Category: News

Remember around this time last week when I wrote that JID is the best rapper of his generation? Well, here’s his NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert to help hammer that point home. Adding a jazzy, soulful live band only enhances the JID experience, but make no mistake; JID is the star of this show, and everything he does earns that distinction. His charisma is on full display here, as is his impressive breath control, wit, and wordplay as he runs through selections from his new album The Forever Story.

The 31-year-old Dreamville rapper’s star has been on the rise since dropping his 2018 album DiCaprio 2 and his appearance on the 2018 XXL Freshman list. In the years between then and now, he has utterly stolen the show on Dreamville’s compilation album Revenge Of The Dreamers III, earning his first platinum plaque in the process, led his group, Spillage Village, on their inspiring group album Spilligion, and has run rampant on a string of guest appearances on songs like Conway The Machine’s “Scatter Brain,” Imagine Dragons’ “Enemy,” John Legend’s “Dope,” and many, many more. The hard work has paid off: The Forever Story’s No. 12 debut on the Billboard 200 makes it the highest-charting Dreamville debut outside of J. Cole and marks a 29-spot jump from DiCaprio’s No. 41 debut. In the words of JID’s Dreamville team captain J. Cole, a star is born.

With The Bear still going strong on streaming, we wondered whether Carmy’s eye-catching chicken recipe could really be the dinner item that helped keep the restaurant afloat. It’s not a super common order these days but it did look sexy when he spooned butter on top of a sizzling cutlet. Butter and meat — surefire win… right?

Friends, today we’re making lemon chicken piccata!

Before we dive in, lemon chicken piccata — more often just called “chicken piccata” — is very old-school. The dish is pretty common across Italy, unlike rigatoni al vodka which is more common here. “Piccata” is simply a “thin cutlet” that’s usually either veal or chicken and shallow fried. Generally in Italy, you’d order a “piccata di vitello al limone” for a light pan-fried veal cutlet in lemon sauce. The dish is a “secondo” course, which means it’s the meat/fish dish served after the pasta course and not with it.

Naturally, there are as many variations in Italy as there are regions and kitchens. Over time, Italian-American kitchens shorthanded that recipe to mean either veal or chicken cutlet (also lightly shallow pan-fried) and served with a pan sauce with capers and parsley and a smidge of lemon. The latter recipe — the classic Italian American version — is what we’re looking at today.

While Chicken Piccata might sound new and fresh (Carmy certainly thinks it’s a winner), the dish has had its ups and downs over the centuries from a holiday dish in Italian-American households in the early 20th century to a light alternative to the heavy red sauces in Italian restaurants up and down the East Coast in the 1950s to home cooks in the 1970s bringing it back and so on and so on until we reach 2022 where a TV show on Hulu made it popular again.

But is this Italian-American relic really worth passing along through generations? It certainly has lasted the ages so there’s got to be something there that people keep going back to. Though, that’s kind of an easy thing to answer — it’s lightly fried chicken cutlet in a butter-heavy pan sauce with a nice hit of lemon. What’s not to like?

Well… that depends on how you like capers.

Since we’re pro capers around these parts, we grabbed the recipe from Matty Matheson, the actual food consultant on the show, and followed that while adding a little more flare — it needed way more lemon and parsley to liven it up, IMO. Let’s see if it’s worth adding it to your own dinner rotation, cousin!

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Lemon Chicken Piccata

Serves 4 (on the show Carmy makes a single serving so the ratios are not the same as listed below)

Ingredients:

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (I ended up using 3 to feed five people)
• 1 cup AP flour
• 6 cloves of garlic (roughly chopped)
• 2 tbsp. small capers
• 2 lemons
• 1/8 cup fresh broadleaf parsley (roughly chopped)
• 6 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1/2 dry white wine
• 1/2 cup hot chicken stock
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper
• Olive oil

What You’ll Need:

• Large pan (stainless or non-stick)
• Cutting board
• Meat mallet (or use the frying pan)
• ZipLock bag
• Kitchen knife
• Small grater
• Hand juicer
• Measuring spoons/cups
• Dredging bowl (for flour)
• Resting rack (for cooked chicken)
• Tongs
• Large spoon
• Whisk

Method:

• Place the chicken breast in a large ZipLock bag. Use the back of a heavy pan/skillet or a food mallet to flatten the breast to about 1/3 to 1/2 inch thickness. This isn’t Schnitzel so it doesn’t have to be paper thin, just thin enough to fry evenly and fairly quickly. Repeat with the other breasts.
• Hit each flattened breast with a pinch of salt and a crack of black pepper and set aside.
• Ready your ingredients: Roughly chop the garlic and parsley and set aside. Half the lemons and set aside. Get the capers, butter, wine, and chicken stock ready to go.
• Once you have your ingredients ready, heat a large pan on medium-high heat with a good layer of olive oil coating the whole bottom of the pan (maybe 1/8-inch). While that’s heating, pour the flour into a pie dish or large, shallow bowl and hit with a large pinch of salt and black pepper to season, use a fork to incorporate.
• Once the pan is hot (not smoking but visibly hot), dredge the chicken breast in the flour to just coat it, make sure to shake off any excess flour, and then place the breast in the hot pan. You should be able to fit two breasts in the pan at a time.
• Fry the breast until one side is lightly browned (about two to three minutes) and then flip and cook the other side until lightly browned too (another two to three minutes). Set the breasts aside on a wire rack and repeat with the remaining chicken cutlets.
• Once the cutlets are cooked and resting (place them in the oven on the lowest setting to keep warm if needed), lower the heat to medium and add the garlic. Cook for about 30 seconds or until very fragrant. Immediately add the wine to deglaze the fond from the bottom of the pan (the brown bits created from frying the chicken). This will create a brown liquid base around the garlic.
• Reduce the wine by half and add in the capers and the chicken stock. Again, allow to reduce by about half.
• Once reduced, add in the juice of two lemons and reduce again for a minute or two.
• Then turn off the heat and add in the butter and whisk until a thickened pan sauce forms. Finally, taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed, and add in the parsley and a few grates of fresh lemon zest.
• Plate the cutlets on a large plate and spoon the pan sauce over the meat. Serve immediately.

Bottom Line:

Overall, this was a good dinner course — though I probably overdid it on the parsley (I blame Steve Bramucci’s influence over the years). I ended up serving it with white rice, which really worked well in absorbing the butter/lemon pan sauce. All told, it took about 45 minutes from beginning to table to make, which isn’t terrible for a weeknight meal but a little long.

When it comes to the flavors… yeah, this is nice. I can see why it endured. Again, it’s chicken in a lemon-caper sauce with — did I mention? — a lot of butter. The chicken was juicy and had a good crunch to the outside that kept its bite even after sauced and while eating.

The sauce was earthy and lemony with a nice sweet and sharp garlic bite. The parsley added to the earthiness of the capers while the lemon kept the whole sauce and chicken bright. There was a nice balance of acids and fats that played well with the light bitterness from the capers.

In the end, this still felt very standard. It was good but not something that I’d ever think might help save my restaurant — unless it was literally 1953. It tasted like it was from a bygone era. Not in a bad way, mind you. It’s more like going back to your favorite childhood Italian joint and realizing your parents took you to eat there because it was affordable, not mind-blowing.

Will I cook this again? Sure (with less parsley from my end) — probably with veal next time, though. If you want to try Matheson’s exact version, it can be found below.

After years of seeming like the film was possibly a pipe dream for writer/director Kevin Smith (he seriously teased the thing for almost a decade) Clerks III is finally starting to see the light of day. However, as the first reviews roll in, critics are clearly caught off-guard by the deeply personal tale. Mining Smith’s own experience with a heart attack that nearly killed him, Clerks III uses the writer/director’s most beloved characters, Dante and Randall, to tell a self-indulgent, but “strangely poignant” tale about grappling with one’s mortality.

Naturally, Jay and Silent Bob are along for the ride, but don’t expect a wild dick joke bonanza this time around. Not that there aren’t jokes, but Smith is taking a more meditative approach to the movie universe that surprisingly began with a tiny little black and white movie that could.

Here’s what the critics are saying:

John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter:

Smith knows he has enough loyal followers to justify multiple returns to nearly every well he has dug, at least those related to his “View Askewniverse.” But while some of his many spinoffs and sequels have smelled of near-desperation and little more, this one’s also personal: Inspired by the heart attack that nearly killed him in 2018, it’s a story about valuing those you love and trying to keep living until you’re dead. You know: heartwarming stuff, but with blasphemy, endless fanboy musings and jokes about fellatio.

Matt Donato, IGN:

Clerks III is the product of an ego-less filmmaker with nothing to lose. While Jay and Silent Bob Reboot was technically Kevin Smith’s first feature after miraculously surviving a “widowmaker” cardiac arrest, Clerks III marks Smith’s creative reckoning with the life-altering event. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is an off-color war against reboot culture by an indie gunslinger — Clerks III is the meditative culmination of a father, husband, and geekdom advocate who came face-to-face with his mortality.

Andrew Barker, Variety:

Is this all wildly self-indulgent? A bit. Does it feel like the product of a filmmaker with plenty of fresh ideas? Not really. Has Smith lost his fastball as a writer? You could certainly make that case, and the screenplay’s attempts to recapture some of the rapid-fire pop culture references and x-rated musings of the director’s heyday often land painfully wide of the mark. But there’s something strangely poignant about it all the same. This film is clearly an unusually personal one for Smith.

Amy Kuperinsky, NJ.com:

“Clerks III” is like watching a singalong version of a popular movie musical — you know the songs, it’s more about the experience of singing together. So it follows that Smith, Mewes and the cast are touring with the film, as they did three years ago with “Reboot.” It also follows that Mewes is still owning all his scenes, starting with a dance sequence in a Devils jersey. The authenticity of his persona always made it seem like he was the soul of “Clerks,” and there’s enough of that spirit remaining so it still rings true.

Ross Bonaime, Collider:

Even more so than the previous installments of this series, Clerks III works because of the performances from O’Halloran and Anderson. These two have basically become Smith’s version of Jesse and Celine, and it has been brilliant watching them grow together. Clerks II had these two friends admitting that they loved each other and needed each other, and we begin from that point in Clerks III, as Dante and Randal are now not just co-workers and business partners, they admittedly need each other.

William Bibbiani, The Wrap:

“Clerks III” is serious to a minor fault and breezy to a minor fault. It’s got all the same laid-back, chill vibes cinema that Smith is well-known for, and the same immature approach to genuine maturity that he’s also known for, with a new sense of emotional severity that makes it harder to laugh than it probably should be. “Clerks III” is, if nothing else, “A Kevin Smith Film,” into which he has clearly poured his heart, his soul, his good intentions, and his disarming sense of whimsy. For better and occasionally for worse.

Christian Zilko, IndieWire:

Yes, “Clerks III” is about the characters from “Clerks” making “Clerks.” Although they wisely avoid rupturing the space-time continuum by naming their film “Inconvenience,” much of “Clerks III” consists of watching meticulous recreations of famous scenes. All of the famous anecdotes from the unorthodox shoot (like Smith writing about the shutters being jammed to hide the fact that they filmed at night or scrapping an original ending about Dante being killed by a robber) make it into the film, and Smith’s voice is so present in each character that it essentially feels like you’re watching a director’s commentary track.

Danielle Ryan, /Film:

Smith’s latest isn’t an easy watch, but neither is growing older. “Clerks III” is the director at his most mature and emotionally resonant. It would have been easy to make “Clerks III” an easy nostalgia-fest with lots of throwbacks, but instead Smith opted for something more. It’s a big swing that might not work for frat boys looking to laugh at dick and fart jokes, but that’s what “Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back” is for, after all. “Clerks III” brings things full circle at the Quick Stop in many ways, and it feels like a definitive ending to the saga he started.

Clerks III clocks into theaters on September 13.

The Dallas Mavericks will keep one of their most important players around Luka Doncic on their roster for the next few years. German forward Maxi Kleber, who was slated to enter unrestricted free agency at the conclusion of the 2022-23 NBA season, will sign a new contract extension that is going to keep him around through the 2025-26 campaign.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Kleber and the Mavericks agreed to a 3-year contract extension that will pay him $33 million. It’s a nice raise for Kleber, whose current deal pays him an average of just under $9 million a year.

Kleber has turned into Dallas’ most important players off of the bench due to his ability to knock down looks that Doncic generates and his willingness and ability to switch onto perimeter players on the defensive end of the floor. He was instrumental to the Mavericks’ run to the Western Conference Finals last year, as Kleber averaged 8.7 points and 4.6 rebounds in 25.4 minutes per game, all off the bench, while connecting on 43.6 percent of his threes. This included a playoff career-high 25 points in a win over Utah and knocking down a little more than 46 percent of his triples during the team’s upset of the Phoenix Suns.

After going undrafted in 2014, Kleber spent time with Bayern Munich before joining the Mavericks as a free agent during the 2017 offseason.

Oh boy. Neil Gaiman has found himself on the receiving end of Elon Musk followers who argue that Amazon’s Lord of the Rings is too “woke.” This all started when a Twitter user asked Gaiman what he thought of Musk’s remarks, to which The Sandman legend declared that Elon should stay in his own “fail” lane. On the “fail” note, Neil had referred to Musk’s on-and-off-again quest to buy Twitter, an adventure that’s led to a public legal battle. And Gaiman does know more than Elon about what it’s like to adapt epic fantasy for streaming, given that his new Netflix show is a rousing success, and he’s previously jousted with a tiny “backlash” over diverse casting.

Well, Gaiman poked the metaphorical bear, which is poking him back, and he’s now playing with that bear. Angry Twitter users are now coming at him while seemingly believing that Neil adapted Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (he did not) for Amazon. “YOU crushed my hope – not Elon,” one user wrote while accusing him of refusing to “listen to fans” or “respect the source material” and making “a parody of LotR!” To that, Neil is mock-apologizing. “I’m so sorry,” Neil wrote. “I have taken your hurt to heart and promise that I will no longer make any Lord of the Rings based television for any network ever.”

It doesn’t stop there. When a user came at him with a request to “Stop all the ‘woke diversity’ sh*t, and give us GOOD Lord of the Rings expanded universe,” Gaiman responded, “I’m doing my best but, you know, making all that Lord of the Rings stuff is hard. Er.”

To make things even clearer, Gaiman found himself articulating that he had nothing to do with Rings of Power. Rather, he simply “made the mistake of answering a question when someone tagged me.”

Let’s just say that these interactions are providing amusement.

In conclusion, Neil also has some practical advice for dealing with trolls: “Keep them talking until sunrise.”

Harry Styles has already proven he knows how to dominate the pop landscape; “As It Was” just became the longest-running No. 1 single of the 2020s so far. He could be getting into a different type of music in the future, though, as the way Olivia Wilde sees it, the singer and Don’t Worry Darling star will end up scoring movies at some point down the road.

Wilde is the subject of a new Vanity Fair profile and the feature notes that Wilde gave her Don’t Worry Darling cast “a list of books, articles, music, and movies to absorb” during pre-production. Styles went ahead and sent her song recommendations and even wrote some music for the movie.

Wilde explained, “He called me one day and was like, ‘Hey, what are you using for the trigger song?’” Vanity Fair described the “trigger song” as “the recurring piece that accompanies Alice’s gradual awakening to buried truths.” Wilde said she wanted something “sort of classic, contemporary, simple, melodic, romantic.” Wilde continued, “Harry was like, ‘Huh.’ Then five minutes later he sent me a demo from his piano. I was like, ‘Yep, that’s it. That’s the song. Thank you very much.’”

Wilde added, “He will absolutely end up scoring films for fun.”

Read the full feature here.

Disclaimer: While all of the products recommended here were chosen independently by our editorial staff, Uproxx may receive payment to direct readers to certain retail vendors who are offering these products for purchase.

Welcome to SNX DLX, your weekly roundup of the best sneakers to hit the internet. After what was probably the weakest offering of sneakers we had all year last week, we’re finally back in full force! The back-to-school season is over and now the big brands are bringing out the sneakers we actually care about — rather than re-ups from earlier in the year and a whole grip of children’s sizes.

This means we’ve packed this week’s SNX with the full ten sneaker lineup. Highlights include a couple of brand collaborations via streetwear icon Supreme and French fashion house Jacquemus, as well as new signature kicks out of the Air Jordan and Dame Lillard lineages. Once you scan this week’s picks, complete your fit by hitting up Style Watch, our bi-monthly apparel roundup.

Now, let’s jump into this week’s 10 best sneaker drops.

Nike Air Force 1 Mid ’07 LX Pale Ivory and Shimmer

This week’s Nike Air Force 1 Mid ’07 LX celebrates the lineage of the silhouette with a special anniversary edition that pays tribute to the sneaker’s journey from a performance sneaker to a streetwear staple. Featuring a removable timeline on the tongue that lists some of the sneaker’s most beloved drops, this Pale Ivory and Shimmer rendition features premium leather, canvas, and cork construction with elegant embroidered accents on the heel.

It’s the perfect sneaker for anyone who wants to celebrate the mighty AF-1.

The Nike Air Force 1 Mid ’07 LX Pale Ivory and Shimmer is out now for a retail price of $140. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Nike Air Pegasus 83 Sail and Light Chocolate

This year, Nike has been paying a lot of love to the Pegasus 83 silhouette, and this week’s Sail and Light Chocolate is one of the best colorways the sneaker has seen. Featuring a mix of off-white tones and brown, the Pegasus 83 features a rubber waffle outsole, a soft foam midsole, and a leather, suede, and canvas upper.

The Nike Air Pegasus ’83 Sail and Light Chocolate is set to drop on September 8th at 7:00 AM PST, pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Nike Air Force 1 Mid Black and Metallic Silver/White and Metallic Silver

This is quite a week for Air Force 1 fans, in addition to the celebratory LX, Nike will also be dropping two new takes on the Mid-rise silhouette featuring metallic silver accents. The Black Metallic Silver and White Metallic Silver feature premium leather uppers with waxed laces, metallic silver accents, and translucent outsoles that reveal a hidden swoosh.

As much as we like the LX edition, we have to admit — these are better.

The Nike Air Force 1 Mid Black and Metallic Silver and White and Metallic Silver are set to drop on September 8th at 7:00 AM for a retail price of $185. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Supreme x Nike SB Blazer Mid

Serving as the centerpiece of Supreme’s upcoming FW22 drop, the streetwear icon has teamed up with favorite collaborator Nike for two new luxurious takes on the SB Blazer Mid. Featuring a faux snakeskin Swoosh with debased leather logos and a design inspired by Italian luxury handbags, this set of Blazer Mid drop in both a premium black leather colorway as well as a more rugged blue denim rendition.

Both pairs featured quilted stitching and Supreme branding at the tongue, but we’ve got to give it to the black leather version, that’s definitely the better of the two. Always go leather over denim, unless we’re talking pants.

The Supreme x Nike SB Blazer Mid QS2 is set to drop on September 8th for an unannounced retail price. Pick up a pair exclusively at Supreme.

New Balance MADE in USA 990v3 Olive Leaf with Black

New Balance is pretty close to having the best release of the week with this Friday’s Olive Leaf 990v3. Coming out of New Balance’s MADE in USA line, this 990 features a premium pig suede and mesh upper with an ENCAP midsole, a synthetic suede sicklier, and a great Stray Rats-esque colorway that combines purple and black with an earthy olive green. New Balance has seemingly done the impossible, they’ve taken dad-shoe silhouettes and infused them with so much color and style that they no longer really satisfy that dad shoe aesthetic… And that’s not a bad thing!

The New Balance MADE in USA 990v3 Olive Leaf with Black is set to drop on September 9th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $199.99. Pick up a pair at New Balance.

Nike Women’s Dunk Low Medium Olive

I guess it’s the season of olive green! In an attempt to one-up New Balance (it didn’t work) Nike is dropping a women’s size exclusive Dunk Low that combines olive green paneling over a white leather upper. The sneaker features a matching swoosh outsole and laces, giving the sneaker a simple dual-color black design.

It looks great, we only wish Nike made the effort to drop this one in a full-size run.

The Nike Women’s Dunk Low Medium Olive is set to drop on September 9th at 7:00 AM for a retail price of $110. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT.

Nike Dunk High Vintage Pecan and Sail

Elegant and autumnal, this high top Dunk features a beautiful Pecan and Sail colorway with sky blue laces over an aged midsole. This Dunk High Vintage features a slub canvas and tumbled leather upper with a padded high-top collar, and upper imperfections, giving the sneaker an aged look and feel.

The Nike Dunk High Vintage Pecan and Sail is set to drop on September 9th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $135. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Air Jordan 3 Fire Red

You can’t go wrong with a Jordan 3, ever, but a Fire Red Jordan 3? That’s the sort of colorway that tops all-time great lists, so if you’re lucky enough to snag a pair of these sneakers this week, you’ll be holding on to a legendary colorway of one of the greatest sneakers of all time.

The Fire Red features a cracked Black and Irony Grey mudguard over a premium white leather upper with an embroidered Jumpman logo at the tongue and vintage Nike Air branding at the heel.

The Nike Air Jordan 3 Fire Red is set to drop on September 10th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $210. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT and Flight Club.

Nike Air Humara x Jacquemus Light Bone and Gold/Ale Brown and Gold

Nike has linked up with Paris-based fashion house Jacquemus for an elegant take on the Air Humara. Dropping in both a Light Bone and Gold and Ale Brown and Gold colorway, this Jacquemus Air Humara is constructed from luxe materials including a textile-wrapped midsole and fuzzy suede, with elegant midsole detailing and mini metal swoosh.

Jacquemus is the only brand that would think to make a hiking sneaker look this elevated and elegant, and we’re here for it!

The Nike Air Humara x Jacquemus Light Bone and Gold/ Ale Brown and Gold is set to drop on September 10th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $170. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Adidas Dame 8 Cloud White/Core Black

Adidas Dame 8 is getting two new colorways this week, a simple but elegant Cloud White rendition, and a more stealthy Core Black, adding a more understated and minimal look than what we’ve come to expect from the Dame 8. The Dame 8 features an Air-Mesh upper over a Bounce Pro midsole with textile lining and special Dame Lillard branding at the tongue. It might take some getting used to considering the Dame 8 is known for its bold and bright colors, but we had to admit, this more understated take looks great on this simple performance-focused design.

The Adidas Dame 8 Cloud White/Core Black is set to drop on September 10th at 12:00 AM PST for a retail price of $130. Pick up a pair via the Adidas CONFIRMED app.

Bryson Tiller has found a new decade to ransack for beats. After spending the early part of his career sampling ’90s R&B staples to sing and rap over, on his new single, “Outside,” he moves on to the early 2000s, jacking the beat to the Ying Yang Twins’ raunchy 2005 anthem “Wait (The Whisper Song)” to make his play for a wounded woman’s affections. “Hate to be your ex, know that n**** feel stupid,” he quips. “Thumbin’ through the ‘Gram, tryna figure out where you been / All he need to know is that you’re outside.”

The Louisville product has been relatively quiet of late, only recently re-emerging from musical hibernation to lend Diddy an assist on the Platinum-era pioneer’s new single, “Gotta Move On.” Tiller popped back up last week with a video on Instagram announcing his impending new single while teasing fans about a possible new project, which “we’ll talk about later,” he promised. Fans have certainly been waiting impatiently for the new album; his last full-length release, Anniversary, was released in October 2020, meaning there wasn’t really a tour for it, since “outside” was out-of-reach due to COVID-19.

In early 2021, though, he did give fans a promising update on his upcoming fourth studio album, tentatively titled Serenity. “Over the years, I realized how much f*cking music that I had for Serenity, all this different sh*t, so Serenity is now not one album, but it’s three albums,” he said during a live stream. “It’s three volumes, one is a rap album, one is an R&B album, and then one is a pop album.”

Until then, you can check out “Outside” above.

In July, Puerto Rican pop star Ricky Martin was accused of domestic violence and incest by his nephew, Dennis Yadiel Sanchez, who filed a protection order against him. Sanchez claimed that he and Martin were in a relationship for seven months and that the relationship was marked by “physical and psychological attacks on him” by the singer. Shortly after, Sanchez withdrew the claims.

Now the singer is suing his 21-year-old nephew for $20 million in damages. Martin’s attorneys claim Sanchez is a “maladjusted person” who Martin has been “persecuted, besieged, harassed, stalked and extorted by.”

After the court case was dismissed, Martin’s lawyer shared a statement about the matter.

“Just as we had anticipated, the temporary protection order was not extended by the Court,” the statement read. “The accuser confirmed to the court that his decision to dismiss the matter was his alone, without any outside influence or pressure, and the accuser confirmed he was satisfied with his legal representation in the matter.”

It continued, “The request came from the accuser asking to dismiss the case. This was never anything more than a troubled individual making false allegations with absolutely nothing to substantiate them. We are glad that our client saw justice done and can now move forward with his life and his career.”

It sounds pretty unbelievable, but it has been nearly 24 years since rap last saw an all-women posse cut — and even longer since one had any commercial impact. The last two times more than three female rappers were on a song together spitting verses, Bill Clinton was still in office, the first PlayStation was out, and Cardi B still looked like she bit people. This week, that long drought is about to be broken thanks to Nicki Minaj, of all people.

With her new single “Super Freaky Girl” earning her first solo No. 1 (also the first for a female rapper since ’98), Nicki is upping the ante (super bonus points if you get what I did there) with a remix featuring the first all-women lineup since either Nicki D’s promo record “Six Pack” or Queen Latifah’s “Brownsville.” It’s unclear which actually dropped first — the internet back then wasn’t what it is today [*reminisces in dial-up*].

Today, Nicki finally teased the lineup for her remix, sharing the bootylicious cover art, which only shows the six women from behind, all wearing matching boots and teeny silver bikinis. The clues to their identities come in the form of a suitcase at the forefront of the picture featuring stickers with the women’s origin cities on them. They read: Miami, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, and New York.

Naturally, fans are already speculating on just who the guest rappers might be. Considering the cities involved, it would seem that Boston’s the easiest to guess: That would be BIA, who Nicki previously collaborated with on the remix to “Whole Lotta Money.” It only makes sense that she’d return the favor. Meanwhile, Miami would almost certainly be City Girls, although Trina wouldn’t be out of the question, as they’ve worked together before. Chicago gets a little iffier — the only really viable acts from there are acts like Dreezy and the unpredictable Cupcakke, with fans leaning more toward the latter.

Atlanta’s also obvious: If it ain’t Latto, I’ll eat my hat. Despite Latto previously worked with Nicki’s longtime rival Cardi B, the Atlantan rising star was also careful to avoid picking sides when media goaded her to. And as far as New York goes, sure, that could be Nicki herself, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see her roll the dice on a DreamDoll feature, which would launch the bubbling artist into the stratosphere. There’s one other female rapper from New York that would blow fans’ minds, and I wouldn’t put it past Nicki to use this opportunity to really surprise people, but the main reason it’d be a surprise is that it’s so unlikely. Some fans also seem to be projecting a Flo Milli appearance, but there isn’t a Montgomery, Alabama sticker on that suitcase.

The good news is, we only have to wait a work day to find out. Nicki says she’ll be premiering the song on her Queen Radio podcast at 8 pm ET and 5 pm PT, unless she has those timezones mixed up, in which case, it’ll be 11 pm ET and 8 pm PT. Stay tuned.