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Beyoncé has to be fed up with this sample/interpolation permission nonsense. After making such a herculean effort to credit every single songwriter, producer, DJ, and influence she used on her sweeping new album Renaissance, she’s spent the last several months fielding accusations that she didn’t get permission to use those interpolations — even though she wouldn’t have been able to put out the album without them.

First, Kelis groused that part of her song “Milkshake” was used without her permission, even though she’s not technically the rights owner of the song in the first place. Then, ’80s pop band Right Said Fred put down Beyoncé in an interview with The Sun (which sounds about right), saying, “Normally the artist approaches us but Beyoncé didn’t because she is such an arrogant person.” This after the band wrote on Twitter, “We’re delighted Beyoncé is using our melody, a simple ‘please’ or ‘may I’ would have been nice.”

And while Bey stayed quiet during the Kelis issue, this time, she’s speaking up to defend herself. Upon learning of Right Said Fred’s statement, she issued a press statement via E! News refuting the band’s claims and pointing out their seemingly abrupt about-face (again, this was in The Sun, which should tell you everything you need to know). “Permission was not only granted for its use, but they publicly spoke of their gratitude for being on the album,” it reads. “For their song, there was no sound recording use, only the composition was utilized. Permission was asked of their publisher on May 11, 2022, and the publisher approved the use on June 15, 2022. They were paid for the usage in August 2022.”

Additionally, the statement shuts down RSF’s claim that they would only “get about 40 [pounds]” for their contribution. Instead, the statement says, “The copyright percentage of the Right Said Fred writers with respect to the use of ‘I’m Too Sexy’ is a substantial portion of the composition. Collectively the Right Said Fred writers own more than any other singular writer and have co-writer credit. This accusation is false.”

Like I said: Fed. Up. Hopefully, this instance will set an example for all the other artists who want to come for the Queen; check with your publishers first. Meanwhile, many of the other artists credited on Renaissance absolutely gushed at their inclusions, so perhaps this will be the last we’ll hear of it.

California is the best state in the entire United States for Mexican food. That’s undeniable, whether your tastebuds are geared toward the Mission Style burrito of San Francisco, the fish tacos of San Diego, or even the Central Valley, a hidden gem of Mexican delights (and a great spot for some of the more umami-forward Tex-Mex flavors). You can pull out your phone right now and randomly place a pin anywhere in the state of CA and find a taqueria nearby that will blow away most of what you’ll find anywhere else in the United States (with the exception of TX). And while you can get truly great Mexican food from the Cali-TJ border to the state line of Oregon, no city in the state shines quite like Los Angeles.

The city is a straight-up hotbed of Mexican food — rich in history and in flavor. It’s got the ports for seafood, it’s close to cattle lands and farms, it’s got a massively diverse population and it’s in a city that values diversity, culture, and — most importantly, perhaps — flavor.

But that’s not to say LA’s Mexican food scene is perfect. Because LA is also home to Taco Tuesday at bars and $1 tacos at strip clubs and the continued insistence by diners across race and class lines that Mexican food should be cheap. Like… cheaper than mass-produced fast food.

For those who don’t know, the city of Los Angeles predates US occupation — as it was officially founded in 1781 as a part of New Spain then existed as a part of Northern Mexico until the Mexican-American war of 1846 before finally being established as part of the 31st state of the Union in 1850. In its long and storied history, the city has always been home to an ever-shifting mix of shared traditions and cultures, which naturally has resulted in some deliciously varied cuisine. But it’s the sheer diversity of Mexican food that can be found within the city limits today that makes it rise above all other US cities.

“We have a humongous diversity of Mexicans.” Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America author and LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano tells me. “We get Mexicans from all over Mexico and that’s not true of most cities in the United States, even the big ones.”

That sort of diversity brings all sorts of Mexican food to the city, allowing you to dine on food traditions hailing from Oaxaca, Zacatecas, Michoacán, Jalisco, and Sinaloa without having to travel very far. Each of those Mexican states has its own distinct and rich culinary traditions that reach back to the pre-Hispanic era and get filtered through the Los Angeles lens. With that access to so many different food traditions, Mexican food isn’t just a feature of the city — it’s part of every Angeleno’s identity, regardless of demographics.

Dodgers. Graffiti. Beach. Kobe (okay fine, The Lakers, but mostly Kobe). West Coast Rap. Hollywood. Mexican food. That’s LA, in its simplest

“If you grew up in Southern California Mexican food is part of who you are,” Arellano notes. “You can’t say tacos are as big a part of the culture as hamburgers in most of the United States. But in LA, tacos are part of the lingua franca, and other Mexican dishes are as well.”

According to the United States Census Bureau — last updated in 2021 — the Hispanic or Latino community of Los Angeles accounts for a whopping 49.1% of the population. With those numbers comes culinary innovation from all across Latin America (mainly Mexico) resulting in new food traditions and dishes constantly being funneled into the city. Mexican food isn’t just abundant in Los Angeles, it’s constantly evolving, getting remixed, and developing into new forms of cuisine, as is the case with “Cal-Mex.”

“Cal-Mex is a tradition born from generations of Mexicans coming in, opening their restaurants, absorbing some dishes, and focusing on others,” explains Arellano. “It ties back to the heritage of California when it was Mexico.”

In Los Angeles, you can eat chilaquiles from central Mexico with a side of tamales from southern Mexico for breakfast (chilaquiles and tamales both originated with the Aztecs, pre-Mexico), grab a Chihuahua inspired burrito for lunch, and finish your night with Oaxacan-inspired street tacos from your favorite LA pop-up taco vendor while sipping on mezcal from the corner store. And that’s without needing to delve into Cal-Mex delights like the California Burrito, the Crunchy Taco, or fusion foods like Roy Choi’s Kogi.

“So many people in Southern California love carne asada above other meats, and love dishes like chili colorado, or chile verde, and burritos. Those are all dishes that come from northern Mexico,” Arellano notes. “Before the 1920s, there were no tacos in Mexican restaurants. That was not Cal-Mex food. With the Mexican revolution, then you started getting people from central Mexico who brought over those tacos and then it became a part of Cal-Mex food. Or chilaquiles for breakfast. That wasn’t really a thing in the seventies.”

The sheer variety of Mexican food in LA just can’t be matched. But while this is indeed a Mexican food Mecca, it’s not without its problems. While the Latino population in Los Angeles is ever-growing, it’s still a demographic that is largely working class. As such, there is a serious devaluing of our cuisine not just from outsiders who expect cheap eats, but ironically by the working families trying to get by and have no choice in regards to the type of quality they can reasonably provide, resulting in what Arellano refers to as “tortilla gentrification.”

“By supporting cheap Mexican food, you’re supporting terrible food systems,” he says. “There is tortilla gentrification right now. Higher-end restaurants are boasting that they’re making corn tortillas from nixtamalized corn, buying heirloom corn from Mexico and heirloom flour from Northern Mexico. Then people say ‘oh those aren’t real tortillas because they cost too much,’ but that’s the sad thing. Those are the realest tortillas you’re going to find. We’re talking about heritage. We’re talking about corn grown by families who have been doing this for hundreds of years. Do you not want to support that and give them a living wage as opposed to supporting Guerro or these big companies that buy a shitload of shitty corn from the United States? It’s sad, and it’s such a Mexican thing, by the way, this sad irony. Doing it the right way costs more and most Mexicans can’t afford it, even though they could probably 50 years ago.”

Mexican food from Los Angeles is a special thing, a defining feature of a great city, and a big part of what makes it great in the first place. But if we want to preserve that, we all need to pay up. Because one thing is for certain about Mexican food in Los Angeles — it’s always going to change. How it changes is going to be a function of how people treat it. And if that treatment starts with honoring the culture that it comes from, well, that will be better for everyone.

J. Cole’s shot selection and pen-wielding never come into question, but prolific producer No ID poked a teensy little hole in the Dreamville top dog’s game while chopping it up on the latest episode of Spotify’s The RapCaviar Podcast with host Brandon “Jinx” Jenkins and Hit-Boy.

“I used to have a running joke with J. Cole, like, ‘Yo, I’m gonna have to do a session with you so I could do a beat that you’re not gonna use that I could get off. I just need your inspiration,’” No ID said with a laugh. “It was a week or two we was working in the beginning. For him, I did the ‘Control’ beat, Nas’ ‘Stay,’ ‘Tears Of Joy,’ ‘My Last,’ and something else. And it was just like, ‘Nah, that ain’t it.’”

Big Sean dropped “My Last” featuring Chris Brown in 2011, and it spent two weeks atop Billboard‘s Hot Rap Songs chart. Sean’s “Control” was a juggernaut in 2013, thanks to Kendrick Lamar’s eviscerating verse that put everyone on notice, including Cole: “But this is hip-hop, and them n****s should know what time it is / And that goes for Jermaine Cole, Big K.R.I.T., Wale / Pusha T, Meek Millz, ASAP Rocky, Drake / Big Sean, Jay Electron’, Tyler, Mac Miller / I got love for you all, but I’m tryna murder you n****s.”

Nas included “Stay” on his 2012 album Life Is Good that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, while Rick Ross’s “Tears Of Joy” featuring Cee-Lo was a standout on 2010’s Gold-certified Teflon Don.

On RapCaviar, No ID also dished that the beat for Beyoncé’s Renaissance track “Church Girl” was done over four years but he “forgot about it” because it was just sitting on Jay-Z’s computer. Hit-Boy one-upped No ID by sharing the beat for “Thique,” another Renaissance track, was finished eight years ago in the same session as Nicki Minaj’s “Feeling Myself,” though he has shared that story before.

Watch the clips below.

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

As the spookiest season of all trudges on, it’s time to explore the various celebrity-led supernatural shows that have been popping up all over the place. Over the summer, we had Conjuring Kesha which followed the pop star looking for various spirits while filming on a very Blair Witch Project type of camera. Kristen Stewart is also embarking on her own paranormal endeavor with a new “gay ghost-hunting reality series” that’s currently in the works. Now, we have another ghostly special to look forward to, this time from East High Alum Vanessa Hudgens.

Hudgens and musician GG Magree will star in Dead Hot: Season Of The Witch a new documentary where the actress explores Salem and its witchy origins. The movie was filmed earlier this year and has been described as a cross between The Simple Life and The Craft which sounds strangely promising.

Dead Hot will be distributed by Bunim-Murray, the company behind The Real World and Keeping Up With The Kardashians. But just because it’s a reality show doesn’t mean it’s not fun!

“It’s entertainment first, but there’s a real, personal, spiritual journey that they both have together,” Julie Pizzi, president of Bunim-Murray productions told Variety. “It’s so emotionally raw that it really created such a beautiful narrative. It’s a lot about female empowerment.” We are all in this together, after all!!

Pizzi added, “As we got to know them, we realized that their curiosity in connecting with the spirit realm and paranormal and supernatural exploration was so much deeper than ghost hunting. It’s an exploration in the spiritual realm. It’s a lot about self love, and them finding their inner strength and power.” There is currently no expected premiere date for Dead Hot, though you can watch all of Zac Efron’s travel docuseries on Netflix to hold you over.

(Via Variety)

GloRilla fans are losing their minds (in a good way) over discovering the rapper’s full name is Gloria Hallelujah Woods — specifically, over her middle name. It seems to have started after one fan in particular found GloRilla’s Wikipedia page and posted it on Twitter. “IKYFLTM,” the user wrote, complete with a crying emoji.

Another pointed out a video where GloRilla is doing a freestyle and confirms that her middle name is, in fact, Hallelujah. “I owe it to my lord and savior / Middle name Hallelujah, so yeah,” she raps. Even funnier, is the fact someone pointed out that it was filmed in a school zone. “and this is in a school zone? an educator, a mentor,” they replied.

Recently, GloRilla won the award for Best Breakthrough Artist at the BET Awards. “I don’t want to cry my makeup off,” she said after her win. “Yall, I’m crying. I want to thank God. I want to thank my team, my mama, Yo Gotti, the biggest CEO. Y’all I don’t know what to say! Let’s go!” She also announced her major label debut album, Anyways, Life’s Great.

Continue scrolling for additional social media reactions.

Anyways, Life’s Great… is out 11/11 via CMG/Interscope. Pre-save it here.

The latest advancement in Kanye West’s “White Lives Matter” crusade — where he continues to defend himself for wearing a shirt emblazoned with the questionable slogan at a fashion show — came this morning when the rapper posted screenshots of his unhinged series of text replies to Diddy. “This ain’t a game,” Kanye said. “I told you this is war,” he added, also saying “Nobody gets between me and my money.”

Diddy seemed to try to connect with Ye IRL, but Ye was having none of it, ending their exchange by saying, “Anything you text I will post. I love you. And you guys are breaking my heart. I accept your apology in advance.” But why is Kanye West mad at Diddy and what’s really going on here?

Why Is Kanye West Mad At Diddy?

This all began with Diddy attempting to play a peacekeeper of sorts for Kanye, albeit in slightly backhanded fashion. First, on Wednesday, October 5th, Diddy appeared on The Breakfast Club radio show attempting to explain Kanye’s erratic behavior and this whole White Lives Matter stunt. “Kanye, my boy, is a super, super, super free thinker and a lot of times, what he means is, like, misconstrued,” Diddy said. He also went on to say he’s delaying the release of a shirt he was going to put out in honor of Kanye, saying, “I just need a couple of days to get over this [White Lives Matter] T-shirt,” he said.

Something tells us that Kanye wasn’t necessarily locked into The Breakfast Club, as much as he objected to Diddy’s subsequent Instagram post on Thursday that elaborated on the sentiment he tried to lay out on the radio, which seemed to pile on to the list of celebrities who have denounced Kanye’s stunt.

“I am not about to be addressing every last thing that’s going on in the world on the internet, but the thing I do have to address is this ‘White Lives Matter’ T-shirt,” Diddy said in the video. “I have always been there and I will also support my brother Kanye as a free thinker. But the ‘White Lives Matter’ t-shirt, I don’t rock with it. You know what I’m sayin’? I’m not with it and with the press and with [what] fashion is doing, thinking this is a joke, when, right now, all America has planned for us is poverty, incarceration and death. So, before I can get to any other ‘Lives Matter,’ which all lives matter, you know what I’m sayin’? That Black Lives Matter, don’t play with it. Don’t wear the shirt, don’t buy the shirt, don’t play with the shirt. It’s not a joke.”

Going out on a limb here, but going on social media to critique whatever the heck it is that Kanye West is doing, is probably not the best way to get through to him. Kanye is not the most reasonable person in the world right now and that’s why Diddy’s post got a swift “N**** F*ck youuu” from Ye.

To say Dr. Oz‘s Pennsylvania senate campaign is a disaster would be an understatement at this point. The TV doctor has been routinely humiliated by his opponent, John Fetterman, which has been pretty easy to do. Like Ted Cruz, Oz is a walking self-own machine, and he can’t help but blunder into situations that really make it seem like his campaign staff hates him. (It probably doesn’t help that Oz has no problem throwing them under the bus.)

This time around, Oz attended a fundraising event in California, which is about as far away from Pennsylvania as it gets. But that’s not the unusual part. The unusual part is that Oz regaled a Republican crowd at the Lyon Air Museum while Adolf Hitler’s actual car sat in the background. You cannot make this up. Via Jezebel:

Photos from the event, of course, surfaced on social media, and Twitter user Larry Tenney shared a screenshot from Instagram stories showing Oz standing on a small podium next to a TV monitor showing the logo for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and a hashtag #TheOzShow. Jezebel confirmed the image as coming from the account of Shane Mitchell, who attended the event. Behind Oz is a dark colored wagon that matches photos on the museum’s website of a 1939 Mercedes-Benz Model G4 Offener Touring Wagon. The museum’s own website says:

“This particular G4, 440875, was originally delivered to Adolph Hitler in late 1939 and was used by the Fuhrer in Ober Salzberg, Berlin and Poland until seized by the French Army at Berchtesgaden.”

Making sure your candidate is not standing in front of Hilter’s car is something most campaigns would look out for, but not Dr. Oz’s. After a week of being blasted for allegedly being involved in medical tests that killed hundreds of dogs, Oz is now kicking off the weekend with everyone dunking on him for standing next to Hitler’s car. It should be impossible for these things to happen, and yet, there’s Dr. Oz’s hapless mug again and again and again.

You can see just some of the Hitler’s car reactions below:

(Via Jezebel)

After Dua Lipa and Trevor Noah were spotted kissing, headlines and rumors surfaced about whether or not they were a couple. However, in a recent episode of her podcast Dua Lipa: At Your Service, during a chat with Charli XCX, Lipa seemed to clear up the gossip by talking about being single.

“For me, this is the first year I’ve not been in a relationship for a very long time,” the star said. “It’s been really great to just be alone and only think about myself and kind of be quite selfish, which I’ve never really had the opportunity to do.” She didn’t mention Noah by name, but this statement still says a lot.

Earlier this year, Lipa spoke in an interview about her wariness with driving in America. “Being from the UK, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around,” Lipa said. “When I’m in the car with someone in America and they have, like, a little bit of road rage, I’m always like, ‘Don’t do it. You have no idea who that other person is and if they’re carrying a gun.’”

Listen to the podcast episode below.

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

Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid earned both U.S. and French citizenship, which grants him eligibility to suit up for either country in international play rather than solely his native Cameroon. According to Marc Stein, Embiid, who has never played in a senior-level FIBA circuit, is “eager” to play for a team other than Cameroon and “presumably would love to sample life in the global spotlight on the Olympic stage.”

“Sources say that Embiid has already engaged in discussions with longtime NBA forward Boris Diaw, who serves as the general manager of the French national team, about joining Les Bleus,” Stein wrote.

However, Team USA is making a run at Embiid, according to Stein. Last summer, France and the U.S. met in the Olympic final, with the U.S. narrowly winning, 87-82. During the group stage, France snapped a 25-game Olympic winning streak for the U.S. with a 83-76 victory. The U.S. sits atop the FIBA rankings, while France, who lost to second-ranked Spain in last month’s EuroBasket final, is fifth.

“Keeping Embiid away from France, when it will have homecourt advantage at the next Olympics, is merely just one natural USAB justification for the pursuit. There is likewise the sobering reality that the center position has been a consistent source of vulnerability for the program in recent years,” Stein wrote. “JaVale McGee, for example, was the only recognized center on the Tokyo squad, although Bam Adebayo certainly knows his way around the 5 spot. In slumping to a humbling seventh at the 2019 World Cup in China, Coach Gregg Popovich struggled to generate any reliability out of the Brook Lopez/Mason Plumlee/Myles Turner trio.”

Embiid would be a tremendous addition for either of these squads. He could help propel France to a 2023 World Cup or 2024 Olympics crown — imagine, for a moment, an Embiid/Rudy Gobert/Victor Wembanyama frontcourt — or he could help Team USA bounce back from its seventh-place 2019 World Cup finish and defend its four straight Olympic championships. Regardless, the thought of international teams essentially trying to land Embiid as though he’s a premier NBA free agent is a hilarious concept. Is he fielding meetings in the Hamptons?

It’s simple, really: Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is not Kaley Cuoco’s Harley Quinn is not Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn is not Kevin Smith’s daughter’s Harley Quinn. They are legally distinct Harley Quinns, but they are looking out for each other. There was never any feud between Robbie and Cuoco after HBO Max’s Harley Quinn premiered, and the Birds of Prey star has given her support to Lady Gaga’s Harley in Joker: Folie à Deux.

“It makes me so happy because I said from the very beginning that all I want is for Harley Quinn to be one of those characters the way, like, Macbeth or Batman always gets passed from great actor to great actor. Someone gets to do their Batman, or someone gets to do their Macbeth,” Robbie told MTV News’ Josh Horowitz when asked about the “Shallow” singer starring in the Joker sequel. She continued:

“I feel like, in not so many cases, are there female characters – Queen Elizabeth I, but beyond that, which I got to have a crack out as well, which I was honored to do. I was like, ‘Wow! Cate Blanchett did Queen Elizabeth I. Now I get to.’ It’s such an honor to have built a foundation strong enough that Harley can now be one of those characters that other actors get to have a go at playing. And I think she’ll do something incredible with it.”

Joker: Folie à Deux also stars Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker, who is not Jared Leto’s Joker who is not Jack Nicholson’s Joker who is not Mark Hamill’s Joker who is not…

You can watch the MTV News interview below.

(Via MTV News)