of the biggest differences is America’s embrace of consumer culture, which Europeans see as excessive and tacky. Americans have an unquenchable love for processed foods and portions that make most Europeans shudder.
The sheer size of America is also hard for many Europeans to comprehend. During an 8-hour drive, Europeans can visit multiple countries with different languages and cultures. However, you probably won’t make it through some of America’s larger states in that short of a time.
I’m sorry, Europeans. Los Angeles and San Francisco are not an hour away, and you probably don’t want to drive from New York City to Disney World.
People have pointed out some of the significant differences between Americans and Europeans through memes with the simple caption, “The European mind cannot comprehend this.” It’s a fun way for Americans to point out the excesses that make America unlike any other place in the world.
A lot of the memes are centered around America’s love for chain restaurants and how they often are found in clusters dotting the American landscape. The downside of chain restaurant ubiquity is that it makes the country’s cuisine feel a bit homogenous. One can drive all the way from Des Moines, Iowa, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and still find the same 10 places to eat.
Americans eat huge portions compared to the average European. When Europeans travel to America, they most frequently point out this. Americans also enjoy processed foods that feel more like they came out of a laboratory or off an assembly line than if they occurred randomly in nature. This stands in stark contrast to the European diet which often features smaller portions, less processed food, and a greater emphasis on fresh, seasonal ingredients.
Americans have their very particular brand of unique crazy, whether it’s monster truck rallies, the tacky beauty of Las Vegas or our very vocal support for gun rights.
To keep the rivalry going, Europeans have been fighting back by sharing elements of their culture that would boggle the average American’s mind. Some memes include the interesting ways that A/C-phobic Europeans cool their homes. They also railed at Americans for being unable to drive cars with manual transmissions and for having really terrible taste in bread.
The Europeans also mocked the incredible price of healthcare in the U.S. and how everyone has their hand out for a tip.
People feel very strongly about their condiments. No matter what condiment there is someone either loves it or hates it but one of the biggest debates on the food toppers is how to store them. Yeah, that might sound a bit strange because everyone knows open condiments are stored in the pantry, unless its hot sauce, right? Whoa, calm down. I’m only kidding. I don’t make the rules Heinz does, apparently.
They do make the condiments so it would be assumed that we would look to them to know how to store the products they make. But the people of Twitter are daring to argue with Heinz after the condiment giant posted a controversial tweet that declared ketchup does in fact belong in the fridge. This bold tweet is dividing the internet.
“Heinz don’t even know where their product should be stored,” one person declared. While another claimed, “Never, ever has it gone in my fridge, nor anybody else’s.” Who’s going to tell these people to read the back of the bottle?
It wasn’t Heinz but some hero came with receipts in the form of a photo of the back of a Heinz ketchup bottle that clearly reads, “refrigerate after opening.” You would think this would end the debate but people are very invested in being right about the way they store their condiments with wide ranging arguments.
People made points about cold ketchup making their food cold and restaurants keeping ketchup on the tables. While others argued that it tastes better cold but if you thought Heinz was done antagonizing the internet, you’d be mistaken. They responded to several comments with sassy humor while still asserting the tomato based condiment belongs in the refrigerator.
— N. Malone🏳️🌈| Etani Book 8 coming October 2023! (@NMalone8) June 27, 2023
Someone named Dave asked, “so why is it on the shelves in supermarkets & shops then?” To which Heinz replied, “Where do you keep your soft drinks, Dave?”
I mean, Heinz does have a valid point. Most soft drinks are kept on the shelf in the grocery store but you wouldn’t catch many people drinking a warm can of Coke. But that logic didn’t stop team ketchup belongs in cabinets. A person named Mike responded to the thread with his thoughts on Heinz bringing soft drinks into the conversation.
“I’m not pouring my soft drinks on hot food. Cold ketchup nullifies hot food which some of us like better than cold food. Get your preservative cookbook out and make the stuff safe to keep in the cupboard.”
Where do you keep yours? It has to be… in the fridge!
In an attempt to either continue to antagonize the internet or quell the chaos (it’s hard to tell which), Heinz created a poll asking where ketchup belongs. Currently the Fridge has the cupboard beat by a pretty decent lead but with as heated as this debate has been, there may be room for team cupboard to catch up. Even if they’re wrong. There’s no right and wrong in where to store your ketchup as long as you don’t read the label.
Maybe you’re someone who likes to keep a bottle in their sock drawer for emergency late night snacks, who knows. Tell us, where do you keep your ketchup?
The way we come across long-lasting friendships is often unexpected. But when you’re part of a military family. You learn to grab hold of the good people you meet and carry those friendships across states and oceans. You mark your friendships based off of what base you were stationed at when you met them and know those friendships can withstand just about anything because they’ve been tried.
So for an American family stationed in Japan, there was no doubt at least one lifelong friendship would be made. It just may have been surprising that the friend wasn’t affiliated with the military. Instead, the friend was an older Japanese man who didn’t speak English and lived next door to the young family in Yokosuka, Japan.
But this isn’t the first time this unique story went viral. In 2013, Reddit user Theresa52 posted a picture of a note that she received from her neighbor-turned-friend. People loved the letter and sweet story attached. Theresa explained that after moving to their new neighborhood in Japan, she and her husband passed out beer and chocolate to their neighbors. A few hours later, they met, Hiroshi Yamashita, their new neighbor and one of the recipients of their gift.
When Yamashita knocked on the family’s door, he presented them with gifts of his own—toilet paper, stuffed animals and a note. In the thread Theresa noted, “Things that are consumable and household necessities are popular gifts. We have heard lots of stories about people getting laundry soap,” after someone asked if toilet paper was a common housewarming gift in Japan. The stuffed animals were for their infant daughter at the time.
But the note is what keeps going viral. It starts out, “I can’t speak English. Thank you for the present. My name is Hiroshi Yamashita. I’m 52 years old. [I’m divorced] and I live alone.” Since Yamashita didn’t speak English, the note had some spots that were difficult to understand but the intent was clearly pure.
Theresa wrote in the comments of the post that it appeared that he was asking if her husband was in the Navy. While the sentences are out of order a bit, if you reorganize them a little, it seems Yamashita is attempting to say, “I have stuffed animals and toilet paper. You can use it if you’d like.”
The man concludes the letter with “Thank you for your friend operation.” It seemed that he was thanking the family for their hospitality, but Reddit users surmised that he was referring to Operation Friendship in 2011 when the United States aided Japan after an earthquake. Either way, it was still friendship operation because what says friendship like taking time out of your day to write in a language you don’t speak just to make sure your neighbors feel welcomed?
“It was adorable! We had brought him a six pack and some chocolate and tried to introduce ourselves to him. A couple hours later he brought over this letter with a pack of toilet paper and some stuffed animals for our daughter,” Theresa wrote in the comments while joking that their initial introduction probably amused Yamashita.
Further explaining within comment threads, Theresa said that they used pointing and Google Translate when they initially met Yamashita, and in turn, he used a translator app to write the note.
Theresa shared an update in the comments about six years after the story originally went viral saying, “We all exchanged gifts and food regularly for the four years I lived there. We would go to neighborhood festivals and have dinners together as well. I miss them all and think about them often.”
You never know when being kind will turn into a life long friendship. We certainly hope Yamashita and Theresa are doing just as well today and are continuing to spread their kindness around.
This article originally appeared on 2.23.23
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