Kanye West has avoided battery charges after he threw a woman’s phone in the street for filming him without permission, according to TMZ. The January incident saw police investigating the controversial music star after footage surfaced online of Kanye accosting the woman in her car. After an argument, Kanye was seen grabbing her phone from her hand and throwing it.
However, according to TMZ, the woman declined to press charges, and the only damage done was to the phone’s case. The argument started when Kanye became upset that the paparazzi were filming him at his daughter North’s basketball game. “You didn’t have to run up on me like that,” he told her. “If I say stop, stop with your cameras!” A bystander filmed the exchange, as did the woman’s companion, sitting in the passenger seat.
The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office issued a press release that confirmed that Kanye wouldn’t face any charges, and that only around $30 of damage was done. So, aside from the photographer needing a new phone case, there was no harm, no foul.
Kanye’s issues with the paparazzi are well-documented, but he’s apparently been trying to stay out of the spotlight recently after stirring up a ton of controversy over the past year from making antisemitic comments.
On the heels of her Billboard’s Women In Music Awards performance, Lu Kala joins our video call in full glam, sporting her handy dandy bonnet to protect her vibrant orange tresses. This is what her life has become as one of the most promising acts in pop music. A genre distinction she has fought tooth and nail to secure.
The Congolese-Canadian songwriter goes from stage to press set, and if time permits, the studio (or as Lady Gaga famously said, “No sleep. Bus. Club. Another club. Plane. Next place”). However, she is sure to emphasize that she wouldn’t have it any other way. “I’ve put in 10,000 plus hours of work, and now I’m finally starting to smell the flowers a little bit. I’ve been working at this my whole life. From the moment I put out my first-ever song nearly four years ago, 100% independently,” exclaims the musician.
In fact, to the singer, her inaugural Billboard Hot 100 placement alongside rapper Latto for their collaborative record, “Lottery,” is only the beginning. Despite her true start in the music industry dating back to 2014 after Kala landed her first songwriting placement on Jennifer Hudson’s JHUD album, it wasn’t until around 2018 that she began to release music as a solo act. Then during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kala decided to cash in all of her creative chips by dropping the debut EP Worthy.
Ever so poetically titled, the 8-track project was the catalyst of self-reassurance she needed after dropping out of college to pursue music full-time. When describing the body of work, Kala shares, “[Worthy was] about me finding and falling in love with myself. Realizing that who I am as a person is worthy. No matter how people in the past have counted me out.” Kala holds nothing back as she continues to call out the naysayers, “the music industry, especially being a Black woman in pop music, being a plus size. In my dating life. Even [former] friends! Sometimes people don’t want to be friends with a plus-sized person. So I feel like I’ve always been counted out and made to feel like I’m not worthy. But I came through this cycle where I was like, no, I’m worthy of everything I want. I’m worthy of love.”
To be clear, Kala isn’t standing on a soap box when chronicling the mistreatment she’s experienced as a plus-size woman. She’s just calling it like it is. “For me, me making it is a big deal because I’m fighting so many different battles being a Black woman. A Black plus-sized woman. And you add all these different titles, but it’s like, I’m not telling anyone to look like me. But I’m telling people, I’m allowed to be here as well,” says Kala.
Body neutrality isn’t a cause Kala volunteered to fight, same as fellow pop singer Lizzo; rather, they were forced to take it up as the genre has maintained a vile history of gatekeeping who can enter the ranks mainly rooted in desirability politics. This means pushing white-abled-body cisgender heterosexual men primarily to the forefront, followed by their white cishet woman counterparts while all others duke it out for their spots. Every so often, an outlier will break through the boundaries, and for today’s rising stars, Lu Kala aims to be that dismantling figure.
“It’s so stupid. I don’t know why people make a lot of this stuff political just because you’re in a different body size. People are like, ‘oh, I love her, but she needs to lose weight.’ Or ‘this advocating for obesity.’ Just because someone is being shown to the world and people are loving on them doesn’t mean they’re telling you any message. If there is a message that they’re telling you, it’s ‘this is me. Take it or leave it.’ If you see someone that’s smaller, you don’t see them as a gym ad. But for some weird reason, if you see someone that’s bigger, you see them as an obesity or diabetes ad. And that’s very odd.”
Under those divisive circumstances, Lu Kala wasn’t supposed to be here, but thanks to her fierce belief in self and great solo music such as her single, “Pretty Girl Era,” which has dominated TikTok’s trending sounds, her career as continued to flourish in ways beyond her imagination. Still, Kala doesn’t deny it has been an uphill battle, saying, “That’s the tough part about this journey. As a Black person, I’m fighting so hard to just be seen as exactly what I’m doing. But, you know, a lot of times when you’re white in this industry, or sometimes even other races, but mainly, predominately white, you’re allowed to be the most popular genre. Even if that’s not really the kind of music you’re making. You get to be in any space. You get to drop an R&B album but be considered for a pop album. And here’s a nuance in some of these things, but it would at least be great if it went both ways.”
Musicians like Justin Bieber and Doja Cat have both verbalized their frustrations with the ways in which their music has been categorized in the past. On the other hand, legacy acts, such as Dionne Warwick and he impact on pop music, are often forgotten. In spite of that, thanks in part to the camaraderie of musical sisterhood, Lu Kala and her music continues to occupy spaces of reverence. Rapper Latto is certainly one of those allies.
When asked to detail her experience working with Latto on their record, Lu Kala poured with excitement. “It was pretty cool,” shares the singer. “I actually started writing the hook for the song with some people I love nearly a year ago. I wrote it because I was in my confidence bag. Like, ‘being with my babe, is like winning the lottery.’ But that hook was originally supposed to be on a song for my project. In the end, Latto heard the record and was a big fan of it, but I hadn’t really worked with rappers, so I didn’t know what the pop-rap collaboration would be like.”
The prospect of reviving the traditional formula of what crossover songs did in the early 2000s is what was the selling point for Kala. As she says, “what made me love pop music so much was the fact that everyone knew the words to the song.”
Kala continues, “when I got back to Los Angeles, they played me her verses, and I was like, ‘oh, okay. She went crazy on this.’ In the end, it ended up being her song. I’m just so grateful that she kept me on it. I just feel like it was meant to be. I’m so excited to see what this song does for the both of us. I think that we’re gonna be hearing it a lot this summer.”
With the odds stacked up against her as the child of conservative Christian immigrant parents, a Black woman, and a Black plus-size woman in pop music, Lu Kala’s work ethic and unabashed displays of vulnerability have garnered her a fanbase that shows no signs of slowing down. “I’m just happy that I’m finally living in a time and space where pop stars can be Black. They can be queer. They can look completely different. But Black women, especially, are allowed to be whatever they want,” she declares before adding, “I’m so excited for the girls that are coming after me because they get to see me, Hemlocke Springs, and Willow Smith. There are just so many options for who they can be now. And hopefully, when it comes to they can freely create the next new thing.”
Thanks to artists like Lu Kala, the next generation of pop music lovers have nothing to worry about. As for her ultimate goal as a musician, she says, “I really believe music has the power to heal us. To shift us. So, I hope people feel a shift hearing my songs. Words are very important, but so is the musicality. I want to heal the world. I want everybody to dance and have a good time while we’re here being human in this thing called life.”
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.
In a fundamental way, it makes sense that Yves Tumor‘s new album, Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds), begins with a scream. Perhaps it’s in recognition of the horror that there are people in his life that they still don’t know, as they sing on album opener “God Is A Circle,” or maybe it has to do with something entirely unrelated; but the concept of a scream tying thematically disparate ideas together into something shocking and beautiful ends up being the thrust and thesis of Tumor’s brilliant new album. The blend of drastic differences and epic scopes of Tumor’s previous two records — the weirdo-left field pop thriller from 2018 Safe In The Hands Of Love and 2020’s alien-invades-a-stadium-rock-show effort, Heaven To A Tortured Mind — would lead one to believe that Praise A Lord would offer a different touch, but it’s hard to imagine the otherworldly and thrillingly unfamiliar places Tumor goes without listening to this one-of-a-kind album.
Rather than analyzing where Tumor’s been, though, perhaps it’s best served to contextualize Praise A Lord through its producer, Noah Goldstein, who veers far more towards the art-meets-pop center than anything Tumor’s done before. Rather than sacrificing their style in favor of something closer to commercially friendly, though, Tumor expands their sound to see just how far towards the edges of consumable this work can go.
The results are quite often breathtaking. Goldstein has worked with Frank Ocean, Rosalía, Drake, Rihanna, and Bon Iver, and as such it’s clear that the pop demarcations are going to — to a certain degree — set the course for Praise A Lord, but the album’s true style lies in the subtle details Tumor plants like seedlings; ideas that eventually grow into the hanging canopies that shade the record.
Take the album’s most recent single, “Heaven Surrounds Us Like A Hood,” an AM ’70s-inspired psych-pop jam that suddenly shifts into a sludge-affected slow pop banger. Tumor employs their upper register, floating above buzzing bass lines and cathartic piano chords.
When they sing, “This world feels so ugly when life makes a fool of us,” the song sounds heartbroken and defeated. But it’s in Tumor’s ability to manipulate feelings through vocal feats that allows the song to operate on multiple emotional planes. After all, the chorus ends with, “I love the color blue because / It’s in the sky / And that’s where God is.”
The idea of God also plays a big role in this album, mostly as an abstract figure Tumor can look to. In their hands, the all-being figure is less a dominating presence than a source of strength to look towards in times of struggle. It is the Platonic ideal of what religious figures should represent, namely a safe haven to rely on when shit gets really, really bad. It’s more than ironic that politicians across the country are enacting such a being to protest against people like Tumor, but raging against this sort of broken moral compass also contributes to the brilliance of this album.
On Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds), Yves Tumor creates a world for everyone who wants a space away from our ruined hellscape. This is a place to be who you are, and who that is doesn’t matter; as long as you treat others the same way. To be chewed but not spit is to be loved but not discarded. On their new album, Yves Tumor takes a bite out of the world, but rather than puncturing it, they find places where we might have been weak, and make us whole again through the long, testing process of healing.
The Atlanta Hawks came to terms on a contract extension with one of their more productive players over the last three seasons. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Hawks and veteran guard Bogdan Bogdanovic came to terms on a new deal that will pay him $68 million over the next four years. As Wojnarowski noted, Bogdanovic will facilitate his deal by declining the player option he has for 2023-24 on his current deal.
Atlanta Hawks F Bogdan Bogdanovic has agreed on a four-year, $68 million contract extension, sources tell ESPN.
Bogdanovic declines the $18M player option on his 2023-2024 contract and his new deal kicks in next season, sources tell ESPN. Bogdanovic, 30, is averaging 14 points on 40 percent three-point shooting for the Hawks this season. https://t.co/wodWFNNswB
Because this contract begins next season, Bogdanovic is now signed through the 2026-27 campaign. After missing the first month and a half of the year due to a procedure he had on his knee in the summer, Bogdanovic has averaged 14.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in 28.5 minutes per game while connecting on 43.7 percent of his attempts from the field and 40.1 percent of his threes. All but five of his 43 appearances have come off of the bench.
Vladimir Putin has largely put on a display of bravado concerning his Ukraine war while only occasionally admitting to shortcomings with his plan. He also pulled out of a nuclear pact in what felt like a temper tantrum, and overall, things are not going well with this conflict. Russia has turned to recruiting female troops, and Putin’s private gathering of mercenaries, the Wagner Group, is now recruiting Pornhub visitors, and that doesn’t even account for what’s happening with Russia’s economy.
Between the reported Viagra and paper shortages in Russia and the sorry imitation of McDonald’s that the country attempted to install, consumers already aren’t happy with the war’s effects. Then there are all the sanctions flying from various Western countries, but Putin is here with a solution: attempting to guilt billionaires into fixing Russia for him. In a speech geared towards Russia’s elite, as Reuters reports, the Russian president also sounds pretty steamed about oligarchs growing fearful about their nation’s economy and increasingly moving into offshore-asset mode:
“A responsible entrepreneur is a real citizen of Russia, of his country, a citizen who understands and acts in its interests,” Putin said. “He does not hide assets offshore, but registers companies here, in our country, and does not become dependent on foreign authorities.”
Good luck with that? I’m guessing that no oligarch who has lost his $600 million superyacht or several homes to sanction-based seizures will be willing to pony up all of the assets to help save Russia. Nope, Vlad is gonna have to figure this one out on his own.
The cord-cutting future of cable now costs as much as actual cable. YouTube TV, which streams many of the most popular broadcast and cable channels, required a fee of $35 per month as recently as 2018; it’s now up to $72.99.
“An update for our members. As content costs have risen and we continue to invest in our quality of service, we’ll be adjusting our monthly cost, after 3 years, from $64.99/mo to $72.99/mo, in order to bring you the best possible TV service,” the YouTube TV account tweeted. The price hike applies to new members beginning today, while “existing members will see this pricing change beginning 4/18.” To soften the financial blow, the price a 4K Plus add-on is decreasing from $19.99 a month to $9.99/ a month.
Often, the changes come with new content — in 2019, it added channels from Discovery like HGTV, Food Network, and Animal Planet, and 2020 brought content from ViacomCBS, like Nickelodeon, MTV, and Comedy Central. YouTube TV hasn’t announced any new channels today, but the company has undoubtedly been spending money to add content. Last year, it announced that it had nabbed the rights to get the NFL Sunday Ticket.
The company denies the NFL deal — which reportedly costs $2 billion/year — has anything to do with the price hike (no sweaty pun intended), however. “This price increase is because of the broader rise of content costs & not specifically due to our new football offerings,” the Twitter account wrote. If you want to blame Aaron Rodgers and his messy drama, though, that’s fine.
As long as you blame YouTube TV, too.
Just for some perspective. YouTube TV launched in 2017 for $35 a month. That is a 108% increase over 6 years. https://t.co/hxjL4ZEWud
And that about wraps us up for YouTube TV. Almost $900 a year now. I think we can safely say the Golden Age of cord cutting is now over. pic.twitter.com/twaIU79DFe
The 2023 NCAA Tournament provides memorable moments each and every year. The first haymaker arrived quickly during Thursday’s first window of opening round games, and it happened in Orlando with a mid-major upsetting a major-conference program with a recent national championship. With 11 minutes remaining, the No. 13 seed Furman Paladins trailed the No. 4 seed Virginia Cavaliers by 12 points and appeared to be going quietly into the night.
However, the Paladins began slowly chipping away at the deficit, eventually taking the lead with a 19-4 run. That set up an instant classic moment in the final seconds with the help of a crucial turnover by Virginia. After Furman climbed within 67-65 on free throws with 12 seconds left, Virginia inbounded and needed simply to take care of the ball and convert free throws. That did not happen, however, as senior guard Kihei Clark launched an ill-advised pass over the middle of the floor and the fireworks transpired from there.
Garrett Hien snatched the steal near mid-court and quickly flipped a pass to sophomore guard JP Pegues, who calmly buried what became the game-winning three-pointer. Virginia did have a chance, after a timeout, to potentially steal the win back, but a heave went begging and Furman emerged with an absolutely wild win.
Virginia is known as the only program to lose in the first round as a No. 1 seed, though this is not that kind of upset. If anything, Furman was a trendy upset pick in bracket pools and the Paladins closed as only 5.5-point underdogs in the betting market. Still, this is the kind of late-game magic that fans of the NCAA Tournament live for, and it was a combination of a brutal turnover by the favorite and a heroic shot by a player in Pegues that will now be remembered forever in and around Furman’s campus in Greenville, South Carolina.
Taylor Swift has a major weekend ahead of her: Tomorrow (March 17), she’ll be in Glendale, Arizona (or Swift City, as it will soon be temporarily known) for the first date of her The Eras Tour. Even as preparations are surely well underway for the big day, Swift managed to get one more surprise out to fans: Swift announced today (March 16) that she’s releasing four new songs tonight at midnight.
In an Instagram Story shared this afternoon, Swift wrote, “In celebration of The Eras Tour I’m releasing 4 previously unreleased songs tonight at midnight. Eyes Open (Taylor’s Version), Safe & Sound (featuring [Joy Williams] and [John Paul White]) (Taylor’s Version), If This Was A Movie (Taylor’s Version), & All Of The Girls You Loved Before.”
Countless actors would give anything for what Billie Eilish achieved at just 20 years old. Eilish and Finneas won an Oscar for Best Original Song (“No Time To Die” from No Time To Die) at the 94th Academy Awards. But almost exactly one year later, Eilish can officially call herself an actor.
Eilish attended the Los Angeles premiere of Swarm on March 14. Donald Glover and Janine Nabers’ Amazon Prime Video original series “follows Dre (Dominique Fishback), a young woman whose obsession with a pop star takes a dark turn.” Chlöe plays Marissa, Dre’s sister, and Eilish confirmed this morning, March 16, that she’s also part of the cast by posting a clip from one of her scenes.
It’s much eerier than her all-smiles carousel from the premiere, so we already know she has range.
Per Entertainment Tonight, Eilish’s character is one of many characters encountered by Dre as she “continues on her increasingly violent path.” According to Eilish’s IMDb page, her character is named Eva.
ET additionally relayed, “The idea to add her to the ensemble came from casting director Carmen Cuba, who knew that the singer wanted to get into acting. For Glover, casting Eilish, especially in addition to [Chloe] Bailey and [Paris] Jackson, also provided an opportunity to play up the meta commentary about fandoms and followers.”
Paramount Network juggernaut Yellowstone isn’t available on Paramount+ to stream (that oddness is explained here), but several Yellowstone-involved and Yellowstone-tangential Taylor Sheridan shows can be found on the streaming service. And I’m also distracted by the thought that some people who search for Yellowstone might stumble onto Yellowjackets, which makes me wonder how they would react to a very different show.
I may never know the answer to that question, but Paramount+ has dropped some promising news worth noticing. The service is currently experimenting with some mobile-only streaming plans in a few countries where mobile-dominant streamers make up a significant chunk of the audience. If the experiment turns into a trend, then perhaps U.S. streamers can look forward to a cheaper option, too? Given the increasing price of what feels like a zillion streaming services, this news feels refreshing. Via Deadline, Mexico and Brazil-based subscribers will see mobile-only plans for “around $2.80 and $4.20 per month.” Here’s why this is happening:
Marco Nobili, Executive Vice President and International General Manager for Paramount+, said the mobile plan is “part of our broader strategy to scale Paramount+. With mobile entertainment consumption increasing around the world, a mobile-only option will make our slate of programming more accessible to our audiences in mobile-first countries,” he added.
Paramount also offered up some data-based conclusions for starting in Mexico and Brazil, since both of those countries apparently stream TV on mobile over 50% of the time. And yes, that sounds like a dream come true for people who are weighing which plans to keep at any given time, and perhaps this will reduce the “churn” phenomenon, too. It’s something to watch, at the very least, to see if a trend develops.
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but it’s meeeee
