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Earlier this year, Phoebe Bridgers shared a throwback photo of her father to mourn his death. The loss of a parent is obviously a challenging thing to deal with, but now Bridgers has revealed that at the time, she was also dealing with bullying from supposed fans of hers. She didn’t mince words while talking about it, either.

In a recent Boygenius interview with Them, Bridgers said, “I’m coming from a place of literally — I’m feeling it in my body as I’m saying it, but — people with my picture as their Twitter picture, who claim to like my music, f*cking bullied me at the airport on the way to my father’s funeral this year.”

After some urging from Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, Bridgers continued:

“If you’re a kid and the internet somehow taught you that that’s an OK thing to do, then of course I hate capitalism and everything that led you to believe that it’s okay to do that. I, at one of the lowest points of my life, saw people who claim to love me f*cking dehumanize me and shame me and f*cking bully me on the way to my dad’s wake.

It’s not like they didn’t know my dad just died. A lot of the top comments [were] like, ‘Hey, her dad just died, what are you guys doing?’ [If you harass me with my face as your profile picture,] I f*cking hate you, and I hope you grow the f*ck up.”

This comes after she told Rolling Stone earlier this year, “I want to normalize talking sh*t about fans. There’s a way to [be a fan] without filming me without my permission behind the back of my head, chasing me down the street.”

Read the full feature here.

Moneybagg Yo is one of the hottest names in hip-hop music. But it is important to note that the Memphis rapper’s rise to the top wasn’t overnight, nor was it a fast climb. However, that’s not the case when it comes to his tussles in the sheets. On his raunchy track “Quickie,” the musician makes it abundantly clear that he’s not opposed to a lighting round of lovemaking.

Bagg might play around with the toxic love jokes on social media or on his collaborative track with GloRilla, but he’s a loverboy at heart. On “Quickie” he raps, “Told her, ‘Make a wish’ / ’11:11,’ what she tweeted, let me be your genie / Sneaky linkin’, we don’t tell it (uh) / Kissin’, touchin’, breathin’ heavy (uh) / Foreplay session got you ready (go) / Beat it, but I don’t support domestic (no).”

Bagg brought that same swagged-out energy to his UPROXX Sessions performance of the fan-favorite track. Be sure to keep a lookout for his forthcoming album, Hard To Love, set to be released soon.

Watch Moneybagg Yo’s UPROXX Sessions performance of “Quickie” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

DJ Drama dubbed his famed Gangsta Grillz mixtape series “THEEE MOST IMPORTANT MIXTAPE SERIES OF ALL TIME” on Twitter this morning, March 30, and then he pivoted back to promoting his next album, I’m Really Like That.

Drama revealed the tracklist for the album, which will drop at midnight. Every song has at least one featured artist, including the late Nipsey Hussle, Tyler The Creator, Lil Baby, and Jack Harlow.

Drama stopped by The Breakfast Club to dish more about I’m Really Like That, and he explained the Juice-inspired rollout.

“It was a concept I had. You know, people who know me through my years, I’ve always talked about how much Juice was an inspiration for me to be a DJ, so we came up with the concept,” he said. “I actually called Jim Jones, like, ‘Yo, I got this idea.’ I was like, ‘Yo, you still directing videos?’ And he was like, ‘Here and there, not really.’ But I ran it by him, and he was like, ‘Oh, that’s crazy.’ I ran into Omar Epps sometime in New York. I ran the idea by him, and it just starting building.”

Check out the I’m Really Like That tracklist below.

1. “Legendary” Feat. Tyler The Creator
2. “Ho4me” Feat. Lil Baby and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie
3. “Raised Different” Feat. Nipsey Hussle, Jeezy, and Blxst
4. “FMFU” Feat. Lil Wayne, Roddy Ricch, and Gucci Mane
5. “Free Game” Feat. Lil Uzi Vert and 42 Dugg
6. “350” Feat. Rick Ross, Westside Gunn, and Lule
7. “Been A While” Feat. Vory, Mozzy, and G Herbo
8. “No Weakness” Feat. Wiz Khalifa, T.I., and Symba
9. “Mockingbird Valley” Feat. Jack Harlow
10. “Forever” Feat. Jim Jones, Capella Grey, Fabolous, and Benny The Butcher
11. “Andale” Feat. Offset and Moneybagg Yo
12. “Iron Right” Feat. Boosie Badazz, OMB Peezy, and Trouble
13. “I Ain’t Gon Hold Ya” Feat. Jeezy
14. “We Made It” Feat. Carvena, Cyhi, and LaRussell

I’m Really Like That is out 3/31 via Atlantic/Generation Now. Find more information here.

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

It’s not uncommon for women to call out Hollywood’s incessant white-washing. In fact, it’s important! With the obvious lack of opportunities in the industry and many minority-led projects getting the axe, more and more actresses are speaking out against the lack of diversity in Hollywood.

Oscar-nominated actress Rosie Perez, who has starred in classic films like It Could Happen To You, Fearless, and the hit stoner comedy Pineapple Express, says that the industry still has a lot of work to do when it comes to diversity.

Perez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, told Variety about a time she was told by her then-agent that she needed to dye her hair and get a nose job in order to make it as an actor. She explained, “I don’t want her to be canceled, but she told me that if I dyed my hair blond and got a nose job, ‘I can get you more jobs. Because you’re not Black.’ I couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness. Like, thank you, fired,’” she said at the time, before realizing that she didn’t have many other people in her corner. “I had nobody. I had no money.”

Luckily, Perez was introduced to fellow actress Jennifer Grey in 1990, who was disgusted by the story and helped the actress secure a new agent. “Jennifer and I clicked instantly,” Perez told the mag. “I haven’t seen that woman in ages, but I just think she’s phenomenal. She’s like, ‘I cannot believe how racist this industry is.’ She picks up the phone and calls Jane Berliner at CAA and says, ‘You need to represent this actress.’” Even though her Matrix audition wasn’t a hit, she was able to keep getting more offers.

Now, Perez is returning to television for her role in season two of Your Honor alongside Bryan Cranston, which is already better than her short-lived role on The View, which she was advised not to talk about. “Let’s just say that what I thought I was there for was supposed to be one kind of a thing, which excited me, and then when I got there, that’s not what it was,” the actress said. To be fair, The View is never what you think it’s going to be.

(Via Variety)

At this point, it feels pretty remedial to write something like “tequila, it’s not just the stuff you regretted shots of in college anymore!” Backward, even.

These days, practically every celebrity has tequila brands — from Kendall Jenner to Michael Jordan to George Clooney — which is a good sign of the general public’s acceptance of tequila as a luxury product. It’s a spirit with a rich history, and just as with scotch and bourbon, there are fairly strict rules regarding what can be called “tequila.” Per the CRT (El Consejo Regulador del Tequila, the Tequila Regulatory Council), all tequila has to be distilled from 100% blue Weber agave harvested from the state of Jalisco in Mexico (Mézcal is also derived from agave, but can use other varieties).

Agave is basically a big cactus relative. The blue Weber variety grows at altitude, where the agave plants take five to six years to reach a harvestable size, at which point there are a few different ways to cook the agave “piñas” for tequila production — from autoclaves (steam ovens) to pit ovens and brick ovens, which all affect the taste in different ways. Some brands use a diffuser, which extracts sugars from the plant more efficiently but are generally frowned upon by tequila heads, who say they add medicinal or chemical notes from the acids used in processing to the tequila’s “natural” agave flavor.

If you’re ever in Jalisco, you should definitely try to visit a tequila distillery. The smell of cooking agave and the taste (most places will let you taste some cooked agave) will create a sense memory that you’ll have in your head every time you sip tequila hence forth (not to mention the sight of an agave being harvested, which is pretty cool). From then on, you’ll want your tequila to taste not just “sweet” or “smooth,” but actually have agave flavor — which to me tastes a lot like sweet potato with some vegetal, artichoke-like notes.

Distilled tequila has been around since the 1500s, and at first, was drunk and distributed as an unaged product — like moonshine, only better tasting — to let the actual agave shine through. Herradura claims to be the first to have produced a “reposado” tequila (now classified as tequila aged for at least two months) and now most brands include reposado tequila and añejo labels (the latter, aged at least 12 months) as well as branching out into other types of aging, from “extra añejo” to other types of barrel seasoning. Reflecting its heritage, tequila is generally “younger” than bourbon or scotch, though Mexico’s warmer climate means it also ages faster.

One of the biggest tequila brands out there is Don Julio, which started distributing globally in 1999 and as of 2020 was the fourth-largest tequila brand, with $1.12 billion in sales (behind Sauza, Jose Cuervo, and Patrón). They produce seven core labels, ranging from a $45 Don Julio Blanco to the Don Julio Ultima Reserva, which retails for $399 (with Don Julio 1942 being one of the earliest and most popular top-shelf tequilas around).

Just like we’ve done with Jose Cuervo and 818, we decided the best way to dive into Don Julio was to blind taste the full line.

Part I: The Lineup

• Don Julio Blanco
• Don Julio Reposado
• Don Julio Añejo
• Don Julio 1942
• Don Julio 70
• Don Julio Ultima Reserva
• Don Julio Rosado

I knew which tequilas would be in the tasting, but I had my wife pour them all in unlabeled glasses so I wouldn’t know which was which. And then I didn’t peek because I’m not a cheater. You can trust me on this because I’m a guy on the internet.

Part II: The Tasting

Sample 1

Look: This one is definitely pinkish, which seems like a clue. Hello, Rosado! Look, blinds don’t always work perfectly when one is a different color. Though in fairness, I am also red-green colorblind, so this wasn’t as easy as it would be for some people.

Nose: On the nose, I get pear, honeysuckle, and a woody bite.

Taste: On the palate, I get more of that pear and honeysuckle, but with a distinctive woody spice that hits me right in the back of the throat. It actually kind of chokes me a little. The finish is all burnt sugar, like smoking a swisher sweet, which makes me want to go back again, that choke notwithstanding.

It’s sweet and mostly smooth, but there’s a very astringent character, especially on the back end, that’s a touch harsh.

Sample 2

Look: This one is clear. It’s see-through. It looks like water. …You get it.

Nose: On the nose, I get thick agave syrup and burnt marshmallows. Maybe even a little bubblegum.

Taste: On the palate, this is even sweeter and more bubblegummy, but maybe a little more towards cotton candy, with a nice round, lingering mouthfeel. Very easy to drink, though maybe just a tad washed out on the finish. Slightly numbing on the tongue, not as sugary sweet on the finish as Sample 1, and yet somehow slightly cloying.

Sample 3

Look: Also clear.

Nose: On the nose, I get a roastier agave than the last one, with a slightly grassy, artichoke/vegetal note and the faintest hint of pepper.

Taste: On the palate… ooh, that’s nice. It’s similar to sample 2, only instead of that cotton candy, it’s more like butterscotch with a hint of green herb. It also seems less washed out somehow. Where the last one was sweet, this is faintly medicinal. I get a spiky green plant in my mind when I drink it, which feels more true to “tequila.”

Sample 4

Look: This is a faint pale yellow.

Nose: This is “hotter” on the nose, and I’m getting a bourbon vibe from it — vanilla, caramel, and dark wood in the forefront, with a little of that cotton candy and marshmallow creeping in.

Taste: Mmm, rich sweet agave on the palate. This is verrrry syrupy, plus butterscotch and cotton candy and just a hint of spice on the back end. The finish is more of that burnt sugar.

Sample 5

Look: Also a pale yellow, though looks like it has a little more color than sample 4.

Nose: On the nose, it’s just so rich — like buttery sweet potatoes and honeysuckle.

Taste: On the palate… oh, that is magnificent. It’s sweet, syrupy, buttery, and just a little floral. The taste is very round, with no sharp points, but not in a saccharine way, if that makes any sense.

Sample 6

Look: This is slightly more amber-yellow in color.

Nose: On the nose, I’m getting a port wine barrel vibe from this one. I’m guessing it’s the Ultima Reserva. Port wine, cane sugar.

Taste: Boy that’s good. This one seems like it has a lot of the same qualities as the last one, but with a little more complexity. It’s a little less oak-woody and a little more bright-floral, and still with that rounded, velvety mouthfeel. I like this a lot. It’s going to be tough to rank this against the previous one.

Sample 7

Look: This one is a pale yellow — or is that a little bit of rose color? I think it’s just yellow. I really wish I wasn’t colorblind right now.

Nose: I get rich, roasty agave on the nose, like baked sweet potato with a hint of aloe vera. A little oakiness creeping in.

Taste: On that palate, I get mostly more agave and oak, and very syrupy and sweet. More one-note than some of the others, but very drinkable and a great sipper. It doesn’t linger as much as some of the others, but is pleasant and makes me want to go back for me. This is going to be tough.

Part 3: The Rankings

7. Don Julio Rosado

The Tequila:

“An exquisite Reposado tequila finished in Ruby Port wine casks that impart a light fruit finish and delicate pink hue. Tequila Don Julio uses only the choicest, fully matured and ripened blue agave, hand-selected from the rich clay soils of the Los Altos region.”

Distilled at NOM 1449, the agave is reportedly cooked in brick ovens and extracted using a roller mill before being double distilled in a pot still before the aforementioned aging.

ABV: 40%

Price (MSRP): $125.99

Final Thoughts:

This was the most “different” of the offerings, easily, and not just because it was the only one that was pink. Those ruby port casks give it a nice fruity nose and some wild blood orange-type flavors, but they also impart a woodier, more astringent finish. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed in my drink preferences, it’s that I tend to steer away from anything “dry” in that way — whether it’s woody cabernets or piny IPAs (no thank you!).

This is quite dry, astringent, and woody, though it does have some interesting grapefruity kind of flavors. Your mileage may vary, and whatnot.

6. Don Julio 70

The Tequila:

Don Julio 70 is a “crystal añejo” or a cristalino tequila, meaning that it’s aged for 18 months (like an añejo tequila) in American white oak, and then charcoal filtered to “bring back the crisp agave flavor typically found in a Blanco.” And also, presumably, to restore the clear color.

Cristalino is an up-and-coming category now, and Don Julio says Don Julio 70 was the world’s first clear añejo tequila.

ABV: 40%

Price (MSRP): $54

Final Thoughts:

I’ve heard tequila people say that cristalino was developed because Mexicans liked the flavor of añejo but were inherently distrustful of non-clear tequila, but that may be apocryphal. Anyway, this was the sweetest of the bunch and incredibly easy to drink. The only reason I ranked it lower than some of the others was that I thought it didn’t have quite as much agave flavor as those and was maybe too sweet. I feel similarly about a lot of charcoal-filtered whiskeys (which are not clear, I’m not sure how that works) in that they become “easier” to drink and less harsh at the expense of some complexity.

It didn’t really remind me of agave, which is a little disappointing.

5. Don Julio Blanco (Sample 3)

The Tequila: “Tequila Don Julio uses only the choicest, fully matured and ripened blue agave from the rich, clay soils of the Los Altos region.”

We also know that it’s double distilled, and the agave is reportedly cooked in brick ovens.

ABV: 40%

Price (MSRP): $45

Final Thoughts:

This was more herbaceous and butterscotchy than the 70, with more agave flavor. Buttery, grassy, and vegetal. This is a really solid blanco tequila, in my opinion. It’s not harsh and it tastes like agave.

4. Don Julio Añejo

The Tequila:

Same as above, from the oven-roasted Los Altos agave to the double distilling and “unique yeast strain,” plus 18 months of maturing in American white oak barrels.

ABV: 40%

Price (MSRP): $55

Final Thoughts:

This was very syrupy and with some dark wood flavors adding to that marshmallow/cotton candy base, with a finish of sugar and honey. An enjoyable añejo tequila all around. Great for easy sipping.

3. Don Julio Reposado

The Tequila: Same as the above — double distilled, Los Altos agave, brick ovens — but aged for eight months in white American oak barrels.

Price: $50

ABV: 40%

Final Thoughts:

Don Julio’s Blanco, Reposado, and Añejo tequilas were all right there. To me, this one seemed like the best marriage of that roasty agave flavor and the caramel and nutty notes from the oak. Slightly less syrupy than the Añejo, but it was very close.

2. Don Julio 1942

The Tequila:

Don Julio 1942 was created to commemorate their 60th anniversary of tequila production. “Using a personal selection of prime agave,” this batch of tequila is made with the distillate in Pot Still 6, which produces only three barrels per cycle, which were then aged for at least two and a half years in American white oak.

The tall Don Julio 1942 bottle is meant to mimic an agave leaf. Neat!

Price: $139.99

ABV: 40%

Final Thoughts:

My top two were distinctly the best two, but the margin between Don Julio 1942 and my number one was razor-thin. The thing that stood out to me about this was the buttery richness of it, like a decadent dessert tequila that I would happily drink neat. More wood in this one than any of the others, though it didn’t have the astringent, blood-orange note that the Rosado had.

1. Don Julio Ultima Reserva

The Tequila:

“Tequila Don Julio Ultima Reserva is a special 36-month aged luxury Extra-Añejo tequila that preserves Don Julio González’s ultimate legacy – the final agave harvest. In 2006, Don Julio González and his family planted this final agave harvest field. This agave harvest was set aside for a special distillation. After three years of aging, the result was this special Extra-Añejo tequila.”

This distillation was then aged in ex-bourbon barrels and finished in seasoned Madeira wine casks. “To preserve this tequila and the exquisite agave piñas behind it,” Don Julio implemented “a Solera aging method, which combines and matures tequilas of different characteristics and ages, allowing Don Julio González’s final agave harvest to remain at the heart of this rare tequila.”

It also comes in a fancy box!

Price: $399

ABV: 40%

Final Thoughts:

Should I be proud of myself for choosing the most expensive one as my favorite? I am a little… if I’m being honest. It doesn’t always, or even usually, work that way in blind tastings, but the Ultima Reserva does taste distinctly expensive. Longer aging and more wood don’t always equal “better” (as evidenced by me ranking the reposado over the añejo) but the ex-bourbon + Madeira cask formula for this one did seem a particularly ideal combination, bringing some of those brighter, more complex dried fruit flavors from the wine with basically none of those astringent notes that turn me off.

You know this is going to be a good one from the first sniff. I’m not going to say that you couldn’t find a better tequila than this for less than $400 but I certainly haven’t tasted it yet. I put this in a blind with a bunch of other brands and labels (I’ll get around to writing that up sometime soon) and it still came out on top.

What can I say? I vibed with it.

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Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can check out his archive of reviews here.

I’m not proud of this, but one of the first rap songs I knew every word to was “DK Rap.” In my defense, I had no style, I had no grace, this Kong fan had a funny face (still got it). The song, originally in 1999’s Donkey Kong 64, has been turned into a meme, but will it appear in The Super Mario Bros. Movie?

In a video uploaded to the film’s Twitter account, Seth Rogen, who voices Donkey Kong, jokes (?) that “this is how my character comes out in the movie.”

Rogen also calls “DK Rap” “objectively one of the worst rap songs of all-time.” He has no choice but to show some respect for Diddy Kong’s “sick” dance moves, though. Rogen’s final verdict, knowing full well that “DK Rap” rhymes “funny” with “mummy”: 10 out of 10 bananas.

You can watch the video below.

Chris Pratt has received a lot of attention for his Mario voice sounding like, well, Chris Pratt with a slight Italian inflection, but what about Rogen’s Donkey Kong? “I was very clear, I don’t do voices,” he told Comic Book. “And if you want me to be in this movie, it’s gonna sound like me and that’s it. And that was the beginning and end of that conversation. I was like, ‘If you want Donkey Kong to sound a lot like me, I’m your guy.’ But it did seem to work, you know, I think in the film and in the game, I think all you really know about Donkey Kong is that he throws barrels and he does not like Mario very much.”

There’s a lot more to Donkey Kong than that. For instance, he has a nephew who can fly real high with his jetpack on. With his pistols out, he’s one tough Kong. (Sorry, it’s stuck in my head, and now it’s stuck in yours, too).

The Super Mario Bros. Movie opens on April 5.

E tu, Jake Gyllenhaal?

After Hugh Grant’s cringeworthy encounter with Ashley Graham on the Oscars red carpet had fans dying of second-hand embarrassment (and googling the meaning of the words “vanity fair”) another male celebrity is making a case for an etiquette refresh when it comes to PR events.

Former Bachelorette-star-turned-E!-News correspondent Ali Fedotowsky shared a red carpet horror story on the latest episode of host Roxy Manning’s “Women On Top” podcast. Fedotowsky worked as an on-air personality for the network from 2013 – 2015, conducting plenty of celebrity interviews during that time. Still, her worst experience happened during her first red-carpet job, involving Swiftie offender, Jake Gyllenhaal.

“Sorry, Jake Gyllenhaal, I’m going to Taylor Swift you right now,” Fedotowsky began, jokingly referring to the pair’s former relationship, which Swift has written many songs about. “Jake Gyllenhaal shows up for the red carpet — my first red carpet for E! News — I’m like ‘I’m gonna kill it. I’m gonna be so good.’ I practiced. I rehearsed my questions. I was so ready to go.”

Unfortunately for Fedotowsky, she didn’t even get to ask a second question before Gyllenhaal blew her off.

“He walks up, I’m shaking in my heels — which, I’m horrible in heels — and I say to him, ‘Hi, Jake who’d you bring tonight?’ Like, for a date, like, who’s your date tonight?” she continued. “He goes, ‘bye bye,’ and walked away from me.”

Fedotowsky said the interaction immediately had her in tears until she noticed Gyllenhaal gave the same cold-shoulder treatment to the reporter next to her. She also admitted that while working the red carpet was her least favorite job as a reporter, she did have some nicer celebrities make up for Gyllenhaal’s behavior. Apparently, both Tom Hanks and the Kardashian clan have better manners than the guy who doesn’t shower often enough.

(Via Page Six)

In case you didn’t know, Cardi B partnered with Starco Brands in 2021 for Whipshots, cans of vodka-infused whipped cream. “I’m not really a hardcore liquor-drinking person,” the “WAP” rapper said in a statement. “And I like things that are sexy and tasty.

Now, she’s celebrating selling over two millions cans of the boozy desert. On social media, she expressed her enthusiasm for the successful, growing product: “We just went double platinum! We’re not playing around when we say Whipshots is the best,” she said in a statement, according to Billboard. “Boozy and beautiful since day one, and two million cans later, there is no slowing us down. I love the fans supporting our brand — let’s keep this party going!”

Meanwhile, Cardi B also recently unveiled a McDonald’s meal with her husband Offset. “This is sooo dope !!!!! A club did a Cardi & Offset meal theme,” she wrote on Twitter. “Why I ain’t thought about this?! I love this ….I love cheeseburgers and bad b*tches.” It come with a cheeseburger, Quarter Pounder with cheese, barbecue sauce, large fries, an apple pie, a large Hi-C, and a large Coke.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Lizzo never misses an opportunity to speak up for the oppressed. She was recognized as the People’s Champion at the 2022 People’s Choice Awards because of her indomitable fight. Lately, she’s using her platform to support the transgender community. She began March by tweeting about transphobia, fatphobia, and racism; she’s ending it with an actionable step.

Lizzo has introduced “YOUR SKIN” from her Yitty brand, “gender-affirming shapewear for all gender identities.” Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Yitty officially launched one year ago today, March 30.

“You deserve to feel like you. You deserve to feel good in Your Skin,” Lizzo tweeted. “We’ve been working on this a long time & it’s finally ready! Binder tops & tucking thongs coming this summer!”

The official Yitty Instagram account added, “The rumors are true: YOUR SKIN by YITTY is coming late summer 2023 and will be here to stay, forever! Our Binder Top and Tucking Thong are designed with the comfortable, shaping compression y’all love, with additional seam and stitch details to keep you snatched AF in alllll the right places. Time to feel more like YOU.”

Lizzo also posted the news to Instagram alongside a behind-the-scenes video from the campaign shoot. Her caption explained what inspired her to create this line.

“I’ve watched countless videos of people crafting their own garments to wrap or tuck their bodies so their body can truly feel like theirs. I’ve heard people talk about their preference of wanting to be fluid in how they want to present their bodies depending on their mood or style of clothing. And I wanted to help,” she wrote. “I called my team at yitty and they immediately jumped to action. It took 2 years of extensive wear testing, community feedback, and attention to detail. I’m excited to say we have a great product that’s promises to grow and expand with Your needs.”

Lizzo continued, “I’ve already read positive comments about how we can offer more to the non-binary, trans, gender-fluid community I wanna hear more! Your feedback is not only valuable but a necessity to us. Because we do this for You. Every Damn Body. Xoxo Lizzo.”

The announcement comes a week after Lizzo took to Twitter to bring awareness to “anti-LGBTQIA legislation … being passed banning gender-affirming health care & drag shows”:

See some of the initial fan reaction to Yitty’s upcoming gender-affirming line below.

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Rarely does the sequel become better than the original.

Hit-Boy returns to a familiar concept of keeping your composure in difficult times on his latest album Surf Or Drown. It ends on “Composure, Pt. 2,” a continuation of a record he was featured on with Nas that concluded King’s Disease II. The 35-year-old producer and occasional rapper has a gift for rhyming, delivering personal hardships and reflections on career bumps with an open heart. He mentions the times visiting his father Big Hit in jail when he was younger, how Kanye West told him face-to-face that he was holding him back, and nearly losing everything. “2017, I was laid out on the floor, crying / my account had read that I had zero dollars / I felt like Anthony Hopkins, I had to find solace,” he raps.

The lyrics hold the meaning of keeping your head above water, overcoming any obstacles that halt your success. Hit-Boy says six years ago, he was down on his luck. “Having millions of dollars, having label and artist deals and it all goes away,” Hit says over Zoom, likely referring to his Hits Since ’87 (HS87) imprint with Interscope. “You got to look yourself in the mirror and be like, ‘What am I without all of this shit?’ I was already great, you know what I mean? So I just took that route instead of folding.”

“Composure, Pt. 2” is Hit-Boy’s way of sharing lessons learned, telling fans he rode his wave instead of drowning in the sea of his pitfalls. It’s another reason to not just check Hit-Boy for his beats, but for his rhymes too. He’s been in the conversation these past few weeks for his raps after responding appropriately to Hitmaka, who spoke about his catalog during a Hot 97 interview earlier this month for not having any radio hits. Hit-Boy dropped “Slipping Into Darkness” after teasing his “Control”-esque verse in the studio that has him rapping over an Alchemist beat and Al rapping over a Hit-Boy beat. Full of ammunition for contemporary producers including Hitmaka, he called out Southside, Metro Boomin’, and DJ Mustard in the same song, even claiming he was the best student Kanye West has ever had. It’s that kind of confidence that makes Surf Or Drown an album that raises the bar for him as a rapper, coming at the art form with a chip on his shoulder.

Without asking Hit-Boy directly about Hitmaka, he makes a point about separating himself from other producers. “If you really look at what the dude Yung Berg is saying, ‘Oh, he ain’t got no radio hits.’ Okay, that’s what defines you? That’s what makes you the shit?” Hit says, sounding fired up after suggesting several hundred thousand dollars go into getting radio play.

“Every song I ever made I wasn’t trying to make a radio song. I always made shit that I thought was ill. That’s why when I do catch a radio song, it doesn’t sound like the other shit on the radio. “Clique” didn’t sound like anything on the radio when it came out. “N****s In Paris,” whatever the case may be. I’m always trying to be ahead of the curve. That’s just my thing, taking my power back. I can’t say I’m defined [by the radio] because I’m No. 1 on RapCaviar or I’m defined by No. 1 on Billboard. All that sh*t can be gone. I’m going straight off the hip with this sh*t. I’m going off all talent. I don’t have any homeboys at these companies. ‘Oh, we automatically gonna put Hit-Boy in there.’ I don’t think hardly any of the sh*t I do with Nas is going on RapCaviar for whatever reason, let alone my own s*it. I gotta compartmentalize and understand that this game is the game and you gotta play it how it goes. Or just play this sh*t on your own rules and how you want to do it.”

Whatever rulebook Hit is playing with, it is clearly working. He has enamored hip-hop heads for his unrivaled run producing for Nas, Benny the Butcher, Pacman da Gunman, Dreezy, and Musiq Soulchild. In between, he hasn’t stopped releasing solo music, kicking off his return with “CORSA” featuring Dom Kennedy, followed by more singles like “The Tide.” Hearing Hit-Boy and Nas on “The Tide” together is like witnessing Styles P and Jadakiss go back and forth, making no mistake that Nas has rubbed off on him. “I get to learn so much. It’s just like a dictionary, a book full of knowledge of years and years of just hip-hop, street shit. He be on his fly shit. Whatever it is, I can sit there and really talk to him and just really learn,” he says.

Surf Or Drown was a year-and-a-half-long journey, with some of the beat ideas formulated during the pandemic but all coming to fruition after the fact. “It was a real development process because at first I wasn’t even going to call it Surf Or Drown,” Hit says. “I had a whole other name for it, but I was just making songs and I kept updating my playlist every time I would make a new song. And I just felt everything I was doing was getting better because I’m producing with so many artists, I’m able to just download a lot of their DNA. So, I’m applying that directly to what I do and it’s just working out great for me.”

As a whole, the album is a continuation of the Hit-Boy universe with appearances from Dom Kennedy (“State Champ,” “CORSA”), Curren$y (“Tony Fontana III”), North London rapper Avelino (“2 Certified”), James Fauntleroy and his son C3 (“MTR”), who previously appeared on Nas’ “Once A Man, Twice A Child,” and Hemet, California’s own Spank Nitti (“Just Ask”). Hit wrestles with topics like how desensitized we are in seeing graphic images of the deaths of PnB Rock and Takeoff on social media and how hard it still is to grasp Nip’s absence in hip-hop every day, rapping on “Just Ask,” “Truthfully, I ain’t trust sh*t since y’all took Nip/I’m thankful for all the messages that I took in.”

“It’s ridiculous,” Hit says. “I got three of my Grammys in the studio, one of them is with Nip. Then I got three pictures of Nip in my studio just because to me it is mind-blowing that I was able to make his last song that he put out. Willingly and wholeheartedly, I helped put that together. It’s crazy how our relationship has always been rooted in family.”

“My dad, Big Hit, who is rapping on my intro, he’s back in prison now but when he came home in 2013, he was doing music,” Hit continues. “Nip was supportive of that, he would tweet it out. He would pull up, rock with my dad, chop it up with him, whatever the case was. It’s always been respect. It’s deeper than just the music.”

Hit also included the instrumentals of the Surf Or Drown songs he recorded on for other rappers to drop freestyles. “It’s my gift to the culture,” he says. “If Kanye put all the instrumentals for Late Registration up when I was 18 years old listening to that, I could’ve been freestyling to them shits. I just thought it was ill. Also, one of my favorite moments in hip-hop was when Dr. Dre released The Chronic instrumentals. I might’ve been 13, 14. I used to load all those instrumentals and try to get bars off of them.”

Whether you’re a new Hit-Boy fan or have been on his wavy shit since day one, Hit originally wanted to be a rapper before switching to production. He started rapping when he was 13 years old, getting inspired by Bow Wow and other artists on BET’s 106 & Park and Rap City. “I’m seeing all these people that look like me that’s doing their thing, getting money, getting tours, getting fresh. I wanna be a part of this. I literally just picked up a pad, I ain’t know what I was going to write,” Hit says. “I didn’t even understand that I had a story, coming from a pops who was locked up. My parents had me when I was 15, 16. I already had a story, but just putting it into context so people could understand. That’s what I had to learn.”

Hit was in pursuit of being his best self, developing his aesthetic and figuring out his rhyming style until he found his voice. There are blog-era relics you can dig up that have early Hit-Boy raps like Cyhi The Prynce’s “Entourage” or “Old School Caddy” with Kid Cudi during his G.O.O.D. Music days. But everyone’s collective minds remember that one day in the summer of 2012 when he dropped “Jay-Z Interview,” causing Rap Twitter to go crazy over his rapping abilities. “Jay-Z Interview” not only showed people that he could rap, but it allowed him to start his journey as a producer rapper. “It was a real, started from the bottom type of thing. A lot of people were like, ‘Oh, why is he rapping? He just made ‘N****a in Paris.’ Why is he freestyling?’ I got a lot of that and I had to really fight through that,” he says. “And just seeing people dissing the sh*t out of me. Now, I am at the point where it doesn’t matter if you’re showing me love or hate, I’m just gonna look at it as all the same. That’s one person’s perspective and I’ma appreciate the love and just ignore the hate.”

Early reactions online have said Surf Or Drown is Hit-Boy’s best rapping thus far, showing his growth and improvement over the years. You can see the progression from his solo efforts HITstory, Tony Fontana, and The Chauncey Hollis Project. And not to mention the collab albums he’s done with Dom Kennedy as Half-a-Mil.

Now that Hit-Boy has gotten praise for reenergizing Nas and modernizing his sound to Grammy-winning status, you can expect to see more Hit-Boy raps on a consistent basis, working on two additional volumes of Surf Or Drown for 2023. On the music industry side of things, he is in a better place to relaunch and rebrand Surf Club, a collective of young artists, producers, and writers. According to Hit, Surf Club has a new joint venture with Empire Publishing that was announced in January, he plans to sign artists through his label deal with Def Jam, and he has the creative control and freedom to release his rap music independently. If you think Hit has accomplished everything already in his mid-30s, he’s far from the level of greatness and influence on the next generation where he wants it to be at. As long as he remains humble and applies himself to be a better artist, he’ll get there.

“I used to say I want to have No. 1 albums on Billboard as an artist,” Hit says. “You want to be the best, you want to be considered the greatest. But it takes a lot of things to happen to get you to that place. Just as long as I keep progressing and I am personally getting better, then I’m good. I’ma be where I am supposed to be wherever I am going.”