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(SPOILERS for this week’s BMF episode will be found below.)

In episode four of BMF, titled “Runnin’ On E,” things start with Meech recovering in a hospital after he was shot three times by Lamar after episode three. When he finally comes to his sense, Terry breaks him out of the hospital before Lamar returns to finish the job. For the rest of the episode, BMF leaders Meech and B-Mickie, along with Terry, are tasked with getting BMF back on its feet in the midst of a product drought all while Meech recovers and tries to steer clear of Lamar. Unfortunately, a huge mistake on Terry’s part forces and he and Meech to change their plans and make a run for it out of Detroit.

The aforementioned events in the third episode of BMF season two, titled “Runnin’ On E,” are soundtracked by songs that help to accentuate the emotions behind each scene. You can find a list of them belong as well as details about the scenes that they are heard in.

The following records were provided thanks to the Starz Public Relations team.

50 Cent — “Wish Me Luck” Feat. Charlie Wilson

This is the theme song of BMF. It plays at the 04:18 mark in “Runnin’ On E.” While 50 Cent and Charlie Wilson’s voices are only heard on it, the song also features Snoop Dogg and Moneybagg Yo.

Frankie Beverly & Maze — “Happy Feelings”

We hear this song at the 11:24 mark, but it’s not from the voice or Maze or Frankie Beverly, but rather, it’s from Lamar. He sings this song after Detectives Bryant and Jin leave him in the interrogation room after he fails give up any information about the shooting incidents between himself and Meech.

Mando — “What Have You Done”

As this song plays at the 13:25 mark, Lamar has reconnected with an old lover for some late-night bedroom action, their first interaction since he left the office. Things don’t go as planned for him as he’s still not healed from his injuries.

Leland Smith, Marley & Osinachi — “Sacrifices”

At the 15:20 mark, “Sacrifices” plays as Terry arrives for meeting with Boom at the drug dealer’s club. He requests to buy a batch from Boom in order to give BMF something to work with and survive the drought. Boom reluctantly agrees and gives him a small batch while promising to charge “interest” and “inflation.”

Scottie — “The Lords Prayer”

This record is sung at the beginning of a church service at the 17:18 mark in this episode. What follows is an attempt from Pastor Swift to pray for Meech, but he’s ultimately ignored by some parishoners who decide to leave rather than to hear the prayer. Lucille bashes those who walked out and even calls some of them hypocrites.

Travon — “Blessed Assurance”

We hear this record at the 23:00 mark as the older Terry, voiced by Mustafa Harris, gives a historical account on the War On Drugs, Richard Nixon, and how they both impacted Black and brown communities.

Launchcode — “Fool For Ya”

After making some progress in his recovery, Meech makes a visit to Lori’s house at the 25:12 mark. This visit results in an intimate moment between Meech and Lori as “Fool For Ya” plays in the background.

Nwaneri — “80s Rap 2”

This record plays at the 27:53 mark during a tense meeting with the former 50 Boyz and 12th Street, who both combined to form BMF. Two of the top members in 12th Streetare displeased with BMF’s state and decide to walk away from the group.

Club Nouveau — “Why You Treat Me So Bad”

Club Nouveau’s “Why You Treat Me So Bad” plays at the 35:25 as Lamar makes a surprise visit to former 12th Street member Tiny’s house surprises him with an attack in Tiny’s bathroom. This leads to fight between the two and ends with Lamar knocking out Tiny and killing him by holding a plastic curtain over his head.

Ready For The World — “Tonight”

Ready For The World’s “Tonight” plays during a sex scene between Terry and Markeisha at the 42:07 mark. Terry visits Markeisha at the insurance office prior to leaving Detroit in order to say one last goodbye to her.

Solo D / City — “Run That Back”

This record plays as Meech and Terry begin their drive out of Detroit at the 45:13 mark. Meech is annoyed with the R&B record and changes the radio station to hear something more upbeat.

Eric B. & Rakim — “Lyrics Of Fury”

“Runnin’ On E” concludes with Eric B. & Rakim’s “Lyrics Of Fury” playing at the 55:50 mark. Lamar tracks down Meech and Terry during their drive and attempts to swipe them off the road with his Jeep. Once again, Meech and Terry are able to make a slim escape and leave Lamar in the dust behind them.

New episodes of ‘BMF’ are available on the STARZ app on Fridays at 12:00 am EST and on the STARZ TV channel at 8:00 pm EST.

Everybody was up in arms (or batwings) last year when it was announced that DC was canceling the already in-progress Batgirl film that was expected to be released on HBO Max. Amid restructuring and various schedule changes, the movie was yanked from the release schedule in August, and some people responded almost as if there was an actual crime committed.

Now that the dust has settled, the new heads of DC, James Gunn and Peter Safran, are doubling down on the choice to axe the movie. “I saw the movie, there were a lot of incredibly talented people in front of and behind the camera on that film. But that film was not releasable,” Safran explained at this week’s DC presentation. “It happens sometimes. That film was not releasable.”

Batgirl, starring Leslie Grace, J.K. Simmons, Michael Keaton, and Brendan Fraser, was shown to test audiences last summer, who reportedly called it “irredeemable.” This sparked a lot of anger from both diehard fans and people who weren’t really involved but still wanted to get in on it anyway.

Safran insisted that canceling the movie was still the best move. “I actually think that [David] Zaslav and the team made a very bold and courageous decision to cancel it, because it would’ve hurt DC, it would’ve hurt those people involved. I think they really stood up to support DC, the characters, the story, the quality and all that.” While there has been no announcement of any other Batgirl project in the works, DC has a pretty hefty schedule over the next few years.

Did the media blow the whole thing out of proportion? Maybe! Would fans rather watch a bad movie flop instead of getting no movie at all? Many fans are used to that! We will never know what the movie would have been like, but one thing is for sure: Brendan Fraser alone would have made it worth watching, no matter how polarizing it might have been. That’s what happened with The Whale, anyway.

(Via IndieWire)

Colin Farrell, now a Golden Globe winner, is also now an Oscar nominee for his heartfelt performance in The Banshees of Inisherin. Last year, Farrell revealed a new side to his range as an actor as The Penguin in The Batman: his unique and silly approach to the role was a breath of fresh air in the otherwise incredibly dark and bleak crime movie. Farrell first came to prominence in the early 2000s with his roles in the thriller Phone Booth and Minority Report. Due to his devastatingly good looks, charisma, and talent, he became a go-to leading man of the early aughts, but the movies he starred in including Daredevil, Alexander, and Miami Vice weren’t the best fit. But when he started working on smaller films with directors who understood his style and edge and challenged his comfort zone, he became a better, more interesting actor, and quite possibly an Oscar-winning one.

Here are all of the essential Colin Farrell performances to catch up on leading up to the Oscars, from Minority Report to Widows, minus the sex tape.

Phone Booth (2002), available to rent on Amazon Prime

Joel Schumacher knew Colin Farrell was a star. In the late filmmaker’s thriller Phone Booth, Farrell plays Stu Shephard, an arrogant young publicist who is cheating on his wife. When he enters a phone booth (hey that’s the name of the movie) in Times Square (one of his many mistakes) to call his mistress, he’s held hostage by a mysterious caller with a sniper. The narrative relies heavily on Farrell’s charm: he’s playing a little prick, but once he’s in danger of losing his life, the audience is on Stu’s side despite his dishonesty and flaws. Farrell is expressive as ever and his eyes and eyebrows somehow make a gritty phone booth — in Times Square of all places — appealing (sexy, even).

Minority Report (2002), streaming on Paramount+

Stephen Spielberg makes Colin Farrell the hottest person who has ever worked for the Department of Justice. In Spielberg’s underappreciated sci-fi masterpiece, Farrell plays agent Danny Witwer, who has come to audit the pre-crime department at the worst possible time: just as Tom Cruise is accused of a future murder. Farrell’s tiny glasses and suspenders help sell the government agent in a sci-fi movie look, but he also transforms into a sincere government agent with good hair on his own: his body language is stiffer, and he captures the enthusiasm that only a young government employee in the past, present, or future could have with a glimmer in his dark eyes. Farrell’s role also requires a lot of exposition, but you might not even notice because he’s so smooth.

In Bruges (2008), available to rent on Amazon Prime

After several years starring in critical flops including Daredevil and Alexander, Farrell finally found his calling in his first collaboration with writer/director Martin Mcdonagh in In Bruges, and found his ideal scene partner in co-star Brendan Gleeson. McDonagh’s quick-witted, violent, and slightly cynical In Bruges is well suited for Farrell’s edge. In the film, Farrell plays Ray, a new assassin in trouble for killing a child on the job. His boss sends him to Bruges, Belgium without a clear mission. He hates Bruges at first. Farrell’s intense look, vigor, and sincerity complement Mcdonagh’s fast, curse-ridden screenplay. Farrell is so good that it feels like he’s just made all of his lines up on the spot. And even when you don’t understand what Farrell is saying his face says it all.

Fright Night (2011), available to rent on Amazon Prime

Some might say that this remake of the 1985 horror classic was unnecessary. But the very fact that it contains a Colin Farrell performance – and a terrific one, at that – makes it more necessary than most films. Farrell’s performance as Jerry the teen-eating vampire is equally terrifying, amusing, and charismatic. His committed performance as Jerry is a precursor to the lengths he would go years later as The Penguin in 2022’s The Batman. Farrell has always had a goof in him, it just took some time to cook.

The Lobster (2015), streaming on HBO Max

As David in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, Farrell is both funny and heartbreaking as a lonely man who must find love in 45 days, or he will turn into an animal of his choice (a lobster). The film and Farrell’s performance are at times laugh-out-loud funny but at others so raw and disturbing that it’s hard to stomach. The role tests new emotional depths for Farrell and required him to play a bit of a dork. Even though Farrell had been established as a hot heartthrob or bad boy for over a decade, he proved he has the range. But it’s his chemistry with co-star Rachel Weisz that makes the film so special and so personal: they have a rhythm you can feel.

Widows (2018), streaming free with ads on Amazon Prime

Colin Farrell supports women in this heist movie written by gone Girl Girl writer Gillan Flynn and directed by Steve McQueen. Farrell plays Jack Mulligan, a Chicago politician amidst a campaign. Jack comes from a political family and doesn’t necessarily like the job, but he enjoys the benefits: he serves a poor district consisting of minorities but is so rich that the titular widows rob him. Farrell’s biggest strength here is an understated mockery of the insincerity of politicians on the job, and an overall subtlety to his performance that lets his co-stars including Viola Davis shine.

After Yang (2022), streaming on Paramount+

2022 was quite the year for Farrell. Between The Batman and The Banshees of Inisherin, he starred in A24’s sci-fi drama After Yang. Farrell plays Jake, a father to two children, one of which is a robot. When the robot child becomes unresponsive, Jake attempts to fix him. Farrell continues his streak of playings rather ordinary but interesting men, and he tests his emotional depths even further by playing a grieving father coming to terms with a reliance on technology in his most personal performance.

30 Rock introduced many fake TV shows — Bitch Hunter, Black Frasier, God Cop, etc. — but only one has been turned into an actual TV show.

In the season two episode, “MILF Island,” the TGS with Tracy Jordan staff becomes obsessed with the reality show MILF Island, which Jack Donaghy describes thusly: “25 super hot moms, 50 eighth grade boys, no rules.” It’s basically the same premise as MILF Manor, a TLC series about “eight confident and strong-minded women [who] leave home for the chance to find love at a paradise destination.” The easy-to-guess twist: they’re trying to find love with each other’s sons (who are not eighth grade boys, phew).

Daniela Neumann, managing director of Spun Gold TV, the London-based production company that created MILF Manor, told the Washington Post that she has never seen that episode, or any episode of 30 Rock. The inspiration for the premise actually has more in common with the Di Grasso family plot from season two of The White Lotus.

It took shape after a divorced colleague went on vacation with his sons and was startled one day to see his son chatting up a woman that he, the father, had enjoyed a conversation with earlier. That, combined with another show they were kicking around about the bond between mothers and sons, gave them the concept for MILF Manor. They shopped the show around to several networks that passed (Neumann declined to reveal which ones) until it landed at TLC, whose executives were delighted.

The White Lotus should film at MILF Manor for season three. As long as Jennifer Coolidge returns.

(Via the Washington Post)

In 1977, singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie did something revolutionary: She fed her baby on Sesame Street.

The Indigenous Canadian-Ameican singer-songwriter wasn’t doing anything millions of other mothers hadn’t done—she was simply feeding her baby. But the fact that she was breastfeeding him was significant since breastfeeding in the United States hit an all-time low in 1971 and was just starting to make a comeback. The fact that she did it openly on a children’s television program was even more notable, since “What if children see?” has been a key pearl clutch for people who criticize breastfeeding in public.

But the most remarkable thing about the “Sesame Street” segment was the lovely interchange between Big Bird and Sainte-Marie when he asked her what she was doing.

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“I’m feeding the baby,” Sainte-Marie told him. “See? He’s drinking milk from my breast.”

Sainte-Marie didn’t show anything that anyone could reasonably find objectionable, but she didn’t have her baby hidden under a blanket, either. From Big Bird’s point of view, he could see exactly what was happening, and Sainte-Marie appeared perfectly comfortable with that.

Big Bird contemplated her response, then said, “Hmm…that’s a funny way to feed a baby.”

“Lots of mothers feed their babies this way,” Sainte-Marie said. “Not all mothers, but lots of mothers do. He likes it because it’s nice and warm and sweet and natural, and it’s good for him. And I get to hug him when I do it, see?”

Their conversation continued with Sainte-Marie answering Big BIrd’s questions with simple, matter-of-fact, nonjudgmental answers, and it’s truly a thing of beauty. Watch:

That segment was filmed 46 years ago, and it’s hard to believe some people still take issue with seeing a mom breastfeed out in the open. We’ve seen waves of education and advocacy attempting to normalize breastfeeding, and yet it wasn’t until 2018 that every state in the United States had laws on the books protecting breastfeeders from being cited or fined. Even now, some moms still get flack for not hiding away in a bathroom or a car to feed their babies.

Sainte-Marie recently spoke with Yahoo Life about how that segment came about. She had gotten pregnant during her second season on “Sesame Street” and she had her baby with her on set all the time. She’d breastfeed off camera, and she asked one day if the show could do something about breastfeeding.

“The reason why I did that really was because when I woke up from delivering my baby, I was in the hospital, and over here on the table was a big basket of stuff from some formula company. And I preferred to breastfeed, but the doctors didn’t understand about breastfeeding. They hadn’t learned it.”

Even today, according to the CDC, physicians generally lack adequate breastfeeding education and training, so as far as we’ve come with education on this subject, we clearly still have a ways to go.

Watch Sainte-Marie talk about how she came to share breastfeeding with the “Sesame Street” audience:

Thank you, Buffy, for providing a beautiful example of how to talk about breastfeeding that’s just as relevant today at it was four decades ago.

Caroline Polachek is having a major day. Not only did she drop her new song “Blood And Butter,” but she also unearthed the tracklist for the album it’s featured on, Desire, I Want To Turn Into You.

Written and produced by Polachek and Danny L Harle, the song softly opens with unique percussion and a bagpipe instrumental, courtesy of Brighde Chaimbeul.

“Let me dive through your face / To the sweetest kind of pain / Call you up, nothin’ to say,” she sings in the sentimental chorus. “No, I don’t need no entertaining / When the world is a bed/ Give me green and ribbon red / Oh, I get closer than your new tattoo.”

It joins the previously released singles, “Sunset” and “Bunny Is A Rider,” which have welcomed fans into her sophomore era.

“One, it can be read as being about the ‘you.’ We all know that feeling of falling in love, of wanting to obsessively learn from and become that person,” she recently said of the album’s title in a statement. “But on the other hand, maybe desire is the thing you want to turn into itself.”

Listen to Polachek’s “Blood And Butter” above. Below, find the full Desire, I Want To Turn Into You tracklist.

1. “Welcome To My Island”
2. “Pretty In Possible”
3. “Bunny Is A Rider”
4. “Sunset”
5. “Crude Drawing Of An Angel”
6. “I Believe”
7. “Fly To You” Feat. Grimes and Dido
8. “Blood And Butter”
9. “Hopedrunk Everasking”
10. “Butterfly Net”
11. “Smoke”
12. “Billions”

Desire, I Want To Turn Into You is out 2/14 via Perpetual Novice. Pre-order it here.

The Rising Stars Game went through a revamp last year, as the NBA freshened up the competition to go away from a traditional two-team, full length game, to instead have a mini-tournament featuring four seven-player teams. The result was a more enjoyable Rising Stars experience, as the game no longer dragged on well beyond when the players on the court and fans watching had stopped caring.

This year, the same format is returning in Utah, but this year they have expanded the number of G League participants to six, headlined by the presumptive No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, Scoot Henderson (who played in the game a year ago as well). The full roster for this year’s Rising Stars Game was unveiled on Tuesday afternoon, with the expected assortment of young stars headlined by Henderson, top rookies Paolo Banchero and Bennedict Mathurin, and sophomore stars Jalen Green, Scottie Barnes, and Evan Mobley.

ROOKIES
Paolo Banchero
Jabari Smith Jr.
Bennedict Mathurin
Walker Kessler
Jalen Duren
AJ Griffin
Jaden Ivey
Keegan Murray
Jeremy Sochan
Jalen Williams
Andrew Nembhard

SOPHOMORES
Scottie Barnes
Jalen Green
Josh Giddey
Evan Mobley
Bones Hyland
Jose Alvarado
Quentin Grimes
Trey Murphy III
Alperen Sengun
Franz Wagner

G LEAGUE
Scoot Henderson
Mac McClung
Sidy Cissoko
Mojave King
Kenneth Lofton Jr.
Scotty Pippen Jr.
Leonard Miller

I’m most excited for the world to get another chance to see Kenneth Lofton Jr. do Kenneth Lofton Jr. stuff on a big stage — and Scoot, because he’s leveled up from where he was a year ago. The Rockets will be well-represented with three players on the Rising Stars roster, while the Magic, Thunder, Pacers, and Pistons all have two players making the roster.

Lil Wayne may be living his best life as a professional skater when he’s not popping in on an ESPN broadcast to provide commentary, but don’t forget he is a diamond-certified rapper. As the New Orleans native prepares to be honored by the Recording Academy and the Black Music Collective as a recipient of the 2023 Global Impact Awards, he’s also preparing for another chain of events.

Teaming with Rolling Loud, Lil Wayne will embark on a 28-city North American tour titled Welcome To Tha Carter Tour. The tour will kick off in April, with its first stop being at The Fillmore Minneapolis, and will end in Los Angeles at The Wiltern. As of now, the entertainer has shared whether or not he’s bringing any supporting acts on the road but knowing him, a surprise appearance by his Young Money team members, Nicki Minaj or Drake, isn’t out of the realm of possibilities.

Tickets go on sale on February 3 at 10 a.m local time. To purchase tickets for any of the tour dates, click here.

View the full tour schedule below.

04/04 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore Minneapolis
04/06 — Fargo, ND @ Scheels Arena
04/07 — Omaha, NE @ Baxter Arena
04/08 — Madison, WI @ The Sylvee
04/09 — Chicago, IL @ Radius
04/11 — Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit
04/12 — Toronto, ON @ HISTORY
04/13 — Boston, MA @ House of Blues
04/16 — New York, NY @ Apollo Theater
04/17 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore Philadelphia
04/18 — Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore Silver Spring
04/20 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte
04/21 — Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
04/22 — Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
04/24 — Birmingham, AL @ Iron City
04/26 — St. Louis, MO @ The Factory
04/27 — Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works
04/28 — Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
04/30 — Lexington, KY @ Rupp Arena
05/02 — Houston, TX @ House of Blues
05/03 — Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
05/04 — Austin, TX @ Stubbs Waller Creek Amphitheater
05/06 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
05/07 — Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
05/09 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
05/10 — San Diego, CA @ SOMA
05/12 — San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic
05/13 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern

Earlier this week, Dave Bautista revealed that he’s not in the running to play a new version of Bane in James Gunn’s DC Universe. The actor seemed incredibly zen about the whole thing and totally understood that Gunn is aiming for a younger cast that will be around for at least the next decade. However, Bautista’s chill was apparently only temporary because now he wants to be Lex Luthor in the newly announced Superman: Legacy. The man has hustle, people.

“Someone mentioned something on Instagram I saw tonight, and they said, ‘Just hear me out, but Dave Bautista as Lex Luthor’ and I thought that was really interesting,” Bautista told IndieWire before revealing that, now that he thinks about it, the role is way more enticing than Bane anyway:

“So I don’t know man, I may make a call to James and see if they got anybody in mind, but that is more appealing to me at this point of my life and my career than playing Bane. You know, I just turned 54 last week and playing Bane, I think they need to start with someone younger and someone fresher and someone who could physically, you know, take on that part. With confidence, I couldn’t do it right now, and I would never do an injustice to a character like that, that means so much to the DC fans or the superhero fans in general and myself. So I just wouldn’t do it.”

Considering Superman: Legacy hasn’t cast its new Superman, and Gunn isn’t even finished writing the script yet, there’s probably time for Bautista to throw his hat in the ring for the Man of Steel’s arch-nemesis. That said, should he play the role exactly like his Glass Onion character Duke Cody and have a gun jammed in the front of his Speedo the whole time? We’re not not saying that. Just something to think about in this era of dramatic reboots and new awakenings.

Superman: Legacy hits theaters on July 11, 2025.

(Via IndieWire)

Just as any world-class pop star undergoes myriad reinventions over the course of their career, Coachella has evolved drastically from its 1999 roots. The first iteration of Coachella, headlined by Beck, Tool, and Rage Against the Machine, could not be further from the decidedly mainstream and, frankly, globalist lineup for this year’s festival.

On January 10, 2023, the official Coachella Twitter account revealed this summer’s lineup, a hodgepodge of the biggest names across pop, dance, and hip-hop, as well as left-of-mainstream indie darlings from the rock and alternative scenes. With a trio of headliners comprised of Frank Ocean, Bad Bunny, and BLACKPINK, this year’s Coachella lineup, alongside the recent lineup announcements of similarly massive events such as Governors Ball, music festivals have arrived at a place where they are unabashedly embracing the pop world through a selection of artists that simultaneously function as cultural touchstones and critical darlings.

A 1999 Rolling Stone article described the Coachella’s debut year as an event that “booked acts based on artistry rather than radio play,” the “anti-Woodstock,” if you will. Nearly a quarter of a century years since its inception, Coachella now boasts a line-up with no less than 23 artists who have notched entries on the Billboard Hot 100, nine of whom have earned at least one Top 10 hit. Similarly, this year’s Governors Ball lineup (which has some overlap with Coachella), houses 15 artists with Hot 100 entries, nine of whom have at least one Top 10 hit to their name. That’s not counting artists like Flo Milli and Shenseea who have garnered considerable cultural ubiquity without charting on Billboard’s main singles chart. While these lineups also feature beloved indie artists who have never touched a Billboard chart, there has been a clear shift towards mainstream pop across the festival circuit over the last decade. In their post-pandemic festival report, Vibrate revealed that Megan Thee Stallion was the most-booked festival act of the 2022 season with appearances at 25 of the world’s biggest music festivals.

The festival circuit’s embrace of more commercial pop acts has been a years-long process. After all, one of Coachella’s first major pop moments, Madonna’s iconic 2006 Confessions On A Dancefloor-themed Sahara Tent performance, happened in the midst of the rise of poptimism in music criticism circles, a movement that would usher in a new era of what Coachella could be with headlining sets from the likes of Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, and, of course, Beyoncé. Traces of poptimism can be found across this year’s major festival lineups in the sense that organizers made sure to secure acts that were pop behemoths who routinely break the mold for what traditional pop stardom looks like. To put it plainly, they weren’t looking to book pop stars who exclusively exist on Top 40 radio and adhere to the glossy blonde sheen of say Meghan Trainor or Ava Max. Instead, these lineups feature artists who expand and challenge our collective definitions of pop stardom with every release.

Lizzo, one of this year’s Governors Ball headliners, subverts traditional American pop stardom by centering the bodies of fat Black women and crafting smash hits that pull from gospel and hip-hop as much as they do from soul and R&B. Lil Nas X has several chart-conquering pop anthems to his name, but the nature of both his celebrity persona and music are essentially antithetical to the template of pop stardom that the festival circuit tends to avoid. He’s a young Black man who explicitly sings and raps about same-sex desire over soundscapes that range from marching band trap to bratty pop-rock. Reading the names of artists like Lil Nas X, Lizzo, and ROSALÍA on these festival posters makes sense because, although they are still thoroughly popular musicians, their music, stage show, and overall aesthetic are still markedly different from the most mundane versions of pop music and pop stardom. With hit songs that turn into trending TikTok sounds and vice versa, these artists are undoubtedly culturally relevant. Nonetheless, they all make music that routinely wins Grammys and gets lauded by critics because the quality of their music isn’t entirely dependent on their positioning in pop culture — it’s their positioning in pop culture that benefits from how strong their musical output is. In short, these are pop artists that have enough edge to stand out from the scores of faceless playlist filler across radio and streaming, and a level of artistic credibility and integrity that often evades their peers.

This year’s festival lineups also reveal just how globalist our understanding of pop stardom has become. In the past year, the most dominant and popular artists and songs in the world came from reggaeton, afrobeats, K-Pop, and hip-hop. In fact, this year marks the first time in Coachella’s history that every headliner is an artist of color. Now that streaming has leveled the playing field for accessibility to mainstream success for non-white and non-American artists, wildly successful genres like afrobeats and reggaeton get marquee slots at major Stateside musical festivals. At the same time, the artists chosen to represent these genres on this year’s festival circuit are incredibly layered. During his headlining set, Bad Bunny will likely perform a number of songs from Un Verano Sin Ti, an album that features tongue-in-cheek odes to a bombastic sex life (“Tití Me Preguntó”) alongside denunciations of gender-based violence (“Andrea”). Similarly, Burna Boy’s Love, Damini is likely to anchor his set list, and that album pairs an anthemic Toni Braxton rework (“Last Last”) with astute critiques on environmentalist politics (“Whiskey”). Like Lizzo and Lil Nas X, in addition to the music being critically acclaimed, Bad Bunny and Burna Boy are pop stars with something to say beyond the vapidity that’s often associated with mainstream pop.

If this year’s early lineup reveals prove anything, it’s that the music festival circuit has found a way to embrace mainstream pop while still maintaining their guiding principles of artistry over commerciality — and we get to enjoy some incredible combinations of artists as a result.

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