Lil Kim told her audience at the Apollo Theater last month that she’s “so proud” of Lola Brooke before the two New York rappers performed Brooke’s “Don’t Play With It” together. Timberland has noticed Brooke’s potential, too.
The iconic brand shared its Hip-Hop Royalty Boot last week in honor of the 50th anniversaries of both hip-hop and Timberland. Brooke is the star of the accompanying 30-second campaign.
“The Original Timberland® Boot and Hip Hop were born in 1973 — that’s 50 years of an iconic combination,” Timberland captioned a joint Instagram post with Brooke. “Hip Hop has impacted our brand enormously over the past five decades, so we’re proud to present Brooklyn MC, @lola.brooke, who is one of the voices carrying Hip Hop into the next 50 years, in the Timberland® Hip Hop Royalty Boot.”
In the video, Brooke narrates, “This is not a boot. This is how we thrive. It’s truth in living color, where the art comes alive. This is the cypher circling ’round the globe. Every gender, every nation adding to the flow. No limits to the vision. We defy definition. This is not a boot. It’s 50 years of ambition.”
“Since a little girl, I’ve been saying that I wanted to be this entertainer,” the Brooklyn native said. “Sometimes you get discouraged because when you don’t receive the good feedback [that you wanted]. It just means that you got to keep working.”
She continued, “[There are] a lot of people that you going up against that want that same spotlight, so regardless if you’re not in competition with everybody else, the people will make you in competition with everybody else. So you got to find a way of being different so that you won’t get caught up in the drama and still win.”
Brooke is racking up more wins as the opener on A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie’s Me Vs. Myself Tour. See the remaining dates here.
A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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. This week Adidas finally rejoins our weekly roundup with the Harden Vol 7 and not only that, we went ahead and gave them the front cover treatment by using James Harden in our main image. Welcome back, Adidas! While we’re happy to see the three stripes brand finally drop something worth scooping up, this week still belongs to Nike who snagged six of the eight spots with new Jordan drops, some Air Maxes, and a big Supreme collaboration.
We’re three months into 2023 and are only now getting a Supreme collab but for fans of the box-logo brand, it’s a big one as it also brings the resurrection of a forgotten ’90s silhouette from Nike’s archive — the Air Bakin. If Supreme can be counted on for anything, it’s bringing to light forgotten Nike silhouettes and pushing them back into rotation.
Will we finally see Nike showing some love to the Air Bakin throughout 2023? Let’s hope. For now, let’s dive into this week’s 8 best sneaker drops!.
Nike Women’s Dunk High 1985 Alabaster
Nike
If you’re looking for a pair of Dunks but want something that leans even more vintage, this week’s Dunk High ’85 Alabaster will check all the boxes. Featuring a mixed nubuck, suede, full grain and synthetic leather upper, this sneaker combines deep burgundy tones, off-white paneling, and aged yellow details for a luxurious-yet-worn look.
Rounding out the design is an embroidered ’85 logo at the heel and a woven tongue tag. Unfortunately for those with big feet, this sneaker is only dropping in a limited Women’s shoe size that caps at W12.
The Nike Women’s Dunk High 1985 Alabaster is out now for a retail price of $140. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.
NikeNike
Women’s Air Jordan 12 x A Ma Maniere Black and Burgundy Crush
Nike
If you missed out on last week’s super dope A Ma Maniére drop you have another chance to cop the Black and Burgundy Crush pair via the Nike SNKRS app. You’re looking at what will probably go down as one of the sneakers of the year, it features a classic leather build with metal eyelets and a mudguard made from super plush suede.
It takes the original concept of the Air Jordan 12 — a luxury basketball sneaker — and elevates it beyond what Tinker Hatfield and Jordan could’ve possibly imagined.
The Women’s Air Jordan 12 x A Ma Maniére Black and Burgundy Crush is set to drop on March 2nd at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $225. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT.
NikeNike
Adidas Harden Volume 7
Adidas
Adidas is finally joining the lineup this week courtesy of James Harden. Featuring an all-textile upper in reflective silver, the Harden 7 looks like what a puffer jacket would look like if it were a shoe and considering the puffer jacket is bigger right now than ever, we’ll take it!
The Harden 7 sports a Lightstrike cushioning system for a lightweight but supportive fit over a BOOST midsole and a rubber outsole to help ensure that every step is like walking on clouds. It’s a reminder of how much Adidas prioritizes comfort. Nike may have the better designs, but tell try and claim Adidas aren’t more comfortable! You can’t.
The Adidas Harden Volume 7 is set to drop on March 2nd at 9:00 AM PST for a retail price of $160. Pick up a pair via the Adidas CONFIRMED app.
AdidasAdidas
Nike Women’s Air Max 1 ’87 Safari
Nike
The Air Max 1 is getting the safari treatment! Featuring a Summit White and Sail upper, this Air Max sports the original 1987 design specs with a wavy mudguard and swoosh covered in Nike’s famed safari print, which debuted on the Nike Air Safari. Rounding out the design is a black outsole with university blue details. It’s an ultra-clean and simple design that catches the eye from every angle.
It’s that classic low-effort but big-return release that only Nike could pull off thanks to their legacy design details.
The Nike Women’s Air Max 1 ’87 Safari is set to drop on March 3rd at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $150. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT and Flight Club.
NikeNike
Nike Women’s Air Max 95 Safari
Nike
If you’re not feeling the vintage vibes of the Air Max 1 Safari allow us to present to you a… slightly less vintage Air Max 95. Recalling the famous Silver Surfer colorway, this Air Max 95 features the same safari print from the 1 in three-different gradients across the ’95s famous wavy upper. What makes this sneaker special is the reflective details throughout the sneaker which make the show glow when light hits it.
While both the 1 and 95 Safari are dope, we’re liking the increased amount of effort on this pair by way of the reflective details. Nike took an already sleek silhouette and made it just a bit more flashy.
The Nike Women’s Air Max 95 Safari is set to drop on March 3rd at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $180. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.
NikeNike
Air Jordan 5 University Blue
Nike
How do you get the entire sneaker community excited about buying yet another Air Jordan 5? You drop it in a classic colorway like University Blue. Uni Blue is a top-five Jordan colorway, partly because it represents Jordan’s alma mater colors, so it has a sort of legacy to it that makes Jordan fans salivate. But University Blue is also great because… I mean look at it! It’s beautiful! Who doesn’t love that sky-blue sheen?
Featuring an all-leather upper with silver details, an icy outsole, and a speckled shark tooth, this Jordan 5 is perfect. No notes from us. It’s one of the best Jordan drops of the year.
The Air Jordan 5 University Blue is set to drop on March 4th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $225. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.
NikeNike
Supreme x Nike Air Bakin
Supreme
Fans of obscure ‘90s era Nike silhouettes rejoice! Supreme is bringing back the Air Bakin. Recalled for having a stylized embroidered heel logo that resembled the Arabic spelling of Allah, the Air Bakin was debuted in 1997 by Tim Hardaway and sported a design that combined the swirling styles of the Air Penny 2 and the Air Max 95. Not explicitly, but it’s a little hard to look at a pair of these shoes and not think of those other staple silhouettes.
Supreme is dropping two colorways of the sneaker, a psychedelic purple-to-yellow gradient addition and an all-white pair both featuring Supreme branding at the heel tab and a revamped NYC embroidered logo at the heel.
The Supreme x Nike Air Bakin is set to drop on March 2nd for a retail price of $160. Pick up a pair exclusively at Supreme.
SupremeSupreme
New Balance MADE in USA 996 Blue with White
New Balance
After a very strong showing for the last few weeks, New Balance is keeping this quiet this week with just one simple drop: a new MADE in USA 996 colorway that combines cool blue tines with white and tan. Featuring a mesh upper with hairy suede paneling, and pigskin detailing, above an ENCAP midsole, the new 996 sports a vintage woven tongue label and a MADE in USA branded sockliner.
New Balance might have gone light on the release, but they’re serving quality and we’ll take that over quantity any day.
The New Balance MADE in USA 996 Blue with White is set to drop on March 3rd at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $189.99. Pick up a pair at New Balance.
Some three and a half decades ago, Nicholas Cage made a profoundly strange little movie called Vampire’s Kiss. He played a very ‘80s Manhattan literary agent who starts to think, probably foolishly, that he’s a vampire. It is bananas. Maybe the wildest part is this: He eats a real cockroach. Cage really did that. Jump to the present day, and one of his costars — and someone with almost the same first name — is following in his footsteps, sort of.
In a new, not-yet-online interview with Total Film (as caught by /Film), Nicholas Hoult talks about Renfield, the forthcoming Dracula riff in which he plays the titular familiar to Cage’s Count. Apparently Renfield does some bug-eating, mostly in a scene where he’s trying to “top up” his powers before a big fight. So Hoult decided to do go Faux-Method and eat some real bugs, too. But they weren’t just critters he found scurrying about set. And they didn’t only taste of bug:
“I think they just ordered them from Amazon or wherever. The crickets came in different flavors. Some of them were barbecue, some were salt and vinegar. Honestly, once you get over the idea of what it is you’re eating, they weren’t that bad. And I ate a lot. There was only one that I didn’t like — it was a potato bug, and that one did taste… buggy.”
Not that all of Hoult’s on-set diet was actual bugs. Some of the “cockroaches” were actually fake ones, made of chocolate, which Hoult deemed “suitably chewy and sticky in the teeth, but delicious.”
Anyway, bug-eating isn’t that weird! Survival guides advise eating bugs if you’re lost in the wild. They’re rich in protein. There’s even a documentary about the joy of eating insects, arguing that they may be a good source of food in a world being overrun by the effects of climate change. In the meantime, you can, like the makers of Renfield, order crickets on Amazon, or anywhere else that delivers food.
Gordi unveiled her album Inhuman last year. Her vulnerable, insightful songs grapple with casual tragedies, whether that’s fires in her home country of Australia on that album’s title track or a feeling of sinking emptiness on her new song, “Broke Scene.”
“The Lazy Susan spun around the yum cha table as I drained the last of my Tsingtao,” Gordi (real name Sophie Payten) said about the single. “I had an afternoon of writing ahead of me, which was giving me ‘the Sunday feeling.’ I was in such a post-lunch haze when I got back to the piano, that I thought I’d just lie down and close my eyes for a second. I woke up an hour later in a cold yum cha sweat. Almost robotically, I picked up a guitar and started playing this riff, as if I’d been dreaming about it. I looped a drum part over the top that my friend Chris Messina had sent me. By the time the sun set, I had written ‘Broke Scene.’”
The swirling song encapsulates the poignant energy of her music. “Why do you keep burning your house down? / Can you see you’re burning your house down?” she croons.
Today, March 1, Momma’s Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten reflected on the whirlwind with “Bang Bang.”
The hypnotic single indulges the universal fantasy of having free time (“Bang bang and sleep in”) and doing whatever they want with it, reckless or not, without shame (“Life is good between my thighs / I get high, and you hold it down”).
“Bang Bang” was written and recorded alongside producer/bassist Aron Kobayashi Ritch following Momma’s inaugural headlining North American tour last fall, per a press release.
“Allegra and I ended up getting COVID at the same time, so we decided to isolate, get drunk, and write together,” Friedman said in a statement. “Within a night, we had demoed a hot sounding song about great sex.”
“We wanted to write something lyrically different than anything else we’d done — just super literal and crude,” Weingarten added. “We shared it with Aron, and he sent us back a new version with a lot of added extra production: drums, bass, synths, acoustic guitar, etc. It felt totally different and fresh. The finished song has a lot of classic Momma — heavy guitars and catchy melodies — but packaged in a different form. It feels immediate, like a whole new sound for the band.”
Indie band Men I Trust make sprawling, dreamy songs that drew the attention of Joey Badass, who sampled their seductive “Show Me How” for his “Show Me.” The glimmering guitars serve as the perfect backdrop for his flows. After taking the track to late-night television, he’s back with an accompanying short film featuring actress Serayah.
Earlier this week, he teased this music video by posting a romantic picture of him and Serayah at dinner together, getting quite close. It sparked dating rumors immediately. The video, though, is full of as much spice as the song would suggest. The chemistry between the pair is palpable, as they live out a passionate relationship for the entirety of the nearly five-minute track.
Joey has plenty of acting experience himself. Last year, he spoke to HipHopDX about his role as Kadeem “Unique” Mathis in the TV show Power Book III: Raising Kanan.
“Acting, in general, comes pretty instinctively to me,” he said. “Just in a way where you kind of go somewhere else. Like on that stage, I gotta go into superstar mode. I’m still here, but it’s like a superstar hangover, but when I’m home, it’s a different vibe where I’m chill.”
Directed by Sarah McColgan, Nas’ “30” video is poignantly simplistic. Shot in black-and-white, Nas enters an empty warehouse alone. It’s dark, except for light shining through the slightly cracked door. Nas lets his longevity do the talking — melodically running through everything he’s overcome (“I’m done with star chicks, I survived divorces”) and asserting his resiliency (“I’m wild for keepin’ it so timeless / Almost half a century with a crispy lineup”).
“Goin’ on thirty summers,” Nas raps. “We been movin’ how you f*ck n****s want / And my ’30 for 30′ highlights doin’ numbers.” (Of course, his iconic debut album, Illmatic, dropped in 1994.)
Last week, Nas visited The Late Show With Stephen Colbertand explained that, to him, King’s Disease encompasses “over-indulgence” and detailed how he’s navigated its potential pitfalls over the years.
“I read about a lot of artists that came up in our time or before our time, and some of them were wild people. And I learned a lot from them, and it kind of gave me some of the guidelines in this business,” he said, adding that the only way to cure the King’s Disease is to “kill the ego” and “make it about the music, make it about the art, and live your life.”
Michelle Yeoh is currently enjoying the biggest success of her life, and with good reason: She has always kicked ass. (For proof, watch this mind-blowing clip of her and Cynthia Rothrock in 1985’s Yes, Madam!, the first starring role for both of them.) Many Americans first saw her in 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies, in which she out-badasses Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond. You’d think it would have led to a flurry of great parts. But in a recent interview, Yeoh revealed that during that period, she didn’t work for two full years because the roles were so crap.
In a new interview with People (in a bit teased out by Insider), Yeoh says that she got more heartache than happiness after her Bond movie. For one thing, she said, “people in the industry couldn’t really tell the difference between whether I was Chinese or Japanese or Korean or if I even spoke English.” She added, “They would talk very loudly and very slow.”
Then there were the insulting offers: “I didn’t work for almost two years, until Crouching Tiger, simply because I could not agree with the stereotypical roles that were put forward to me.”
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon wound up being a watershed, becoming one of the biggest martial arts hits at the global box office, even in America, and despite it being subtitled.
Luckily, it doesn’t seem the same thing is happening to Yeoh after Everything Everywhere All at Once. She nabbed the role of Madame Morrible in the two-part Wicked film adaptation.
“In the past, this role would’ve been for a Caucasian lady,” Yeoh told People. “This is what we call diversity, inclusivity. This is how you make it work. It is a natural process — progress, evolution that we can have as storytellers.”
And then there’s the little case of her maybe winning an Oscar in a couple weeks. If so, hopefully the orchestra knows not to dare play her off.
Remember that time Mark Ruffalo not-even-vaguely spoiled the ending of Avengers: Infinity War months before it came out — and somehow no one noticed? Marvel got so mad, apparently, that they sent him a dummy script for Endgame. Then there’s Tom Holland, who has a reputation for dropping spoilers. No wonder MCU honchos now treat their precious scripts like Fort Knox gold. Indeed, Anthony Mackie recently laid out what it’s like to even access his screenplays.
On an episode this week of The Kelly Clarkson Show, Mackie discussed his lead role in the Harrison Ford-featuring Captain America: New World Order, his first film as the new Cap. As it happened, on the day of filming he had just been giving the film’s script. “I haven’t read it. Haven’t opened it. I haven’t gotten my passcode to the website that lets you into the website.”
In fact, it sounds like it’s a convoluted process, which he happily laid out. “We literally get a passcode to a website that gives us a location to meet the person to sign, to sit with a computer, and read our script. They don’t trust nobody,” Mackie explained. “And it’s always like some 21-year-old intern and he just hates you. He’s sitting there eating Cheetos and he’s like ‘Read faster.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m dyslexic.’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t care.’”
Mackie also discussed his dyslexia:
“That’s what got me into acting. Teachers are the most important foundation of American culture. And I had this teacher named Ms. Dorsey. I was making straight As and Bs. I couldn’t figure out English. ‘See spot run,’ I didn’t even know Spot was in a race. She was like, ‘We just need to find something to pique your interests, make reading interesting.’ And then she gave me this whole program and all of a sudden I’m reading Shakespeare, I’m reading Ibsen, I’m reading Chekhov. I’m reading all this different stuff and it’s making sense.”
Making cracking open their scripts difficult isn’t the only way they’ve played coy with Mackie. As of last fall, the actor wasn’t even sure if he’d be in one of the next big films, Thunderbolts.
You can watch Mackie’s chat with Kelly Clarkson in the video below.
No matter where you’re from, how much money you have or how famous you are, when you become a mother your whole world turns upside down. Motherhood can catapult you to the highest highs, drag you through the lowest lows and fling you around corners you never saw coming. It’s like the best and worst roller coaster ever.
Throw in dealing with your own childhood issues, and motherhood becomes an even more terrifying thrill ride. A friend recently remarked that raising kids can be simultaneously triggering and therapeutic for people with their own childhood traumas, and it’s so true. Just ask Drew Barrymore.
Sitting face to face on the sofa, Pink and Barrymore shared an intimate conversation about motherhood that was refreshingly real and relatable. Barrymore’s daughters are 8 and 10 years old and Pink’s kids are 11 and 6, so they are both right in the middle of their mothering journeys, the stage when parenting becomes more emotionally demanding than physically demanding.
The conversation opens with Barrymore asking Pink, “What can I tell myself when I’m afraid my kids will do some of the stuff I did?” which leads to laughter, some wise advice and Pink admitting she carries a tote bag that says “I literally have no idea what I’m doing” to preschool drop-off.
Definitely worth a watch:
“Omg- being the mom of two single digits kids- these two women moved me. I wish I had friends like this to have deep, real conversations with,” wrote one commenter.
“As someone who has idolized Pink since I was about 14, I hang on to her every word, and that last part brought me to tears. I felt the exact same way when my daughter was born. A beautiful little girl, unscathed by the world. Wow,” wrote another.
“None of us knows what we’re doing and it’s tragic and beautiful all at the same time,” wrote another. Amen to that.
Every mom needs this kind of heartfelt honesty in her life. Thanks for giving us a glimpse of what that can look like, Drew and Pink.
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