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Despite the unusual setting of this year’s WrestleMania, WWE continued event promotion as usual during the event, showing ads for this year’s Money In The Bank PPV on May 10. Today, the first notice of a change to MITB 2020 came from its planned venue, the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore Maryland. According to the arena’s Twitter account, “The WWE Money In The Bank event originally scheduled for Sunday, May 10 in Baltimore has been canceled. Refunds are available at all points of purchase.”

The use of the word “canceled” there is suspect to anyone who’s been keeping up with WWE. Though the company has scrapped live events for the time being, they haven’t stopped taping shows, and are just about the only American TV production or sporting event still running, unless the Dana White’s Fight Island works out. The announcement of a Money In The Bank in the Performance Center wouldn’t be a surprise.

The Royal Farms Arena tweet also revealed that WWE has joined the ranks of companies who have released an ad about “these difficult times,” which you can see here.

It’s amazing how quickly things can shift. Just a few months ago, we were all making travel plans for 2020, now those grand designs are all on hold. Borders are closed. Hotels are being turned into hospitals. Airports are shutting down entirely. Answers to “When will it be safe to travel again?” are nebulous at best. “We simply don’t know” is the response du jour. The EU is thinking about reopening its borders around May 15th, but that could easily change. In fact, everything is subject to swift and immediate change.

Get used to being adaptable. And when we are actually allowed (and financially able) to get back on the road, expect travel itself to look a lot different. Temperature checks on planes, smaller crowds at clubs and festivals, masks at markets, and mandatory quarantines for people arriving or returning sick are all likely. We’re all going to have to tread lightly and adjust to the world as it presents itself.

Still, having something to look forward to — whether it’s getting to go to your favorite bar with your crew again, staying at a boutique hotel, or finally having the chance to fly to a far off land — is a therapy we could all use right now. And with airlines dropping change fees and hotels offering deals, there are some interesting opportunities available. Though it feels tough to square, it’s true that while a lot of folks are struggling financially and we need to do everything we can to help and support them, traveling to communities around the world and spending money on the road is going to be an essential part of those broader recovery efforts.

Is It Worth Booking A Flight Right Now?

We think the first question you have to ask yourself is “why?” With so many unknowns right now, do you want to lay out some cash for an airline that’s getting billions in bailout money anyway? Help your local restaurants instead. But also, why do you want to go to the place you’re thinking of booking? Do you need to go there?

On the flip side, prices are rock bottom right now. And not just for travel in the near future. Flights all the way into 2021 are also at rock bottom price points. And with most airlines waving their “change fees” across the board on tickets bought right now, the potential for you getting stuck with the bill is slim. So ask yourself this: Is it worth buying a cheap ticket now, holding on to it, and changing down the road if you need to? In the worst-case scenario, if the flight is full-on canceled, you’ll still have a voucher for another flight at a later date. (Though most airlines aren’t offering full refunds, so if you’re worried about going into financial insolvency over the next few months, please don’t risk it.)

For those with savings or few liabilities, it’s not a terrible idea to buy a cheap ticket home for Thanksgiving or even late summer and then taking a wait and see approach. There are people out there tracking flight deals all over the world, right now Still, with the whole industry — and the status of the entire planet — in flux, don’t count on anything being permanent.

Is It Worth Booking A Hotel/Resort Right Now?

This one is a little bit harder to parse. One, there are huge chains out there that are probably going to be fine because they have someone in Washington, D.C. lobbying for them. And big property collections like Hilton, Marriott, etc. all have free change or cancelation policies right now. But this also comes down to “why?” The big chains aren’t really offering any great deals besides standard 20 percent off early booking discounts. It’s more likely they’ll run sales once things are back up and running in order to entice you in.

On the other side of the spectrum, small and independent properties are hurting and going to continue to hurt (and possibly fail) without real support. You can book rooms at local resorts, B&Bs, or small hotels — likely run by your neighbors and certainly employing them — just to give them some promise for the future. If it doesn’t pan out, it doesn’t. At least you tried to support your local economy (or an economy in a hard-hit area — Italy, Navajo Country, NOLA, etc).

Is it worth it? We’d say “yes,” if you focus on independent spots. Giving small properties a sense of hope right now is a worthy pursuit.

Is It Worth Booking A Package Trip?

This one is even harder to define. Pretty much the entire package tour industry is reliant on commercial airlines and local accommodations, restaurants, and tour guides. That’s a lot of moving parts.

Some companies are only selling trips in 2021 right now. Others are selling trips starting in the summer with money-back guarantees and/or free change fees. Companies like Contiki are offering up to 30 percent off all of their 2021 European trips with solid rescheduling policies in place. And let’s be honest, places like Spain and Italy are going to really need tourists dollars to get back on their feet.

Is it worth it? If you can get 30 percent off a trip in 2021 and a money-back guarantee? Maybe. At the very least, it’ll give you something to look forward to in 2021. Though again, if you feel like you might get to a true financial pinch point in the next few months, do not take any risks.

Is It Worth Making Plans At All?

The travel industry is a vital part of economies in every single corner of the world. Tourism dollars fuel New York restaurants, small fishing villages in the South Pacific, entire industries worldwide, sites in Europe big and small, buskers on the streets of Dublin, craft breweries in Portland, and so much more.

It’s going to be hard for the travel world to recover from this. We don’t know when we’ll be able to freely travel again. There’s a good chance that we may never enjoy quite the same freedom to roam internationally that we’ve had over the last 30 years. But we will get back out there eventually, in some way or another. We just have to make sure we travel safely and wisely. Hopefully, we can continue to learn from our own mistakes in judgment over the past few months and be more aware of why travel is meaningful and what it offers to our lives going forward.

Esports are one of the few sporting leagues that are able to pivot and give live options to fans desperate for content of any kind. NASCAR has put on a series of successful (and very entertaining) iRacing broadcasts on Fox with Cup drivers taking on virtual tracks. The NBA, meanwhile, has had its players face off in an NBA 2K tournament that’s aired on ESPN. The NFL, meanwhile, has seen some of its players participate in a Madden tournament.

Baseball, meanwhile, is stuck in neutral before it even started. Opening Day has come and gone, but the season remains on pause while CDC guidelines and conventional medical wisdom make playing baseball impossible in America. While we wait for the pandemic’s impact to lesson and do our best to social distance, however, MLB has made its own eSports league featuring players from all 30 MLB teams.

ESPN reported Friday that an MLB The Show league will essentially play out an abridged baseball season while the COVID-19 pandemic keeps us all inside. With players from every team involved, the league will run a 29-game regular season that starts on Friday.

The regular season begins Friday and will last through April 28. Games will take place every one to two days with three to five three-inning matchups played each game day. The postseason is scheduled to begin April 30, with a World Series played on May 2. The postseason will feature the eight best teams, with a best-of-three format for the first two rounds and a best-of-five format for the World Series.

The tournament is for charity, with MLB, its players association, and Sony donating $5,000 to a Boys & Girls Club affiliate in each team’s community and an additional $25,000 going to the team that wins the World Series. The games will be broadcast on Twitch, but according to ESPN’s report there have been “conversations” about putting the games on TV with the league’s broadcast partners. The Show is consistently one of the most realistic sports sims on the market, so the product will presumably be pretty good watching.

Here are the players involved in the tournament:

• Arizona Diamondbacks: Jon Duplantier

• Atlanta Braves: Luke Jackson

• Baltimore Orioles: Dwight Smith Jr.

• Boston Red Sox: Eduardo Rodriguez

• Chicago Cubs: Ian Happ

• Chicago White Sox: Lucas Giolito

• Cincinnati Reds: Amir Garrett

• Cleveland Indians: Carlos Santana

• Colorado Rockies: David Dahl

• Detroit Tigers: Niko Goodrum

• Houston Astros: Lance McCullers Jr.

• Kansas City Royals: Brett Phillips

• Los Angeles Angels: Ty Buttrey

• Los Angeles Dodgers: Gavin Lux

• Miami Marlins: Ryne Stanek

• Milwaukee Brewers: Josh Hader

• Minnesota Twins: Trevor May

• New York Mets: Jeff McNeil

• New York Yankees: Tommy Kahnle

• Oakland Athletics: Jesus Luzardo

• Philadelphia Phillies: Rhys Hoskins

• Pittsburgh Pirates: Cole Tucker

• San Diego Padres: Fernando Tatis Jr.

• San Francisco Giants: Hunter Pence

• Seattle Mariners: Carl Edwards Jr.

• St. Louis Cardinals: Matt Carpenter

• Tampa Bay Rays: Blake Snell

• Texas Rangers: Joey Gallo

• Toronto Blue Jays: Bo Bichette

• Washington Nationals: Juan Soto

Call of Duty League returns this week as well, meaning gaming-inclined folks have plenty of options to watch if you’ve got some time this weekend. It’s not a trip to the ballpark, but it’s certainly a start.

The NFL intended to clean up its pass interference rules by allowing officials to review those calls during the 2019 season, but opening up pass interference to instant replay and coaches’ challenges ended up doing the opposite. The league’s Competition Committee officially decided to move on from the rule this week, assuredly ending an experiment that will not soon be forgotten.

As Mark Maske reported at the Washington Post after the completion of the regular season, “there were 101 interference-related replay reviews during the regular season, and 24 of them resulted in the on-field call being reversed.” Just three of those reversals came on plays in which interference was not already called. The vast majority came on plays in which there was no interference called and officials went back to call the penalty.

The rule was put in place following pressure, particularly from the New Orleans Saints, after a non-call in the 2018 NFC Championship Game turned the tide of the game toward the L.A. Rams. However, many around the league this past season complained about the lack of clarity regarding the rules and referees’ apparent lack of willingness to change their own calls.

Though the NFL is moving on from reviewing pass interference, the issue has taken on heightened focus over the past 18 months, meaning there is still reason to believe referees could learn their lesson and straighten out a stricter ruling on those calls.

Drew Brees seems like he can play football forever, but seeing as how he’s 41 and father time is undefeated, the future Hall of Fame inductee’s playing career doesn’t have all that much time left. Whenever he decides to hang them up, though, Brees already knows what he’s going to do next.

A new report by Andrew Marchand of the New York Post indicates that Brees, who was being courted by several television networks, has decided to ink a deal with NBC Sports that will lead to him being “groomed as a potential replacement” for longtime Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth. However, before he gets to that point, NBC plans on using him on other broadcasts to get his feet wet in the broadcasting world.

When Brees retires from the Saints, he is expected to start as a game analyst on Notre Dame football and as a studio analyst for “Football Night in America.” In its recruitment of Brees, NBC sold him on it being the best place to succeed.

Brees had been courted by ESPN, too, as the lead analyst for Monday Night Football, which has been a focus for the network this offseason. The Worldwide Leader in Sports had an eye on Tony Romo, who opted to stay with CBS, and asked Peyton Manning if he would be interested in the job, but he declined. While Marchand laid out some potential other names to look out for in ESPN’s overhaul of its signature football broadcast, there wasn’t an indication that there is anything imminent with regards to replacing Joe Tessitore and/or Booger McFarland.

Still, in the world of broadcasting, this is a huge win for NBC, which now can throw Brees and Mike Tirico on games, whether it be in place of or alongside Collinsworth and Al Michaels. As Marchand reported, two No. 1 booths is potentially on the table.

The move by NBC has been made in part to solidify its announcing group as all the networks head into negotiations with the NFL for the next TV rights agreement. NBC could possibly add a second NFL package, which would allow Brees and Collinsworth to both be No. 1s. If not, Brees will be in the on-deck circle.

Brees agreed to a two-year, $50 million extension with the New Orleans Saints this past offseason, but Marchand pointed out that “there is a feeling this could be his final season.”

Aside from being teammates for the United States Women’s National Team, Megan Rapinoe, Tobin Heath, Meghan Klingenberg and Christen Press are also the founders of re—inc, a purpose-driven lifestyle and streetwear brand. With a mission of redefining the status quo, the co-founders sought to design a clothing line that is gender neutral and allows for individual expression.

Following the success of the company’s first clothing collection in November, the second release, a black and white ensemble, dropped on Friday. The BW Capsule features clean and smartly designed t-shirts, hoodies and sweatpants as well as dad hats, beanies, socks and more. According to the re-inc website, five percent of capsule sales through April 22 will go to #GetUsPPE, a national organization that works to get personal protective equipment to healthcare providers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We spoke with Rapinoe, Heath, and Press about the capsule, what it’s like to work with your teammates, and how re-inc balances its role as a high-end streetwear brand that is made for everyone.

Why did you choose black and white for your next clothing collection?

Tobin Heath: Well, black and white is obviously super wearable, but the story was also about how our company, re, was founded through this tension that exists when you’re trying to reimagine the status quo. Out of this idea of fighting against something and we wanted to change that narrative — to fight for something. So we knew we wanted to drop the black and white capsule as a nod to that. Our black and white capsule is our story of how our company was born and the story that we continue to tell ourselves in everything that we do — no matter how hard the imagination process is, that it’s worth it and that together, we can be even stronger.

Your first capsule, RWB, was popular and many of the items quickly sold out. What does your success mean to you and what have you learned from the first release?

Christen Press: I think the whole process of starting something has been really humbling and we’ve all been venturing into unknown territories, which is fun. I think it was beautiful that we were able to co-opt the clothing line that was rooted in something other than commercialism. It was about re-imagining patriotism and especially during the course of the year when we were representing our country at the World Cup. And one of the biggest things we learned was how important that was for our community, to be buying in to re-inc. It wasn’t just about product — it was about product that was a symbol of the change, and that’s something we want to bring to every capsule and every product that we do.

We’re so intentional and we’re so careful because this isn’t [merchandise] for us. This is handcrafted goods and clothing and creative pieces that we’ve designed ourselves, with our own hands, and we’ve been there for every step during the process. So it’s really personal.

What does it mean to be able to have your own company, create your own products and build out your own vision?

Rapinoe: Seeing it come to life is obviously so rewarding. We knew that this could be successful, so it’s kind of like, yeah, we knew this was going to happen. But it’s also like we’re putting something out there, this idea of something better and re-imagining the status quo, and so being successful means that other people are feeling that as well. So I feel like we’re giving a voice and tapping into something that hasn’t really been tapped into in the way that we’re doing it.

I think streetwear, as a whole, often has to find the balance between being available to a wide range of consumers while also remaining somewhat exclusive. On the other hand, the communities that re-inc seems to be targeting with its clothing, like the LGBTQ+ and minority communities, are also the ones who are more likely to struggle financially and might be unable to purchase a lot of your clothes. How do you reconcile those two elements with your company?

Press: I think that what we have decided to do is to strike a bit of a balance. We welcome all members of our community to participate by offering them space to share their thoughts, to learn, to grow, and we’ll hopefully continue to do that as we grow. And then we’re also hoping to provide products at a range of price points, so if someone isn’t able to afford the full suit, perhaps they can buy in with a pair of socks or a hat. So, we’ve actually expanded our range of products to be more inclusive.

At the same time, when you’re building products of super high quality that are sustainable and doing really limited drops in order to reduce the production, it does come at a certain price point. So that’s where we’ve struck the balance, we’ve actually come in at kind of a lower end of a luxury brand. The prices are significantly lower than the ones of a high luxury brand and that’s because we want it to be accessible to a lot more people. But at the same time, I think it’s a fair price for the value of all that we put into this, from the designs to the quality of production, and to hopefully the overall experience that a customer will have when they shop our line.

What has it been like to work with your teammates and friends who you’ve known for so many years?

Megan Rapinoe: It’s actually been really so amazing. One of the things that our company was born out of was all of us feeling a little boxed in. Obviously, we’ve been athletes our entire lives and it’s always, “Oh, you’re the creative athlete or the athlete that likes fashion or the athlete that does this,” so that was a big genesis for us when we first started this. Then, to be in the company, we’ve all given each other space to be something completely outside of what we normally know each other, and that’s the really beautiful part of all of this. When we step off the field, I’m not thinking of Tobin as a really creative athlete. I’m like, this is our lead designer, she’s our artist and she’s coming up with all of these crazy ideas that we’re sort of charged with bringing to life. And Christen’s running the company — I don’t see her as my teammate, I see her as the CEO of the company.

Billie Eilish has addressed her body and public perception of it on multiple occasions, like when she explained why she has an affinity for loose-fitting clothing or when she kicked off her recent tour with a video of her taking her shirt off and sharing a message about her body. Now she has offered more comments on the subject, and she believes that when it comes to her body, she just “can’t win.”

The topic came up in a new Dazed feature, and talking about the videos Eilish posted of herself wearing a bikini while on vacation in Hawaii (which are relatively tame and don’t seem to be intentionally provocative), she said, “It was trending. There were comments like, ‘I don’t like her any more because as soon as she turns 18 she’s a whore.’ Like, dude. I can’t win. I can-not win.”

She also discussed her own self-image and stressed that her style choices are her own, saying, “There was a point last year where I was naked and I didn’t recognize my body ’cause I hadn’t seen it in a while. I would see it sometimes and be like, ‘Whose body is that?’ It’s not that I like [my body] now, I just think I’m a bit more OK with it. […] If I wore a dress to something, I would be hated for it. People would be like, ‘You’ve changed, how dare you do what you’ve always rebelled against?’ I’m like, ‘I’m not rebelling against anything, really.’ I can’t stress it enough. I’m just wearing what I wanna wear. If there’s a day when I’m like, ‘You know what, I feel comfortable with my belly right now, and I wanna show my belly,’ I should be allowed to do that.”

Read the full feature here.

Sometimes good R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm and blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the hottest R&B jams that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.

First up, Kiana Ledé released her debut album Kiki and along with it came a ladies night FaceTime visual with Ari Lennox for the track “Chocolate.” Elsewhere, India Shawn reconnected with 6lack for the affectionate “Not Too Deep” and Tory Lanez came through with his new EP New Toronto 3 featuring standout cut “Stupid Again.”

Kiana Ledé — “Chocolate.” Feat. Ari Lennox

Kiana Ledé and Dreamville’s Ari Lennox connect for their mutual love of “Chocolate.” on Kiana’s latest single from her debut album Kiki. Both of their sweet voices blended on this track gives the song a bit of richness and is a fulfilling achievement as it’s a fairly easy decision to return for more. Kiki’s jazzy voice praises the mother of somebody’s son and all of her desires in a man, while Ari chimes in with her ambrosial vocals expressing a few desires of her own as the two indulge in conversations reserved for ladies night between homegirls. In this case it’s over FaceTime because of, you know, The Rona.

India Shawn — “Not Too Deep” Feat. 6lack

India Shawn wants to fall in love on her new song “Not Too Deep” featuring 6lack. The Epic recording artist fearlessly swims through the track with her soulful voice expressing a kind of love where two souls connect and, naturally, 6lack meets her there with the same energy.

Tory Lanez — “Stupid Again”

Tory Lanez has been going crazy on Instagram with his notoriously wild and entertaining Quarantine Radio featuring big booties everywhere (he got temporarily banned and everything). On Friday (April 10), he unleashed The New Toronto 3 and is going equally crazy on the project’s rambunctious joint “Stupid Again.”

Love Mansuy — “Count On You” Feat. Lil Wayne

A rarity, Lil Wayne hopped on the remix of Love Mansuy’s “Count On You” off his 2019 EP Of Age. Weezy F. Baby raps all the ways he can count on his girl in a way that’s reminiscent of Da Drought. Mansuy also counts all the ways he can count on his own family and friends as he chases his dreams. It’s a charming addition to the already very good song.

PJ — “Intentions/Yummy” (Justin Bieber Cover)

PJ is taking this sequestered moment in time to release a series of tracks for her latest musical endeavor, The Quarantine Tapes. She already put her sultry drip onto Roddy Ricch’s Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial number “High Fashion” and this week she fulfilled the same feat to Justin Beiber’s “Intentions/Yummy.”

Amber Mark — “Heart-Shaped Box”

Nirvana‘s 1993 In Utero song “Heart-Shaped Box” is absolutely one of my favorites and Amber Mark, a burgeoning R&B superstar everyone should be looking out for, really did her thing to the grunge record by truly singing it with her own divine essence. It’s a remarkable interpretation of Kurt Cobain’s angsty drawl.

Dvsn — “Dangerous City” Feat. Ty Dolla $ign & Buju Banton

OVO Sound’s Dvsn never misses so expect nothing but pure melodically dulcet rhythm and blues from Daniel Daly and producer Nineteen85 on their upcoming project A Muse In Her Feelings. Though their music is generally an ethereal slow build-up of robust sounds and heavenly vocals, their latest single off the forthcoming project, “Dangerous City” featuring Ty Dolla $ign and iconic Jamaican artist Buju Banton, is vibrant, unexpected, and needed. Once we can go back outside, I expect “Dangerous City” to rise as 2020’s perfect summertime R&B chune.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Rihanna is jumping on the livestreaming wave to celebrate the release of her new Fenty clothing line with the Fenty Social Club. The party celebrates the launch of the Fenty brand’s faux leather capsule. Launching later today (April 10) at 3pm PST, 6pm EST, and 11pm BST, the party will feature DJ sets from DJ Pedro, Kitty Ca$h, and Stretch Armstrong, with a performance from grime star Octavian. See below for the flyers.

Rihanna also donated quite a lot of money to coronavirus relief on top of providing entertainment, donating $5 million via her Clara Lionel Foundation to organizations all over the US and overseas, which helped food banks serving at-risk populations, provided medical equipment to hospitals, and helped speed up distribution of testing kits in Haiti and Malawi. Her home country, Barbados, received $1.4 million for ventilators.

She also teamed up with Jay-Z to distribute $2 million collectively to organizations in New York and Los Angeles to help vulnerable populations such as children of frontline healthcare workers, the elderly, the homeless, the incarcerated, and undocumented workers.

But of course, with so many fans — including Drake — clamoring for new music from the Bajan star, she’s also been hard at work on just that during quarantine. Hopefully, she’ have something new to play for fans who tune into Fenty Social Club this afternoon.

Check out the announcement for Fenty Social Club above, along with a preview of what to expect.

When I first heard that Indonesian rapper Rich Brian had released a video freestyling over the beat from Teriyaki Boyz’s theme song for for The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift, my mind was blown. For one thing, it was such an surprising choice for a beat to freestyle over. For another thing, I didn’t think anyone else even remembered that movie now that the franchise has nuclear subs and parachuting personal tanks.

But that’s Rich Brian: Always doing the unexpected. He surprised American audiences as a foreign-born rapper who learned English watching American TV, debuting with the viral single “Dat $tick.” When his former rap name caused controversy, he pivoted, becoming Rich Brian and releasing The Sailor last year. It was another unexpected move; he proved that he could really rap and that he didn’t need a gimmick to capture our attention.

Just a week ago, he released the “Tokyo Drift” freestyle, complete with a homemade music video making light of coronavirus social distancing protocols, turning his boredom into content — much-needed content that not only helped others stave off their own boredom, but showed his talent for crafting self-produced potential hits. Not only did it display his artistic growth, but it also brought him back to his SoundCloud guerrilla releases, showing he has the edge to compete in this new, Wild West world.

In a new interview by phone, Brian talks about his “Tokyo Drift” video, his appearance on Guapdad 4000’s Falcon Fridays release “Bali,” and how coronavirus-sparked xenophobia against Asian people has affected him.

All right. First of all, your “Tokyo Drift” video is incredible. What were you doing when you got the inspiration for it?

I was in just like my little studio set up and then I was just one night, I was just thinking the “Tokyo Drift” beat is so f*cking hard, and I feel like if I tried writing to it would be tight, so I did. This was kind of before the lockdown things started to get crazy.

So I recorded it with my friend Vic, it was a really rough recording, we didn’t have that much time to mix it, I showed it to my manager, and he was like, ‘Yo, this is tight, we should put this out.’ At first, we were going to try to do some sort of video, but then I was like, ‘I don’t really want to get out the house, though, right now it’s kind of scary.’ So, I decided to just make a little phone thing in my living room and then just edit it on [Adobe] After Effects for like two, three days, and then just put it out. It definitely felt like the old times and just kind of like being able to hit ‘upload’ on SoundCloud again.

It’s funny because I didn’t think that people really remembered that song or that soundtrack or that particular entry in the Fast And The Furious movies. Why do you think it was that Tokyo Drift was considered the redhead step-child of the Fast And The Furious franchise?

I heard that song for the first time when I was really young, when I was probably like five or six. And I remember just loving it and just because I was a kid, that melody with that hook just stuck with me. It was just like this is the hardest thing ever. I think that was just a really legendary song.

It’s kind of a legendary movie. It’s kind of known as being the worst one, but some people say it’s the best, some people like it more. And some people think it’s the worst one.

I actually don’t even remember.

Okay. How’s this? Which one’s your favorite?

To be completely honest with you, I don’t remember watching Tokyo Drift. I don’t remember like how it went, but my favorite Fast And The Furious probably would be — and this is for me just you know, like hell, I don’t think that I’ve watched all of them to be honest with you. But I watched like a good, like three or four of them and I think my favorite is the first one with Paul Walker and Tyrese.

Which is 2 Fast 2 Furious.

Do people like that one?

Some people did, some people didn’t. I liked it and I think it’s aged probably better than any of the other really old ones. So, we’ve been stuck in the house for a little while. What kind of music have you been working on since you were stuck in the house?

I’ve been getting back to producing more because before this, I’ve always produced and I started learning how to produce when I was like 16, 17. So, that’s always been a nice little skill to have just because it makes it easier for me to make songs and I don’t have to talk to people about what I want all the time. It just makes songwriting a lot better, and being able to learn arrangements and what these little languages are.

And it’s been a lot of different kinds of music — a lot of hip-hop stuff, then a lot of really melodic stuff, and that’s what comes out when I produce. I can’t really just do one thing because it gets really boring for me. So I try to switch it up.

That’s fire. Challenging yourself is a really great way to get better at any skill or even just get better at like you said, writing things down or finding ways to solve problems. There’s actually a challenge that I heard that goes with the video that has prompted prominent Asian rappers to also jump on the beat for “Tokyo Drift.”

I guess it’s been a challenge that kind of started naturally, people wanting to get on the beat. I think it’s cool to see people doing that without even me just trying to start anything. It’s really interesting to see. I’ve seen some really good ones and right now, I’m currently trying to get my other rapper friends on it, but we’ll see.

Absolutely. So, I know you’ve probably seen how in the news that there’s been a rise in anti-Asian sentiment and xenophobia lately because of the coronavirus. What would you say to someone who believes or repeats some of those anti-Asian sentiments?

This virus is not an excuse to just be racist to random Asian people. And what’s been happening is not cool. And I’ve seen a lot of the news and even my friends have gotten into their share of weird encounters and altercations relating to this whole pandemic situation. It’s really fucked up. It’s a weird situation to be in and I just hope that more people realize that it’s not cool.

And as an Asian person myself, I don’t feel safe walking outside just by myself. And I never thought I would feel that, like in a million years.

You’re now seen as sort of a role model for a community of people that don’t necessarily get a lot of representation in hip-hop. Can you just talk about what does that position mean to you?

That position is so big to me and most of the time I don’t really get pressure from it. Most of the time it’s motivation. But there are times where I’m really, really thinking about it and I’m like, ‘Whoa, this could be a lot of pressure sometimes.’ But a lot of times, it’s what keeps me going. It’s great that I’m able to make money off of something that I enjoy doing, but at the same time, outside of all that, I like being able to do it and inspire a lot of other people in the process and be that role model that I didn’t really have that much of when I was a kid.

I also hear you’re working with another rapper from the Asian-American community: Guapdad 4000, who’s part Filipino.

Yeah, the new single’s called “Bali” and it’s featuring Guapdad 4000 and it’s coming out today. It’s just a really fun song, it’s really melodic and catchy. At the same time, there’s also rapping in it that’s kind of like that rap-melodic stuff that people do sometimes and I haven’t done too much of it because it’s kind of a new territory for me. It has kind of like a reggae vibe on the beat.

I worked on it with Bekon and the Donuts. We produced it together and Guapdad 4000 was amazing to work with. We never met before, but we were just like texting about it. He was really cool because he did his verse and then he sent it to me. Usually, when I collab with people, they send me their verse, whatever, and they’re just like, ‘Alright, I did my verse, this is what you get.’ But he was actually asking me what do I think about it and he was down to take notes and stuff like that.

So it was a great collaboration and I can’t wait for it to come out because it’s definitely, again, a weird time to be in right now. I’ve never seen anybody just like globally staying home. I don’t think this ever happened before in this world. And the thing that I feel like keeps a lot of people sane right now is music.