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Although Tory Lanez was convicted of shooting Megan Thee Stallion almost two years ago and sentenced to 10 years in prison, Megan is still dealing with the legal fallout of the case. According to Billboard, the Houston rapper has filed a lawsuit against a YouTuber named Milagro Gramz for allegedly spreading disinformation about Megan and the case.

The lawsuit accuses Milagro Gramz — whose real name is Milagro Elizabeth Cooper — of being a “mouthpiece and puppet” for Tory Lanez, using her platform to “denigrate, belittle, insult, and spread false statements” about Megan. The lawsuit also alleges that Cooper shared a pornographic deepfake of Meg, along with cyberstalking, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and invasion of privacy.

Among the disinformation allegedly circulated by Cooper was an assertion that the gun used by Tory to shoot Meg in the foot had gone missing. However, according to Meg’s attorneys, “The firearm remains in the custody of the Los Angeles Police Department.”

This isn’t the first time Megan’s legal team accused Tory of using surrogates to attack her in the media and undermine her credibility. Tory was found guilty of committing assault with a firearm causing great bodily injury; concealing a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle; and discharging a firearm with gross negligence after the July 2020 incident, which left Meg with bullet fragments in both feet. Despite this — or perhaps because of it — Lanez has amassed a more dedicated following of supporters who seem much more interested in trolling Megan than they ever did in streaming or buying Tory’s music.

Meanwhile, Meg isn’t the only rap star irritated by Gramz’s antics; in June, she also got into a Twitter tiff with Cardi over Cardi’s comments about the BET Experience in LA.

Every month, Uproxx cultural critic Steven Hyden makes an unranked list of his favorite music-related items released during this period — songs, albums, books, films, you name it.

1. Various Artists, Cardinals At The Window

John Coltrane. Nina Simone. Thelonious Monk. Ben E. King. George Clinton. Doc Watson. James Taylor. Loudon Wainwright III. Emmylou Harris. J. Cole. Jodeci. Randy Travis. Eric Church. Flat Duo Jets. Archers Of Loaf. Superchunk. The Avett Brothers. Sylvan Esso. Wednesday. MJ Lenderman.

All of these artists and bands are among the musical natives of North Carolina. Clearly, this is a state that has given so much. Now, it’s time to give back. Cardinals At The Window — a massive 135-track compilation featuring unreleased songs by everyone from R.E.M. to The War On Drugs to Sharon Van Etten to dozens more — benefits flood relief in Western North Carolina. The people there are still trying to pick up the pieces. Help them along, and enjoy some incredible music in the process.

2. The Hard Quartet, The Hard Quartet

There are few terms in the modern musical lexicon more loaded than “supergroup.” It denotes an assemblage of well-known musicians, but what it actually communicates is “likely underwhelming short-term marriage.” I have no idea if The Hard Quartet — the new group featuring Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, Jim White, and Emmett Kelly — will last beyond their self-titled debut. But the wonder of this album is how un-supergroup-like it is. It feels homey and lived-in, more like it’s the fourth or fifth LP in the catalog than an introduction. And there’s a certain modesty in how the various singers and songwriters complement each other — Malkmus’ slack surrealism, Kelly’s laconic cool, and Sweeney’s campfire croon already sound like they have coexisted for the better part of a decade.

3. Styrofoam Winos, Real Time

This Nashville trio reminds me a lot of The Hard Quartet, only the members aren’t indie-famous. However, they do occupy a similar space of loose-limbed guitar music that can meander without losing the lyrical and melodic plot. Perhaps what I’m trying to say is that both bands remind me of American Water — Malkmus playing on American Water helps, obviously, but Styrofoam Winos residing on the same “approachably eccentric and impressively erudite” side of the Nashville divide also matters. The larger point remains: “Music that remind me of American Water” is one of my favorite subgenres.

4. Bon Iver, SABLE

Justin Vernon has long treated his most famous music project with a certain weariness. As Bon Iver releases have become less frequent, it seemed reasonable to assume that he might eventually mothball the brand name for good. So, the arrival of this EP registers as a surprise on multiple layers. One, because it exists. But more important, this has to be the most straightforward and accessible music he has ever put out as Bon Iver. Singing in his natural, lower register and mostly eschewing the terror-techno digital distortions of his late-2010s work, Vernon more or less sounds like the man who shaped our curent generation of sad-guy superstar singer-songwriters. (I refer to you, Zach Bryan and Noah Kahan, among many others.)

5. Wild Pink, Dulling The Horns

This Brooklyn band has been saddled with the dubious “critic’s favorite” tag for so long that it must feel like a hindrance at this point. Not that it has affected the music in any discernible way — this is their fifth very good-to-excellent album released in the past seven years. (Congratulations on passing The Five Albums Test, fellas.) It might also be their most purely enjoyable record to date. After the emotionally taxing ILYSM, which was informed by frontman John Ross’ cancer battle, Dulling The Horns feels palpably lighter, even as it rocks much harder. At heart, Wild Pink remains an expert heartland rock band at the top of the post-Lost In The Dream class, though their embrace of noisier sounds on Dulling The Horns gives their music extra grit and power.

6. Good Looks, “Chase Your Demons Out”

Speaking of post-Lost In The Dream heartland rock: Good Looks’ Lived Here For A While has stayed in my regular rotation for months now, and in October they kindly issued two more songs, presumably from the same sessions. Both are great, but “Chase Your Demons Out” immediately belongs with their top-tier material, spotlighting the alchemy of Tyler Jordan’s heart-tugging songwriting and the inspired improvisations of guitarist Jake Ames.

7. Kelly Lee Owens, Dreamstate

The previous work by this Welsh producer could be classified as “thinking person’s” dance music, no matter how dumb that sounds. (I’m trying not to use the even cornier “IDM” tag.) I’ve enjoyed her past albums, but Dreamstate hits the hardest for me, mostly because it actually sounds like a record you could dance to. Not that I would dance to it, because nobody wants to see that. But I can theoretically dance to this album for sure. My Indiecast co-host Ian Cohen describes this as her “basic” album, and he means it as a compliment. And so do I.

8. Peel Dream Magazine, ‘Rose Main Reading Room’

I became a fan of this L.A. band after hearing their second record, Agitprop Alterna, in 2020. Based on that album, I had them clocked as proponents of drone-pop in the mold of Stereolab. Turns out Peel Dream Magazine couldn’t be so easily categorized. Their next album, 2022’s Pad, shifted to a more orchestral, Pet Sounds-inspired sound, while their latest release refines that aesthetic a bit, alluding to Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois and Air’s Moon Safari. This is catchy, sophisticated and well-composed pop music made to luxuriate in.

9. Tim Heidecker, Slipping Away

The tricky balance between “media-skewering comic genius” and “low-key and earnest singer-songwriter” seem to get a little easier in 2022 with High School, a warm and witty song cycle supported by a well-received tour backed by the aptly named Very Good Band. Heidecker’s latest brings the spirit of the tour to wax — Slipping Away is an old-school, “live in the studio” effort in which Heidecker sets his suburban dad musings to rollicking country-rock that evoke Gram Parson and the twangiest numbers by the early ’70s Rolling Stones.

10. 2nd Grade, Scheduled Explosions

Power pop is such a hard genre to master because there’s nowhere to hide — you either have the tunes or you don’t. Most bands of this ilk tend to keep on making records well past the point of losing their melodic touch. Thankfully, that’s not yet true of this Philadelphia outfit, whose previous effort, Easy Listening, was one of my favorite LPs of 2022. Scheduled Explosions doesn’t have the same hit rate as that record, but it doesn’t seem like it was supposed to. This is a deliberately messy record, like if mid-’90s GBV had tried to sound more like The Monkees. Which, of course, is a pretty awesome thing to be.

11. The Voidz, Like All Before You

I’m mentioning this record, in part, because I feel like practically nobody has acknowledged its existence. And those that have generally think it’s trash. But I have a soft spot for Julian Casablancas’ bonkers side project, where he gets to indulge in his most stoned and least coherent ideas. Hence Like All Before You, a sorta-political and quasi-philosophical treatise on Buddhist texts and religious cults and other such miscellanea conveyed via a confusing mishmash of discount synths and shredding Megadeth-style riffs. Is it good? As always with The Voidz, I honestly don’t know. But I can’t stop listening.

Ari Lennox released her latest single, “Smoke,” earlier this month. Apparently, she’s not pleased with the level of reach the song has achieved, or more specifically, she’s upset with how her label, J. Cole’s Dreamville Records, handled the release. In fact, Lennox is at the point where she wants to be done with the label.

In a recent Instagram Live broadcast (archived here), Lennox spoke at length about her issues with Dreamville. At one point, she declared her desire to be dropped from the label, saying:

“I wish I had a label that wouldn’t have me out here trying to explain why I need advertisement, why I need advertisement for my record. […] You cannot expect an artist to be anything without advertisement. Like, you can’t. You can’t. Why am I begging for advertisement? Why am I paying for my own Google ads? No, it’s not OK.

So, I just want to be released, and it’s just that simple. And I’m tired of being nice, and I was trying to do everything the right way, but now I’m pissed. This was my final straw. I have communicated effectively and no one cares, so now we’re here in toxic-ass social media world, or this is how I’m deciding to express myself in a toxic way. But, we’re here, and I don’t know how else to get it through people’s thick head. Like, stop playing with me.”

Later, she continued, “I love making music. I loved every moment of making ‘Smoke.’ It was my freedom song, and I dropped it, and the label neglected me. They left me there by myself. […] Dreamville literally is telling me to my face they don’t believe in advertisements, they don’t believe in Google ads. What am I supposed to do with that information?”

For the record, this is a long-festering situation between Lennox and Dreamville, as Lennox also said in 2022 that she wanted to be done with Dreamville.

If you spent too much time watching Toonami in the early 2000s, you are already familiar with Interstella 5555: The 5tory Of The 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. For everyone else, it’s the anime companion film for Daft Punk‘s 2001 album Discovery about the abduction of an alien music band by an evil human character who has dark plans, as told through songs like “One More Time,” “Digital Love,” and “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.”

Interstella 5555: The 5tory Of The 5ecret 5tar 5ystem is a lot of fun. The animation from Toei Animation (and overseen by the legendary Leiji Matsumoto) looks great, and it’ll look even better when a 4K remastered version of the film is released in theaters for one night only on December 17.

“We’re excited to bring Daft Punk’s iconic Interstella 5555, now fully remastered in stunning 4K, to cinemas for this one-night-only global event,” Trafalgar Releasing CEO Marc Allenby said in a statement. “This is a rare opportunity to experience the film on the big screen, along with accompanying Daft Punk music videos, and we can’t wait to share it with audiences everywhere.”

To find out more information on Interstella 5555: The 5tory Of The 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, including how to buy tickets beginning November 13, click here.

Every WWE star is looking for their breakout moment. Occasionally that happens when momentum builds with the support of fan involvement, a spoken line in a segment catches fire, or the visual of an instance transcends the moment to become an iconic image. But sometimes, it’s simply serendipity, where suddenly everything connects in ways that even the superstars don’t anticipate.

For Bronson Reed, attacking Seth Rollins wasn’t enough of a statement just two months ago. The 300-pound Aussie dropped Tsunami after Tsunami on The Visionary as the audience roared and social media was set ablaze. Eventually, Reed left Rollins laid out in the middle of the ring after landing six Tsunamis. That moment was a turning point for Reed as he transcends to the main event of Monday Night Raw with hopes of claiming an elusive world title.

“The Austin 3:16 promo is one of those pivotal moments that, unfortunately, not everyone has that one moment in their career where things sort of change,” Reed tells Uproxx Sports. “I feel like the six Tsunamis is that for me. Since then it has been different, and I’m going in the right direction that I want to be. Hopefully I can keep that momentum up and we will look back at the six Tsunamis as that turning point. But now it’s making sure that I deliver in the match (at Crown Jewel). We’ve had all the attacks and everything with Seth and now it’s about actually delivering an in-ring match that’s worthy of a (PLE).”

As Becky Lynch once told me, these moments are when preparation meets opportunity. The pressure has built for Reed over the last two months after his crushing beatdown of Rollins. He’s continued to be a highlight of weekly episodic television with viral moments, whether he’s smashing Braun Strowman on a car or forcing a table to explode five feet into the air.

As Reed prepares for arguably the biggest match of his career on Saturday against Rollins at Crown Jewel, he isn’t getting caught up in the pressure that comes with rising up the card though. He understands the path to the top, and he’s built confidence in his in-ring abilities over the span of about half of his life at this point.

“I think a lot of people, when they have these moments, they want the trajectory just to go straight up,” Reed says. “But in our business, it’s definitely more of a roller coaster. You’re always going to have those highs and lows, but it’s just trying to make sure whenever you have those highs that you deliver. Those things start adding up and it’s not just this one pivotal moment. It’s all these things building up together. So that’s what I’m trying to do is have a body of work where you can go, ‘Oh, look at everything that he did in the year.’”

The journey to Saturday’s showdown has been one with plenty of bumps along the way. After being released from WWE in 2021, Reed spent just a year away before his return. During his time away, Reed says it was one of those moments that reaffirmed his love of wrestling.

“I think it’s a good thing to learn that you still have passion for the business that you love. I’ve always been a huge wrestling fan and I’ve loved it since I was a kid. And I feel like something like this could crush certain people and they might not ever wrestle again or they might do something else,” Reed says. “But it was one of those moments where I’m like, ‘I love this. I’m not going to change what I do.’ But it was reassuring to me that I can do this elsewhere, that I can be a commodity elsewhere. So in the hands of WWE, I should be an even bigger commodity. And I kept that in my mind coming back.”

Continuing to build his confidence in and outside of WWE has helped Reed reach the next level. In his return, he needed to be patient before his time to step into the spotlight would come. He says it was good that he wasn’t propelled right away into a prominent position, rather it was a slow burn where he was able find his feet, understand who he is, and turn the volume on his character all the way up.

He’s not overthinking things. He’s simply creating chaos.

“I’ve realized that in the moment, just to go with what I think will work and generally that’s been working for me,” Reed says. “But also I feel like the Bronson Reed character, you can have more fun with it because I’m a big, indestructible sort of guy that just goes out there and destroys things, almost a Godzilla-like figure. And I remember seeing a quote from an artist, I don’t remember who, and they said ‘I don’t create art, I create chaos.’ And that’s what I think of every time when I step through the curtain is Bronson Reed isn’t here to create five-star wrestling matches, he is here to create chaos.”

Following in the footsteps of pro wrestling’s great big men, Reed is moved by comparisons to the likes of Bam Bam Bigelow and Big Van Vader, who he says he’s drawn inspiration from. While WWE has historically been the land of giants, the amount of monster big men who move the way Reed does reaching the top of the mountain are few and far between. For Reed, that’s the long-term goal, breaking the mold and claiming WWE’s top crown.

“These guys were never the champion. You look back at history, Vader never became WWE champion, Bam Bigelow never reached those heights. Those people in the same sort of body type that I am, even a Dusty Rhodes was not a WWF champion at the time,” Reed says.

“So I want to break that mold and eventually, I’ve told people, I want to be world heavyweight champion. I want to be WWE champion. I remember speaking to Mark Henry and he was telling me obviously he had a great career, he became champion and he said, ‘This doesn’t happen for guys like us all the time, so make sure you keep doing what you’re doing, give it a hundred percent and you’ll be that next big man.’”

Over the past few years, December has been Roddy Ricch season. He released his chart-topping debut album Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial on December 6, 2019, then followed it with Live Life Fast on December 17, 2021. Now, he’s getting ready to keep the streak alive.

Last night (October 29), Ricch gave Tyler The Creator a shout-out over his new album, Chromakopia, tweeting, “CHROMAKOPIA [fire emoji] ! @tylerthecreator WEST UP , MY TURN !” A few hours later, he followed that up with, “THE NAVY ALBUM THE 6TH OF DECEMBER.”

Ricch might be looking for The Navy Album to be a bounce-back project. Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial was No. 1 and so was the hit single “The Box,” but he didn’t manage to replicate that success with Live Life Fast. The album only managed a No. 4 peak on the Billboard 200 chart, and the closest thing to a hit single it produced was 2021’s “Late At Night,” which peaked at No. 20 on the Hot 100, and is actually his most recent single to even appear on that chart.

In his 2022 Uproxx cover story, Ricch discussed his biggest takeaway from the first part of his career, saying, “A lot of times, you may get distracted by trying to rekindle relationships with different things. I feel like just what I learned is just sometimes, even if it’s broke, sometimes it’s just better not to deal with certain things or don’t let certain things bother you — everything’s not going to be perfect. Sometimes when you sit down and think about a lot of sh*t, you try to make everything perfect, and I feel like the thing I learned is it’s okay to not be perfect. There’s perfect in imperfection.”

Based on Google searches, one of the most popular Halloween costumes this year is Sabrina Carpenter. In particular, the “Please Please Please” singer’s heart corset, likely with a cup of espresso. As for Carpenter herself, she hasn’t revealed what she’s dressing up as (she was previously “the love of ur life”), but maybe she got inspired during a trip to Universal Studios.

Carpenter recently attended Halloween Horror Nights at the Universal Orlando resort, where she and Short N’ Sweet Tour opener Griff took a photo outside of the Major Sweets Candy Factory haunted house. So much spooky sweetness.

You can see the photo below.

Uproxx recently spoke to the creative team behind Halloween Horror Nights. When asked how the music gets picked for the haunted houses, assistant director Lora Sauls replied, “The show direction team does a beautiful job of telling the story through sound effects, the audioscape, the score that they play in the haunted houses… When we’re working with the franchises, we lean into the score that accompanies those films and franchises to make sure that we’re telling their stories. When it comes to original content, our show direction team thinks outside the box on how to tell that story with the score.”

The Weeknd has an HHN house. Sabrina Carpenter should be next. It could look like the bloody “Taste” video.

Halloween Horror Nights 2024 runs on select nights through November 3. You can find out more information here. In other exciting news, Epic Universe opens on May 22, 2025.

Olivia Rodrigo has a clean criminal record, but that’s not what a Border Patrol officer thought recently.

Rodrigo was a guest on The Tonight Show yesterday, and she told Jimmy Fallon the story of the time she was interrogated at the US-Canada border for a long while.

Here’s the tale in Rodrigo’s words:

“We were going from Canada to Portland or something. We were at Border [Patrol]. I give them my passport, and they’re like, ‘OK, whatever.’ And they knock on the door and they’re like, ‘We need Olivia.’ And I’m like, ‘I just played a few shows. Maybe their daughter wants an autograph.’

I come out, it’s 3 a.m., and I’m delirious, and they take me to a room, and it’s an interrogation room, and there’s a big cop with a gun. He’s like, ‘Have you ever been arrested?’ I’m like, ‘No, I haven’t been arrested.’ He’s like, ‘Are you sure?’ I’m, like, gaslighting myself. I’m like, ‘Oh, my God. Maybe I was arrested and I didn’t know it.’ […]

He’s like, ‘You know, you could go to jail for lying to a federal officer like this.’ Like, ‘This is really bad.’ I’m freaking out. I’m like, ‘I’m not gonna be let in to America!’ I’m so scared. I’m, like, having a panic attack.

After 30 minutes of interrogation, he looks at me. He goes, ‘What’s your name?’ And I go, ‘Olivia Rodrigo, R-O-D-R-I-G-O.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, there’s a girl who looks just like you that’s your same age that’s been arrested multiple times, and her name is Olivia Rodriguez.’

Jimmy, I was pissed. I’m like, ‘You didn’t look at the name on the thing?’”

Watch the video above. Rodrigo also played a round of “What’s Behind Me?” with Fallon, so check that out below.

Megan The Stallion has a stronghold on two special times of the year. Thanks to her beloved catchphrase, “Hot Girl Summer,” the warm weeks belong to the “Bigger In Texas” rapper. But her passion for Halloween comes in a close second.

This Hottieween season is a rather special one for Meg for several reasons. Atop the list is a rather significant co-sign the Grammy Award winner just earned. Today (October 29), Megan Thee Stallion’s Starfire (of Teen Titans) Halloween costume received a thumbs up from thee James Gunn, which is an honor for any self-proclaimed nerd like Meg.

In a post on Thread, Gunn reshared Megan Thee Stallion’s costume reveal images. “Whoa,” he wrote. “Cool.”

Gunn’s followers joined in to praise Meg’s depiction. “Biblically accurate Starfire, as George intended,” wrote one user referring to the get-up being pulled directly from 1980s illustrations cooked up by Marv Wolfman and George Perez.

This is surely just the tipping point for Meg as last year she sported three major looks (a flower from Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland, Death The Kid from anime Soul Eater, and the lady gremlin from Gremlins 2: The New Batch). But on Halloween Day (October 31), Megan tends to dial things up a notch for her annual Hottieween party. Or she could go the flirty route having expressed interest seeing her “Spin” collaborator Victoria Monét dress up like her. Maybe Megan will return the honor.

Weeks apart, rap’s dynamic duo Megan Thee Stallion and GloRilla dropped new albums. For Megan Thee Stallion that body of work was Megan: Act II. While GloRilla released her long-awaited debut album, Glorious. Along the way the two emcees have racked up quite the busy with notable collaborations, from the tracks “How I Look,” “Wanna Be” and “Accent,” to a successful performance run on the Hot Girl Summer Tour.

Their musical chemistry (a far cry from their first impression of each other) has sparked demands for the rappers to drop more music together. Now, fans are demanding a full-out collaborative album. But will Megan Thee Stallion and GloRilla actually give into supporters’ request? Today (October 29), GloRilla sat down with Ebro Darden on Apple Music 1 and further fanned the flames of its possibility.

“Is there truth to the rumor of you and Megan Thee Stallion having a joint project,” asked Ebro. “Y’all got some heat, y’all recorded some things.”

GloRilla followed up, saying: “Yep.”

But that wasn’t the confirmation Ebro needed so he followed up with: “But you can’t confirm nor deny.”

Evasively, GloRilla answered: “Right.”

Well, in a Stationhead broadcast (captured by Inside The Industry podcast) Megan Thee Stallion shed light on what’s holding the potential project up. “We’re both so busy,” she said. “We said we were going to sit down in December and start working on it. So, y’all really need to spam Glo for real because we’re both bullsh*ters.”

Watch GloRilla’s full appearance on Apple Music 1 hosted by Ebro Darden above.