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Last week, Margo Price shared “Radio” featuring Sharon Van Etten. “To me, this song is about turning down the noise and opinions of my haters and people who try to tear me down,” the country singer said in a statement. “It’s about having confidence in yourself and your vision. It’s also a pun about being naked that I lifted from Marilyn Monroe.”

The pair took that song to the stage last night on The Late Late Show With James Corden. The performance was nothing short of powerful; their harmonies together are striking and visceral. It’s a collaboration made in heaven, and their combined strength represents both of the singers’ unabashed sense of resilience in the face of hate.

Price is known for being outspoken. In 2021, she called out Luke Combs for claiming his song “The Great Divide” was “not meant to be political, it’s not meant to try to tell you what to think or how to believe.” She responded by tweeting, “when people say ‘they don’t want to be political’… smdh,” and then added photos of Combs surrounded by Confederate flag memorabilia and allegedly flashing a white power hand sign during a performance.

Watch their performance of “Radio” above.

We are days away from Rihanna’s Super Bowl LVII halftime performance on Sunday, February 12. We’ve been waiting for her return to the stage since it was announced in September that she’d headline the inaugural Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show for the NFL.

And while we still don’t know how long we’ll have to wait for her first album since 2016’s Anti, Rihanna gave us a taste of what it will sound like during her Apple Music press conference held today, February 9, in Arizona.

Interviewer Nadeska asked Rihanna toward the end of the short sit-down to describe “this chapter and how you’re feeling musically in general.”

Rihanna said, “Musically, I’m feeling open. I’m feeling open to exploring, discovering, creating things that are new. Things that are different. Things that are off, weird, might not ever make sense to my fans [or] the people that know the music that I put out. I just wanna play. I wanna have fun. I want to have to fun with music.”

Rihanna technically returned to music by contributing tracks “Lift Me Up” and “Born Again” to the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack last fall, but Rihanna’s Navy wants a full-blown era — leading to rumors about a potential album or tour post-Super Bowl.

Elsewhere in the interview, Rihanna shared that she’s cycled through 39 (!) versions of her Super Bowl setlist. She also admitted that she’s “been so focused” on preparing for the performance that she “totally forgot that my birthday is coming up” and “totally forgot about Valentine’s Day.” But, to her, the grueling task will be worth it.

Rihanna explained that she received the offer to headline Super Bowl LVII when she was three months postpartum, having welcomed her and ASAP Rocky’s son last spring.

“When you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you could take on the world, you can do anything,” she told Nadeska. “The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world, so as scary as that was because I haven’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all. It’s important for me to do this this year. It’s important for representation. It’s important for my son to see that.”

Watch Rihanna’s full Apple Music presser above.

The richest artists in the music industry do not make most of their money from music. Take Jay-Z for example, the bulk of his yearly income comes from his investments in brands like Tidal, Armand de Brignac, D’Ussé, and his Roc Nation entertainment and sport management agencies. It’s the same with Kanye West thanks to his entities like Yeezy and GOOD Music as well as Diddy thanks to some hefty real estate investments. Contrary to what one might expect in such a male-dominated industry and world, at the top of the wealthiest musicians list sits none other than this weekend’s Super Bowl halftime show performer, Rihanna. Her monetary success is also mostly credited to profits outside of the music world, but there are several things that make her’s different from the rest.

Rihanna’s rise to being the music industry’s wealthiest artist didn’t come as a result of smart (or lucky) investing or a sharp talent with real estate. The Barbados-born superstar achieved astounding monetary success through Fenty, a fashion and beauty brand created to offer products that amplified her consumers’ beauty regardless of their gender, size, skin color, and more. According to Forbes, Rihanna’s current net worth is $1.4 billion and it’s not too difficult to see why that might be the case. Fenty is largely responsible for that number as it houses companies like Fenty Beauty, Savage X Fenty, and Fenty Skin, all of which were launched between 2017 and 2020. Fenty itself was launched in 2019 under the fashion house LVMH which made Rihanna the first woman to create an original brand for the fashion house and the first woman of color to lead an LVMH brand. That’s just one example of Rihanna’s milestone career outside of music. Fenty is undoubtedly not only a highlight for Rihanna, but it’s also a story to be studied and appreciated by all businessmen and businesswomen in the future. What makes its success even more applauding is that Rihanna nearly went bankrupt a decade before Fenty launched.

In 2009, Business Insider reported that her income plummeted from nearly $50 million to $2 million due to severe financial mismanagement from her accounting team. Three years later, she sued the accounting firm for mismanagement and won $10 million in damages. It should be noted that these three years were the most active in Rihanna’s career as she released four albums – Rated R, Loud, Talk That Talk, and Unapologetic – in that time span. It would be another four years until Rihanna delivered another project, that of course being Anti, and to this day, we’re still waiting for the follow-up of that album. Nonetheless, Rihanna’s success outside of music has given her the luxury to be as sporadic as she pleases with her musical outputs. Though the earnings that she receives from music and beauty are different, Rihanna made sure to approach the latter with the same artistic vision, intentionality, and divergent thinking that made her a star in music.

Rihanna’s brands won quickly thanks to the practice of inclusivity. Many brands in and outside the beauty industry, but especially in the beauty industry, preach inclusivity and do otherwise. In a well-publicized move, Fenty offered 40 different foundation shades to its consumers, a move unheard of in the beauty industry. The decision answered complaints from Black and brown customers who were beyond tired of not being represented by the various other brands in the industry. It also welcomed them into a world and company that accepted them for who they are and nothing less. A similar move was made in 2020 with Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty Vol. 2 show. Rihanna introduced plus-sized clothing for Savage X Fenty, and for the brand’s annual fashion show, she made sure to include plus-sized men and women. They were seen in the trailer for the show, the show itself, and on the Savage X Fenty website where the products were sold. In response to this, Christopher Rosa from Glamour, who described himself as a “fat, fem gay man,” wrote, “…to see someone with stretch marks, a stomach, and pecs that aren’t “perfect” not just be represented but celebrated means more to me than I thought it would.” He later added, “I didn’t realize just how much representation could help me in that battle until now.” Though it can’t be seen and physically held like money, the value of inclusivity is undeniable, and arguably, more important.

Luxury is often placed side by side with exclusivity, a pair that is then often placed next to value and wealth. Especially in the fashion world, it often seems like there is a hefty price to pay in order to indulge in what is deemed luxurious. Despite this, we’ve recently seen that this is not always the case. Take Teflar for example, its handbags have been a hot commodity for a few years now, and though are available to purchase for everyone at a reasonable price, this inclusivity hasn’t diminished its luxury. The point is, luxury and inclusivity can be and should be synonymous and it’s a concept that Rihanna understood from the very start with her Fenty brand.

There are many ways that Rihanna redefined the role of a Black entrepreneur. Through Fenty, she emphasized that success can be attained and maintained by looking in the mirror at the world around you – that is, the world that you’ve naturally existed in for your life. Pandering to those who don’t look like you and can’t relate to you, while also neglecting the rest, will only bring you short-term success. They won’t lift you up like your own will. Rihanna also threw caution to the beauty standards that have often put down certain groups to amplify others. The Fenty experience is available to anyone who seeks to amplify their own beauty and style. Rihanna’s entrepreneurial success isn’t connected so much to investing in companies or real estate and finding wins there, instead, she proved that chasing a vision and using her status to change the status quo around her is certainly possible. In a 2017 interview with Time, Rihanna said that her “lifelong obsession” with makeup products began with “watching my mom put her makeup on.” After getting her makeup done at 15 or 16 for a pageant, Rihanna added, “Ever since then, ever since I saw foundation on my skin, I could never look at my skin without foundation again. Makeup, it spoiled me.” Nearly two decades later, Rihanna has built an empire that gives consumers from all over the world the opportunity to have that same feeling.

While it’s hard to choose the single wildest moment from Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, one thing we can all agree on — regardless of political affiliation — is that Marjorie Taylor Greene’s outfit was the sartorial personification of “white trash.” And Seth Meyers couldn’t wait to talk about it.

On Wednesday night, Meyers discussed Greene’s white fur monstrosity during his “A Closer Look” segment, in which he talked about the “blowback” Republicans are facing for their sheer inability to simply sit in a room while the president is speaking “and listen and not be insane.” As Meyers explained:

Unfortunately, it seems like some of them skipped their electroshock therapy, because they spent heckling and yelling incoherently from the back rows. Like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was seen screaming and pointing fingers in a white fur coat like a Long Island dance mom about to get her final warning…

Why is she wearing a white fur coat to the State of the Union address? She looks like an old rapper’s first wife.

That wasn’t the only shot Meyers took at Greene; he also compared her to a “Real Housewife who wasn’t allowed into a reunion show.”

But Meyers was the first to admit that no one should have been surprised by Greene’s decision to “act like an obnoxious weirdo” during President Biden’s speech, given that she had posted a video of herself carrying a white balloon around — one she presumably wanted to bring with her to the speech — just a few hours earlier. While she may have meant it as a knock against Biden’s handling of the alleged “Chinese spy balloon,” Meyers thought she looked more like a teenager who “threw herself a Sweet 16 party and no one showed up.”

You can watch the full clip above.

Rihanna will make her long-awaited return to live music this weekend at Super Bowl LVII. This is a thrilling development to 99.999 percent of the 110-plus million people who are expected to watch the game. The other 0.0001 percent is made up of Stephen A. Smith and Texas congressman Ronny Jackson, a Trump-loving Republican who took to Twitter to complain about Sunday’s halftime show performer.

“Rihanna spray painted “F*** Donald Trump” on a car at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo. She’s made a career of spewing degenerate filth while badmouthing America every chance she gets. Why is the NFL showcasing this crap? Rihanna SHOULD NOT be the halftime performer!!” the former-White House doctor tweeted. In 2020, the “Born Again” singer wrote “f*ck Trump” in spray paint at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas.

Visitors at the iconic Cadillac Ranch are encouraged to paint designs and messages on the 10 Cadillacs buried in the ground. Rihanna’s message was later painted over… Rihanna wrote “81 days” in her Instagram photo, letting her followers know how many days there were until the presidential election.

Rihanna also shared the image on Instagram.

Jackson’s tweet is going over about as well as you think.

And Jackson has the gall to question Biden’s cognitive health?

Depeche Mode suffered the loss of keyboardist Andy Fletcher last May, but founding members Dave Gahan and Martin Gore are forging on in his memory. Memento Mori, their new album, and the corresponding Memento Mori World Tour were announced in October.

“We started work on this project early in the pandemic, and its themes were directly inspired by that time,” Gore said in a statement then. “After Fletch’s passing, we decided to continue as we’re sure this is what he would have wanted, and that has really given the project an extra level of meaning.”

Today, February 9, Depeche Mode dropped the album’s first single, “Ghosts Again” — a contemplation of the brevity of life and inevitability of death with poignant lines such as “Heaven’s dreaming / Thoughtless thoughts, my friends / We know we’ll be ghosts again.”

In the black-and-white Anton Corbijn-directed video, Depeche Mode are engaged in an intense chess match on a rooftop while donning ominous black cloaks. They also visit a cemetery — even crawl around at one point — where ghosts dancing in the sky.

“To me, ‘Ghosts Again’ just captures this perfect balance of melancholy and joy,” Gahan said, per press release, with Gore adding, “It’s not often that we record a song that I just don’t get sick of listening to. I’m excited to be able to share it.”

Watch the “Ghosts Again” video above.

Memento Mori is out 3/24 via Columbia Records. Pre-order it here.

Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (that doesn’t actually have Spider-Man in it) is reportedly developing a new live-action series centered on Spider-Man Noir. As part of a previously announced arrangement, the series will premiere on Amazon and MGM+ which are now the official streaming home for Sony Spider-Man TV projects that don’t actually have Spider-Man in them. Not sure if we mentioned that.

The Spider-Man Noir character made his first appearance in 2009 as part of Marvel Comics’ Noir universe where the iconic character is reimagined as a hard-boiled 1920s detective with powers granted to him by a spider-god. He’s since popped up in various projects, notably the animated tour-de-force Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse where he was voiced by Nicolas Cage. The Amazon series will be the first live-action version of the character. However, unlike the comics, Spider-Man Noir will not be Peter Parker because, again, these things can’t have the actual Spider-Man in them thanks to Sony’s current arrangement with Marvel Studios.

Via Variety:

Oren Uziel will serve as writer and executive producer on the Spider-Man Noir show. Uziel developed the show along with “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and former Sony boss Amy Pascal, who all executive produce. Pascal executive produces via Pascal Pictures. Sony Pictures Television is the studio, with Lord and Miller currently under an overall deal there.

The untiled Spider-Man Noir series is now the second live-action series headed for Amazon. Silk: Spider Society is already in the works and will introduce Cindy Moon (a.k.a. Silk) to the burgeoning Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. That show, and stop us if you’ve heard this before, will also not have Spider-Man in it.

(Via Variety)

Earlier this week, it was reported that Ivy Park, the co-branded clothing line from Beyoncé and Adidas, was underperforming. A lot.

Projected to make $200 million last year, internal documents seen by The Wall Street Journal confirmed that the collection had only pulled in $40 million, despite customers reporting sellouts and difficulty purchasing products online.

Obviously, when Adidas hooked up with Beyoncé in 2019 (after Ivy Park’s partnership with TopShop was ended over accusations of improper conduct by cofounder Philip Green), the expectation was for Beyoncé’s incomparable celebrity to do most of the heavy lifting in terms of sales.

Unfortunately, that’s not how things panned out; while Adidas’ similar partnership with Kanye West yielded nearly $2 billion in sales until Ye himself torpedoed that profitable alliance with his deplorable views, Adidas is reportedly figuring out how to revamp the Ivy Park deal.

Now, I’m no fashion expert, but I’ve made some observations using fan feedback on social media that might explain why the collection fell short of expectations. It’s no fun to look at the “why” without also offering some solutions, so that’s what we’re going to do here. The thing is, I want Beyoncé to win, both because I like success stories more than failure ones, and because I know that when Black folks fail, it makes the people in charge hesitant to extend future opportunities.

Here are five things that Adidas and Beyoncé can do to save Ivy Park.

Pick A Side

While the most recent drop focused on outdoorsy aesthetics like parkas and camouflage, prior collections have been a rather confusing jumble of athleisure and couture. Designs that wouldn’t be out of place on a runway fight for space with workout gear that looks more flashy than functional. The time has come to decide just what kind of brand Ivy Park really is.

As a prime example; my girlfriend has two Ivy Park trenchcoats in her closet at the moment. Both are beautiful in their way, but they are also big, ungainly things that don’t really do much to keep her warm and take up a lot of space when we try to go out (they’re both made of mesh, so rain goes right through them). By contrast, the TopShop collection included staples like yoga pants and sports bras — stuff people actually wear.

Given the line is a partnership with Adidas, moving in a more sportswear-inspired direction could provide some much-needed focus. Bey’s attempts at high fashion could be spun off to another label, or even a separate division, like Adidas’ own luxury Y-3 line. I’m sure there are tons of Beyoncé fans who’d love to run their errands in their Ivy Park sweatpants or hit spin class in some bike shorts with a touch of Beyoncé style. Give them that!

Get Back To Basics

While Adidas reported that nearly half of the produced items weren’t selling, fans said the coveted items they wanted were gone before they could grab them. What gives?

Well, considering fans also spent a fair amount of time each drop making fun of items like denim chaps, the problem seems pretty clear to me. Longtime Beyoncé fans probably aren’t surprised by some of the funkier designs. She had similar issues with her first clothing line, House of Dereon, in the early ’00s. But, honestly, how many music fans ride horses on the regular? Dropping the gimmicky items could save a lot of time and effort and allow Adidas to stick to what it’s great at: comfy sportswear.

The foundations of most clothing brands are basics that customers can mix and match, dress up or down, and that won’t break the bank. Pointing to some of Adidas’ competitors, Champion and Nike do steady business with sweatsuits, T-shirts, and even underwear and socks. I think Ivy Park can offer those things and if they need a little more pizzazz, just remember: it’s all in the details. Keep it simple!

Stop Doing Drops

One of the main complaints about the most recent Ivy Park drop is its timing. With the Renaissance World Tour just months away, the BeyHive is already smashing its collective piggy banks for tickets. Why make them make a choice?

Relatedly, this drop is very woodsy, with parkas and cargo pants, but spring is right around the corner! Who wants to buy fall/winter stuff in February, knowing they might even receive their orders until March?

It’s understandable why Adidas (or Bey) went with the streetwear model; it’s worked for brands like Telfar, and of course, Yeezy products did gangbusters.

But it’s also important to understand the differences in their respective strategies and fan bases. Telfar does do drops, but it also does plentiful restocks and has a few reliable base models it always comes back to, allowing fans who missed out multiple chances.

And Beyoncé fans aren’t hypebeasts, although they display similar behavior sometimes. They want to support their fave, but they aren’t the type to line up outside a sneaker store overnight for a release. Moving away from streetwear drops to just having a consistently available clothing line might make all the difference.

Make It Easier To Buy The Clothes

Speaking of sneaker stores, one of the more common complaints I’ve seen about Ivy Park on social media is how hard it is to get. It’s only available in select brick-and-mortar retailers, so once the bots clean out the website, fans are left hunting down the nearest Adidas outlet and hoping they get there before the bones are picked over.

If they can find the style and size they want, the price is often a lot higher than many are excited about paying. Regular folks’ disposable income has become more precious than ever as rent, gas, food, childcare, and other expenses pile up. And if it comes down to the decision between a new Ivy Park hoodie and the Renaissance vinyl box set… fans will stick with what Beyoncé herself is best at.

So, lower the price and put it in more stores. This kills the “exclusivity” aspect, sure, but since when was liking Beyoncé supposed to be exclusive?

Open Up

The final point spins off that “what Beyoncé is best at” line above. Although many of her performance lewks are iconic, Beyoncé herself is kind of a recluse. One of the major selling points of Yeezy is that you always saw Kanye outside, wearing his own clothes, making the desirability for those clothes — however goofy they might have been — go up.

The Journal reported that this was kind of a sticking point in the partnership, as well. Beyoncé is a notoriously private person. She doesn’t leave the house unless it’s to go to the studio, rehearsal, or on tour. But she may need to get over that reticence and start to open up. With social media, she still doesn’t need to actually go outside, but her curated professional-shot timeline just isn’t gonna cut it.

We’re in the era where stars like Cardi B, Doja Cat, Lizzo, and Megan Thee Stallion do livestreams just hanging out at home listening to music and talking to fans. They do silly TikToks lip-syncing and dancing and trying out food trends. Beyoncé comes from a different era, but that doesn’t mean she can’t adapt. One of the main reasons she has a Hive is because people want to hang out with her. Let them. And if you’re rocking an Ivy Park T-shirt while you do it, don’t be surprised when they become an even hotter commodity than ever.

No matter how old we get, there’s a part of us that revels in the magical wonder of childhood. One toy designer-turned-acorn artist has tapped straight into that wonder with the worlds he creates for his “Becorns” and the creatures who stumble upon them.

Becorns are David Bird’s name for the tiny characters he creates out of acorns and sticks. He has made over 100 of them, all with different personalities and names (such as Bing, Cooper, Big Boone and Vildegarde), and they are absolutely precious.

Meet Dink, for instance:

Dink may be having a solo moment of awe here, but Becorns aren’t usually on their own when Bird captures them in photos. After setting up a scene and waiting patiently, Bird might catch one of his Becorn friends examining an insect, bathing with a bird or sparring with a squirrel.

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And the end result is something straight out of a fairy tale.

“Kind of the essence of Becorns is this wonder about the natural world and sort of experiencing nature and the wonder of nature in kind of a pure way,” Bird told PBS. “And a lot of people have said, ‘I haven’t felt that since I was a kid.'”

“There’s a wide variety of personalities in the Becorn world,” he shared. “They tend to be gentle, they’re almost always curious and up to something. There are warriors that are defending against squirrels. They definitely are nurturers—they feed the wildlife and care for them.”

The idea for creating Becorns came to Bird when he was sweeping debris off his mom’s driveway and saw the acorns and sticks scattered on the ground. Bird had worked as a toy designer at LEGO in Denmark for almost five years and his work on Bionicles served as the foundation for piecing together his Becorn friends.

“I kind of realized,—Oh my God, everything I did at LEGO I can do with these sticks and acorns and kind of create a whole world with them,” he told PBS.

And that’s exactly what he’s done.

Bird sells prints of his photographs on his website and gallery shows and he shares them on social media as well. He recently shared a video montage of his favorite Becorn scenes from 2022.

“People love Becorns because on the one hand, it’s all so familiar, like we all know acorns and sticks and chipmunks in our backyard, and we see it all the time,” Bird told CBS. “But on the other hand, it seems like this whole other world.”

Watch Bird share his process for creating a Becorn scene with CBS Sunday Morning:

Find more Becorn delights on Bird’s website here, and follow him on Facebook or Instagram.

Few delicacies are as controversial as the rich, buttery, cream-like spread made from fattened goose or duck liver, better known as foie gras.

The process of making foie gras is considered extremely cruel, requiring the liver to become abnormally enlarged from a disease called hepatic steatosis. This is caused by gavaging, a process in which the bird is force-fed exorbitant amounts of food through a long metal tube being shoved down its throat, pumping in so much food that the liver swells up to ten times its normal size. Hence why the food item is so expensive, priced at $40-$80 per pound, and banned in both New York and California as well as a handful of countries.

However, one farmer in Spain makes foie gras using no gavaging and no force-feeding. He doesn’t even use cages. His foie gras costs twice as much at a little over $200 for a 180-gram jar. But here’s why it’s worth every penny.

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Eduardo Sousa, aka the “Goose Whisperer,” uses a simple system that’s been in his family since the early 1800s and dates all the way back to ancient Egypt.

It works like this: Tamed wild geese roam as they please. The farm is located on a natural migration path, so in the cold winter months, wild geese join the tamed geese on the farm where they feast on grass, acorns, olives, figs and different seeds, which naturally fattens up their liver. Geese particularly love acorns, which Sousa says makes the livers tastier and have a more yellow color.

Even the slaughter is done humanely, using a traditional technique that “hypnotizes” the geese. During the coldest part of winter on a moonless night, Sousa uses a high-powered LED light to stun the geese, which makes catching them easier so they don’t suffer. He says he makes sure they have “a sweet death.”

The livers are then put into a jar and cooked in a wood oven. And voila—delicious, colorful, creamy foie gras with zero cruelty. Plus, Sousa makes sure to also use every other part of the goose to eliminate waste.

This entire process only takes place once a year, and yields no more than 2,000 batches, which (despite their hefty price tag) always sell out. And it’s not just because the foie gras is made ethically. Its flavor is the stuff of legend, winning the highly prestigious Coup de Couer in France. It received its own Ted Talk, for crying out loud.

Despite his foie gras fame, Sousa doesn’t make much of a profit. Instead, it goes back to maintaining the land for the geese. But this is all part of his passion. He hopes to teach others this humane method and to encourage a way of enjoying luxury in a way that is respectful to nature.

“We always say that foie gras is something that should be consumed once in a lifetime. We do not want it to be abused. No matter how much money a person has, they should not abuse consumption. It is something you have to try, enjoy it on a very, very, very special occasion,” he said.

What a beautiful philosophy.