Category: Viral

Back in 1996, Chris Swanson, Ben Swanson, Eric Weddle, Jonathan Cargill founded the Bloomington, Indiana-based label Secretly Canadian. Indie music fans know the label well, of course, as it has been home to many era-defining artists, like The War On Drugs, Whitney, Jason Molina, and plenty of others. Now that the label has been around for 25 years, they are celebrating in a number of ways.

All of these ways are part of the year-long SC25 initiative to help fight homelessness in Bloomington, which aims to raise a quarter of a million dollars for Bloomington organization New Hope For Families. The label shared a statement about the initiative, which also addresses the recent fatal FedEx shooting in Indianapolis, writing:

“Like all of our neighbors here in Indiana, the Secretly family are devastated by the news that developed overnight. Our hearts are with all of those affected by the tragedy in Indianapolis.

Secretly was founded in 1996, just down the road in Bloomington, and today we are sharing plans — long in the works — to mark our 25th anniversary with a mission to aid families experiencing homelessness in our hometown. Though our hearts are heavy, we feel more connected to our local community than ever, and it is with grief and gratitude that we go forward with these plans today.”

The celebration will include the SC25 Editions series of rereleases, a collection of 12 albums re-issued in limited editions. Releases will arrive in groups of four throughout the year, and the first set includes Jens Lekman’s When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog, The War On Drugs’ Wagonwheel Blues, Tig Notaro’s Live, and Whitney’s Light Upon The Lake.

On top of that, there’s also the SC25 Singles series, which will feature “25 new, rare and unreleased songs, covers and collaborations from artists both within and outside the Secretly Canadian family.” The first two of these singles have been released today: Stella Donnelly’s cover of Jens Lekman’s “If I Could Cry (It Would Feel Like This)” and Porridge Radio’s rendition of Scout Niblett’s “Wet Road.” Proceeds from all the aforementioned releases will go to New Hope For Families.

Learn more about the SC25 Editions series here and listen to the new Donnelly and Porridge Radio tracks below.

It’s a moment we (or maybe only me) were waiting for: Ray Romano singing “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé on Made for Love, as heard in the trailer. But sadly, it never appeared in the series. I don’t hold it against the HBO Max tech-comedy too strongly because it was still a good show and Cristin Milioti rules, but at the same time, I’m furious. If you promise me the star of Everybody Loves Raymond covering Beyoncé, you better deliver.

So what happened? Basically, it was very effective marketing.

“When thoughtfully considering the best first beat in this marketing campaign, we wanted to lean into this absurdity and leave our potential audience with piqued interest but more questions than answers,” Pia Chaozon Barlow, HBO Max’s senior VP of original marketing, told the A.V. Club. “The idea for the ‘Rayonce’ teaser was born out of the desire to lean into the notoriety and popularity of a smash hit and recognizable song lyrics while also leveraging the iconic voice of Ray Romano.” She added that Romano’s spoken-word cover, which I’m guessing his character has sung to “synthetic partner” Diane at least once, “provided an unexpected twist and allowed us to kick the door open on this marketing campaign in a surprising way.” The big takeaway there is: “Rayonce.”

If Made for Love returns for season two, Brad Garrett should sing “Halo.”

(Via the AV Club)

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.

Exactly a year and two days ago, Kenny Mason arrived on the music scene as part fiery lyricist, part rock star, and part rookie of the year contender. This all came with the release of his debut project, Angelic Hoodrat, which arrived in the midst of worldwide chaos and confusion as the coronavirus pandemic began its second month of existence in the United States. Despite this and a slight moment of reconsideration, the Atlanta native dropped the album in what proved to be a well-executed move.

The title that is Angelic Hoodrat carries a duality that is hard to miss in Mason’s music. His ability to move effortlessly between songs that are influenced by today’s hip-hop to that of which carry a heavy rock influence are just half of the recipe. This duality is also formed from Mason making the best of both worlds, one that represents the struggle that once was and another that is the current success he indulges in. For the rapper himself, this was all intentional and he’s happy to see that fans have continued to receive the project

“I think it translated almost exactly like how I wanted it to,” he said during a call with Uproxx. “People that like my stuff, they get it, they understand the duality of the title and within the music too and I’m really happy about that.” That duality gets to live again through a new edition of his debut project, Angelic Hoodrat: Supercut. The 12-track effort sees appearances from the likes of Freddie Gibbs, Denzel Curry, and more. Along with its arrival, Mason sat down with Uproxx for a conversation surrounding the project, standing out on the Atlanta rap scene, and what success means to him.

You just hit the one-year anniversary mark of Angelic Hoodrat. How has the last year been like for you?

Overall it’s been exciting. I know it’s a pandemic and that messed up a lot of plans that we had, but it also was cool, because I got to make more music. I may have not even had a Supercut if I didn’t just have time to sit down and make it. I be trying to find the good in everything and I feel like it was still some good that came out of having to be home. I’m blessed too, it was people that ain’t have jobs or lost their jobs and all type of crazy sh*t. I’m blessed, I ain’t got nothing to complain about and I’m really happy that we made some cool stuff during that time.

I love the Angelic Hoodrat title and how it’s an oxymoron that you relate to yourself. Why’d you pick that specific title and what meaning does it hold for you in your life?

Well, the title came from a bar I had in a song that’s not coming out. I thought it was just something cool to say, because I always liked stuff with a general religious tone, not heavenly or not specific, but just an aura of feeling angelic or ethereal, stuff like that. I’m also Zone 3, it just goes hand-in-hand, but it really did grow because that was like 3-4 years ago when I say that line and then my homeboy was like, “That should be the title of a song or a project.” So I always kept in mind and then the meaning just grew like “Yo, I’m really got a duality to myself.” I’m discovering that more and I’m discovering it more sonically too in my music and conceptually, so it grew into his own thing.

What is the key music-related moment or moments that took place in your life that’s also foundational towards the artist you are today?

I think like the area I grew up in, my sort of love-hate, ultimately love, relationship with my environments, the environments that I was in. I understand certain things that happened to me that seemed bad or just moments of adversity helped me grow and prepare me for life in general because life ain’t easy for nobody. I don’t think life gets easier, I think you just learn how to deal with it better. I have to be grateful for things that I’ve learned, but I also know why these areas are the way they are, historically too, and I know, psychologically, why people do things they do, or act the way they act, or make the decisions they make. I struggle with my sort of resentment with being a product of that and feeling like I didn’t have a choice, but also I feel extremely liberated because I know my destiny is up to me. Depending on my attitude or how I look at certain situations, I can grow from it and that’s real liberating, too.

You come from a city that thrives in the realm of trap rap (Young Thug, Future, Young Nudy, Gunna, etc.) and more traditional rappers (Deante Hitchcock, JID, etc.), but you stick out in this scene and your album is proof of that. How have you been able to find comfort in this space?

I think it might be, as far as what I’m into, it may be a generational thing of kids that grew up on the internet or having the access to explore stuff that I like outside of what’s going on in my neighborhood. I grew up in Westside Atlanta and in my teenage years, I came up in Zone 3, folks like [Young] Thug, they’re from Zone 3, but also, I was on YouTube listening to Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, and My Chemical Romance. I was listening to stuff that I can’t go outside and hear, but I’m on the internet and I can explore it as deep as I want to know. I’ve always been that way when I like something, I indulge in it all the way. I try to find every bit of it and anything close to it, I try to explore all that. It’s the most like that when it comes to music and different types of sounds and sonics. I’ll find an artist and then I’ll find every artist that had anything to do with that artist. That’s combined with me just being in the city and stuff that’s already right there.

So you really just found the best of both worlds.

Yeah, and it happened naturally. Even now, I’m not trying to make grunge music or whatever, I like the way that this sounds, the beat is going this way, and I got these words to say over it and then it comes out that way. I’m blessed enough to have the patience to make it cohesive. I gotta know myself to be able to make it make sense.

What are some attributes and messages for yourself that you require to be present in the music you create?

That sh*t just gotta hit bro, that sh*t just gotta hit me. It gotta be very honest and it is a little bit of premeditation as far as the overall outline conceptually, but I don’t put too much pressure on trying to make it a storyline per se or a narrative. I don’t want to force the listener into a narrative, I want everybody to have their own narrative to it cause that’s what great art is to me, or so I’ve been told. That’ll get better too, I’ll have more of an understanding on that as I go too. It just gotta connect bro, the connection comes in different forms, it may come in really intricate lyricist rapping and it may come in like me screaming over some metal sh*t. It may come with me singing over acoustic guitars, like whatever way it comes, as long as it connects and it’s honest, I’m gonna rock with it.

How do you define success and does failure or the possibility of it worry you?

I don’t really believe in failure. I just think that people just stop, that’s all. You know? I guess you only fail when you die without doing what you wanted to do. Even that, you gon’ want to do a lot of things and you probably won’t do everything. I think it’s knowing that you tried, knowing that you gave your all, that’s success. Personally, I want to make a real connection with my art to as many people as possible. When I say I want to be like the number one artist in the world, that’s what I mean. I want to connect to as many people as possible with my art and the true intention of my art and make things that last here beyond me. When I’m gone, the things that I created are still inspiring people way after. I would like to make some stuff that in 1000 years, kids are still interested in — in the most humble way possible. That’s something to keep in mind when I hit this mic, I want to live forever through it.

Who do you credit to helping you stay on the path you’re on now?

It’s a community of people, everybody in their own way keeps me motivated. Even people that get mad at me and sh*t, that keeps me motivated too like, okay, I gotta prove them wrong timesheet. My homeboy Detail, who’s also my manager, he always gives me really good advice. He always refers me to sources that he gets advice from or things that keep him in a good mindset. My mama, telling me she’s proud of me, that means a whole lot, probably more than she knows, that’ll light up my day. My partners, cause a lot of stuff I talk about my music, they went through it with me and imma always know my perspective, but it’s interesting hearing their perspective on stuff that we went through, but also their perspective or revisiting through my music. It’s a cycle of life, it’s like a hyper experience. We become more self-aware the more that we do that and that’s inspiring. I get to have a shared experience and it’ll deepen what I learned from it.

For the past few years now, there’s been an increased rock presence in the hip-hop scene, whether it be on the light side or the heavy metal end. How do you feel about some of your influences and others having a spot in hip-hop?

I think that sh*t hard. It inspires me too cause I think I’ve focused more so on the sonics of stuff like the actual sounds and tones. Some people like more so the look or the vibe or the swag. I wouldn’t say I got like a rock star swag, that aint’ really my swag, but I love the sounds and textures of that music and I think that the sonics is what I’m most interested in. But rap music has always been the most diverse genre and it never really got its credit because of whatever. I think that it’s always been influenced by other genres, I always think it’s been a culmination of the other genres. It’s the youngest genre so it’s the little brother to everything. I think that it being recognized is something that is gonna progress rap to be whatever it want to be. These artists that are running rap, they’re gonna be whatever they want to be and I think that’s great.

So with Angelic Hoodrat: Supercut, I see you have a feature from Freddie Gibbs. How did that come about?

Well the thing about it is, I put the song out, it was on YouTube, it wasn’t on other streaming services. I just put it out because I thought it was a cool freestyle, just a vibe type sh*t. Then, my folks was like “Freddie Gibbs hopped on that sh*t,” and I was like oh what the f*ck?. He’s one of my favorite rappers of this time and just period, like buddy’s fire as f*ck lyrically and mood-wise, you already know I love that sh*t. So it was like, damn, this man got on this sh*t and he didn’t have to. I’m a new artist bro, he didn’t have to do that, but he did, so I got unlimited respect for him and I’m dumb excited about it. But yeah, he just hopped on one of mine sh*ts and I was just like, bro, we gon’ but this sh*t on the project.

You’re someone that comes off as very grounded, not too extra or one that will wild out. What excites Kenny Mason? What gets him out of that shell even if it’s for 5 or 10 minutes?

I be rowdy bro, like not rowdy, but I be turning up. It’s just that if I’m talking to somebody or trying to answer the questions, I really want to just think about what I say because a lot of people gon’ hear this and I want to make sure that whatever I intend to say, I say. I be walking around the house talking sh*t. Probably at the shows, I think people really see I be turning up for real. Like on Instagram, I’ve watched people take selfies or be on Live or just be in their phone and it’s real natural and just easy as cake to them, but I be thinking too much about that sh*t, I don’t be knowing if the sh*t look right. I think it’s cool because everybody that follows me, pretty much just follows me for music, which I like. I like that don’t nobody follow me for no extra sh*t because then I would have to keep doing extra sh*t.

What do you look forward to the most next? What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned with your debut that you’ll apply to chapter 2 of your artistry?

Number one is shows, I’m really just trying to be really optimistic about when we’ll be able to do it and for how long I’ll be able to do them. I really would like to be on some kind of tour for a long time and letting people experience the project live because going into Angelic, that’s how I envisioned it. I figured people would like it but I think people will have a deeper level of love for it if they experience it live. I’m looking and I’m also looking forward to dropping more music. After Supercut, I’m still gonna be dropping music, imma just keep dropping, but it’ll be a minute before the next project. I want to just still put out music to build up for them. I think, as far as learning, I definitely learned the run of being an artist and putting out a project, I wasn’t familiar with that. Even these interview parts, these are all still new. I know going into the next one how to premeditated more on everything because with Angelic Hoodrat, I’m really glad people love it and connect with it. People tell me every day that it’s changing their life and I love that, that’s my true intention, but it really was an experiment for me. It really was me trying stuff and I know my next project will be way more intentional, premeditated, and planned. I look forward to that being shown.

Angelic Hoodrat: Supercut is out now via RCA Records. Get it here.

While the rest of the co-hosts on The View were able to set aside political differences and credit Ivanka Trump for encouraging people to get the COVID vaccine, Meghan McCain couldn’t do the same when it came time to discuss the showdown in Congress on Thursday that resulted in Maxine Waters telling Jim Jordan to “shut your mouth” after he continued to speak out of turn and berate Dr. Fauci. Instead of conceding that Jordan was out of line by hurling Republican talking points at Fauci, McCain announced that everyone “looked bad” including Waters and Democratic congressman James Clyburn, who simply tried to restore order.

McCain then tore into Congress for having a “61 percent disapproval rate” before she launched into a defense of Republican’s distrust in government. Via Mediaite:

“Republicans are contrarian. They’re skeptical of big government. That is who we are. It’s in my DNA and makeup to question authority and question government,” McCain said. “We think big government is bad. We don’t think that bending the knee to big government is the answer to everything. That’s a difference between Democrats and Republicans.”

But despite McCain’s lecture on how it’s in Republicans’ nature to “question authority” — in this case, necessary COVID restrictions — she then argued that to blame Republicans for politicizing the pandemic is “intellectually dishonest.” OK.

Unlike McCain, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel had no problem calling out “meathead” Jim Jordan for arguing with Fauci during his Thursday night monologue. “This guy has been doing this forever. He’s giving his very educated opinions,” Kimmel said in defense of Fauci. “The closest Jim Jordan ever got to being an infectious disease is contracting scabies on a wrestling mat.”

(Via Mediaite)

Brooklyn drill star Fivio Foreign has been quiet to start the year, but today he broke his silence with the video for “Self Made.” Over a video game-y loop with monstrous bass, Fivio details his accomplishments and stills his haters, challenging them to “make another one” and sneering “I hope a lot of n****s get sanctioned.” The simple video follows Fivio as he parties and records flanked by women and goons.

Before taking a break in Q1, Fivio dominated much of 2020, garnering a spot on the XXL Freshman cover and popping up as a coveted guest feature with all sorts of collaborators — mainly New Yorkers. He assisted Lil Tjay in 2020 on “Zoo York” with the late Pop Smoke — a feat he followed up this year on Tjay’s “Headshot” featuring Polo G — then lent his co-sign to Young M.A and DreamDoll on “Move Like A Boss” and “Ah Ah Ah,” respectively. He stepped outside the confines of the Big Apple to work with Polo G on “Bop It,” helping to form the foundation of their chemistry on “Headshot” later on.

Fivio also worked with more Midwestern artists throughout the year, including Big Sean on Hit-Boy’s “Salute” and King Von on “Trust.” Now that he’s cracked the seal on 2021, we can likely expect him to provide updates on his upcoming debut album B.I.B.L.E (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth) any day now.

Watch Fivio Foreign’s “Self Made” video above.

Troye Sivan has done a fine job at recruiting big-time collaborators over the course of his music career. His 2018 album Bloom has a song with Ariana Grande, he teamed up with Kacey Musgraves and Mark Ronson on “Easy” a few months ago, and now he has “You,” a fresh track with Tate McRae and Regard.

The punchy electro-pop tune is ready to soundtrack a summer night out, and on it, Sivan and McRae sing about being fixated on somebody they’re not over yet: “When I try to fall back, I fall back to you / When I talk to my friends, I talk about you / When the Hennessy’s strong, all I see is you.”

In a recent interview with Uproxx, McRae summarized where she’s at now with her music career, saying, “The crazy thing is that I’m still trying to find my sound. I think there are a million different ways that you can play around, and a different million different artists [to work with] that will shoot you in different directions. But I can’t really define what I do [musically]. I think it changes every month… You can do so many things nowadays. […] I get in my head a lot, and I think it’s because I’m so focused on what I’m doing that I doubt myself. But I’m super proud of everything I’ve done. I’m so happy that everything’s out there.”

Listen to “You” above.

In 2015, Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price had a life-changing epiphany.

Price, who founded Gravity with his brother in 2004, was out hiking in the Cascade Mountains with his friend, Valerie. She told him her landlord had raised her rent by $200 and she was struggling to get by on her $40,000 a year income. Price, who was making $1.1 million a year as CEO of Gravity, was struck by her story. Not only did he feel for Valerie—a military veteran working two jobs and barely making ends meet—realized that some of his own employees might be facing similar struggles.

And they were. One employee frankly told him his entry-level salary was a rip-off. Another employee had secretly been working at McDonald’s outside of work hours to make ends meet. So Price decided to make a drastic change by investing in his employees.

He researched how much money the average person would need in order to live comfortably and settled on $70,000 a year. In one fell swoop, he dropped his own salary to that amount, while also making it the minimum salary for anyone who worked at Gravity.

The move drew media coverage—and dire predictions from pundits. On Fox News and other conservative outlets he was called “foolish,” a “socialist” and a “lunatic of lunatics.” Rush Limbaugh called the company policy “pure unadulterated socialism” that was “going to fail” and should be a case study in MBA programs on how socialism doesn’t work. Talking heads predicted that his employees would end up in the welfare line.

Six years later, Price has proved the haters wrong—by a lot.

Sharing a video with clips from those outspoken detractors on Twitter, Price wrote:

“6 years ago today I raised my company’s min wage to $70k. Fox News called me a socialist whose employees would be on bread lines. Since then our revenue tripled, we’re a Harvard Business School case study & our employees had a 10x boom in homes bought.

Always invest in people.”

He then added:

“Since our $70k min wage was announced 6 years ago today: Our revenue tripled, headcount grew 70 percent, customer base doubled, babies had by staff grew 10x, 70 percent of employees paid down debt, homes bought by employees grew 10x, 401(k) contributions grew 155 percent, [and] turnover dropped in half.”

The business is thriving, his employee numbers have grown from 130 to 200, and they’ve expanded to a second office in Boise, Idaho. And perhaps most notably, the highest-paid employee makes four times the salary of the lowest-paid employee, not 33 times.

The benefits of taking care of his employees extended into the pandemic, which led to the company taking a 55% revenue hit overnight. Rather than lay people off—with Gravity has never done in its 17-year history—Price held a call with his employees and explained the company’s situation. He didn’t want anyone to lose their job, and he also didn’t want to jack up prices on the small businesses that relied on their services.

In response, nearly every employee offered to take a temporary, voluntary pay cut, ranging from 5% to 100%. That’s the kind of loyalty money and support can buy. And it worked—those employees have been repaid and the company is now giving out raises.

Price is outspoken about his company’s success because he believes it’s a model other companies should follow if they are able. CEO salaries have risen 940% since 1978, while average worker salaries have only risen 12%. The longer that discrepancy goes on, the more normal it becomes in people’s minds, but Price is on a mission to disrupt that norm and convince people that paying employees well pays off in a multitude of ways.

Price says he doesn’t miss anything about the millionaire lifestyle he lived prior to his pay cut. “Money buys happiness when you climb out of poverty,” he wrote on Twitter. “But going from well-off to very well-off won’t make you happier. Doing what you believe is right will.”

Investing in people is what Price believes is right, and he’s lived that belief—successfully—for six years and counting.

The pandemic has revealed how much money there truly is at the top, as billionaires got 54% richer over the past year and while millions of people took devastating financial hits, and large company CEOs received huge bonuses while laying off lower-level employees. Let’s encourage more corporate leaders to take a page out of Dan Price’s book and invest in the people who made them successful in the first place. Those investments can pay off big time, as Price—and now others—have repeatedly proven.

Marjorie Taylor Greene and fellow Republican House member Lauren Boebert are making headlines (again), this time for voting against a bill that has enormous bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.

Greene, who’s still waiting for Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to answer her debate challenge, and Boebert both rejected a bill that would reauthorize the National Marrow Donor Program. Under The Transplant Act, the program would continue to receive funding for vital research necessary to save the lives of those living with rare and often fatal blood diseases. The program has been around for decades, and it manages a system that matches donors to those needing life-saving blood transplants and marrow donations.

Which sounds like a really great service that could save thousands of lives and should be supported by our representatives in Congress whose job is to serve the public, right? But somehow, Greene and Boebert have found a way to tie the program to that most beloved of all far-right talking points: the pro-life debate.

Greene’s spokesman, Nick Dyer, had this to say about the Congresswoman’s decision:

“Nothing in this bill prevents the funding of aborted fetal tissue by taxpayers. It opens the door for the NIH to use this bill to research the remains of babies who were murdered in the womb.”

We could wade into this exhausting argument about whether life begins at conception or not and debunk all the myths surrounding late-term abortions — which is undoubtedly what Greene wants us to do — but instead, we’ll just point toward the fact that abortion is legal, what a woman does with her body is her choice, and that programs proven to save lives should be prioritized over conspiracy-mongering.

Oh, and we’ll also round up some really sharp Twitter commentary on the subject:

Busta Rhymes and Mariah Carey have reunited in the new video for “Where I Belong,” which picks up where their 2002 video for “I Know What You Want” left off. You may remember how that video ended on a cliffhanger, with an SUV full of masked men rushing Busta’s mansion to the blaring sounds of his It Ain’t Safe No More… album cut “Call The Ambulance.”

“Where I Belong” taps into a similar aesthetic, even replaying the scene as Busta monologues, “The past chases you until it catches you.” The narrative picks up “18 years later” with a cameo from Trippie Redd, who calls up Busta and tells him that he’s found the missing Tae (LaShontae Heckard) and sets off another action-packed clip in which the veteran rapper picks up his old partner Michael Jai White for an assault on a pair of samurai in their pursuit of the missing paramour.

However, as the two would-be saviors learn, things aren’t always as they seem. As the video plays out, Busta and Mariah’s performance sequences cut in to remind viewers of the two stars’ indelible chemistry. The video, which was originally posted to Facebook Watch, has finally found its way to YouTube, prompting a fresh wave of interest.

“Where I Belong” is the latest single from Busta’s recently released Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God, itself a nod to his radio-dominating heyday. Even more nostalgia ensues on prior videos “Outta My Mind” with Bell Biv Devoe, and the Mad magazine-referencing video for “Yuuuu” with Anderson .Paak.

Watch the “Where I Belong” video above.

If you scroll down Taylor Swift’s social media feeds, it won’t take too long before you come across a photo of one of her cats. Over the past year or so, though, some fans have noticed that one of those felines, Meredith, hasn’t popped up in a post in a while. Swifties began to wonder what happened to the cat, and now Swift has taken it upon herself to offer an explanation.

In the description of a video shared on social media this afternoon, Swift wrote, “WELL WELL WELL you all really went out and left my greatest expectations in shambles this week. Word on the street is you made Fearless (my version) the biggest country album first week of the last 6 years and the top release of 2021 so far. Honestly??? How?? Did I get this lucky???? I wanted to say thank you to you so today I will be addressing a very pressing issue.”

Holding her cat Benjamin Button, Swift says, “We’ve been hearing some rumors on the internet recently… they’re not about you, Benj’, they’re about your sister.” Swift then shared screenshots of comments from fans wondering where Meredith has been, then wrote in text, “The truth is, Meredith just HATES having her picture taken.” She then goes on to show a series of funny and awkward photos of the cat. Swift concluded, “So yup, there it is, there you have it. That’s the explanation: She’s just a really private little cat. She likes her business kept to herself, she doesn’t like a camera shoved in her face, and who can blame her? So um, there’s your update on Meredith.” Swift then ended the video with a clip of her asking Meredith, who gets herself away from Swift as she speaks, “Do you have any comment on the recent allegations that you’re a missing cat?”

Check out the video above and learn more about Swift’s cats, and the pets of some other musicians, here.