Megan Thee Stallion is one of the biggest rappers of the past few years, but on her road to the top, the journey was different than those of her male contemporaries. Megan discussed that some in a new interview.
“For female rappers, there’s a line that you don’t want to cross. You want to be Miss Congeniality. You want to be well liked by everyone. You want to be the baddest, you want to be the best, but you want to do it the right way. I did have to learn that there is no right way. Whoever you are, be that. If you crazy, be crazy. If you nice, be nice. If you mean, be mean. If you sad, be sad. Whatever your lane is, just be that. Be your real true self.”
She also said of the theme behind her upcoming album, “We don’t just stop at the snake. This is just what everybody sees right now. Renewal, rebirth: that is the whole concept of this [album]. We started with the snake because, first of all, I love snakes, but I feel like snakes are so misunderstood, especially in western culture. Snakes represent rebirth, spirituality. I’m not really a person that’s like, ‘Oh my God, sunshine,’ and just super bubbly, happy. I like darker things. I like things that are a little scary. I like things that are unique. I picked the snake because… it’s kind of like an antihero.”
Introducing the L’OFFICIEL June 2024 global cover star, Megan Thee Stallion. The 29-year-old Grammy Award-winning rapper, who coined the phrase “hot girl summer,” covers our annual summer entertainment issue. For @TheeStallion‘s cover story go here: https://t.co/JdvZ4zfLi0
Every month, Uproxx cultural critic Steven Hyden makes an unranked list of his favorite music-related items released during this period — songs, albums, books, films, you name it.
1. DIIV, Frog In Boiling Water
DIIV’s excellent fourth LP melds the band’s cavernous, widescreen guitar atmospherics with lyrics that ponder a world in a permanent state of decline. On the title track — the titular metaphor’s meaning is self-evident — Smith takes on the persona of a fascist leader who extols the virtue of burning books. In “Everyone Out,” he wonders if the idea that the structures that undergird society can actually be changed amounts to false hope. In the luminous single “Brown Paper Bag,” he likens himself to tossed-off detritus “stuck on the ground / down, wasted.” While the words are frequently downbeat, they are paired with the most flat-out beautiful music of DIIV’s career. (The band is also funnier than they get credit for, as evidenced by the Fred Durst-starring SNL parody in the “Brown Paper Bag” music video.) After the more muscular and aggressive Deceiver, Frog In Boiling Water marks a return to the gauzy tranquility of their droned-out 2012 debut Oshin, which established DIIV as one of the finest bands to be associated with shoegaze in the 2010s.
2. Jessica Pratt, Here In The Pitch
“Timeless” is the adjective most often applied to Jessica Pratt’s music, but it’s not really accurate. Like all of Pratt’s records, Here In The Pitch is very much rooted in a specific era, which is the opposite of “timeless.” A better descriptor of her sound is “dated but in a good way.” (This retro quality is likely what attracted Troye Sivan to “Back, Baby,” which he sampled for his 2015 track “Can’t Go Back, Baby,” turning the Pratt song into her most streamed number.) For the new record, Pratt’s reference points are the melancholic pocket symphonies of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and the emotionally sophisticated and musically immaculate compositions of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, especially the hits they created with Dionne Warwick, Jackie DeShannon, and Dusty Springfield. On Pitch, understated orchestrations commingle with featherlight bossa-nova rhythms and Pratt’s own expressive croon, which hints at a well of emotion held in check by a stoic, enigmatic chilliness. It is the best album of 1966 released in 2024.
3. Amen Dunes, Death Jokes
One of the year’s true “grower” albums. I count the previous Amen Dunes LP, 2018’s Freedom, as one of the finest indie-rock records of the last 10 years. But that album was consciously constructed as an instant grabber with loads of driving, arpeggio-sprinkled guitar anthems. Death Jokes, on the contrary, is a glitchy curveball teaming with dark, off-kilter vibes. If Freedom is a warm embrace, then Death Jokes is a cold shoulder. But if you stick with it, eventually there’s solace amid the freeze.
4. Mdou Moctar, Funeral For Justice
Let’s start with the album title. As with all of Moctar’s music, there’s a strong political undercurrent to Funeral For Justice, with the Nigerian guitarist raging against the perpetual instability of his home country’s government stoked by decades of interference from the United States and other foreign actors. While American listeners might not pick up on the fervor of Moctar’s words, they will certainly recognize the ample amount of ass-kicking guitar shredding that conveys the depths of his passion. If Funeral For Justice is the most metal-sounding Mdou Moctar album title — it sounds like the lost Megadeth LP between Rust In Peace and Countdown To Extinction — then it accurately conveys the blistering speed and force of the music.
5. Blitzen Trapper, 100’s Of 1000’s, Millions Of Billions
You know how sometimes you’re into a band for a while, and then you lose track of them? Not because you no longer like what they do, but just because life goes on and you get distracted by other bands and life generally. Blitzen Trapper is a band like that for me. I loved their 2008 LP Furr and saw them play live a few times around that time. And then … I just lost track of them. Flash forward to earlier this year when I received a promo of their latest record, which updates the slyly knowing Americana of Furr with an older and wiser backwoods gentleness. And it put me right back on the bandwagon. If you wish Wilco had stuck with the sound of their Mermaid Avenue records — the meeting place between Being There alt-country and Summerteeeth power pop — you will want to hop on board, too.
6. Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, All This Time
Campbell is a musician’s musician, with a long resumé as a sideman for some of the biggest names in music: Bob Dylan, Levon Helm, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, Jackson Browne, and so on. As a duo with his wife Teresa Williams, he makes music that amalgamates a wide swath of American music, from rock to blues to gospel to folk. The partners’ latest effort, their first in seven years — Campbell battled a brutal case of Covid in the early stages of the pandemic — leans hardest on their shared country roots, with Campbell’s twangy guitar perfectly complementing Williams’ lilting southern croon. It is music made with the utmost care and skill.
7. From Indian Lakes, Head Void
The path from emo and post-hardcore to shoegaze was well traveled by legions of bands in the 2010s. From Indian Lakes was part of that pack, though it seemed like they might have been winding down. Their previous LP, Dimly Lit, came out in 2019, and the group’s mastermind Joe Vannucchi has spent the intervening busying himself with solo albums and side projects. But it turns out that a new From Indian Lakes album was lurking the whole time, and it’s a fine return at that. While Head Void can’t be considered a revival of their emo guise — the guitar tones positively scream “dream pop” — the songs do have a hooky propulsive quality that steers well clear of any atmospheric muck.
8. Chatterton, Fields Of This
“Slacker” seems to pop up in every review I read about this record, which is probably just a euphemism for “sounds like Pavement crossed with Modest Mouse.” But I’m not going to fall into that trap. I believe in clarity. Therefore, I’m just going to come out and say “this sounds like Pavement crossed with Modest Mouse” and add “in the best possible way.”
On Wednesday, May 29, Jonas posted a 30-second TikTok showing him blissfully bicycling in some countryside while lip-syncing to an unreleased song that might be called “Even Baddies Get Saddies” because the TikTok is captioned, “Even baddies get saddies [smiley face with a tear emoji] #newmusic”
“Come on, Joe, you got so much more to be grateful for,” Jonas sings. “Stop being sad ’cause you’re makin’ the room uncomfortable / OK, I get it, right now, you’re feeling so miserable / Sometimes I wish I had powers to be invisible / Even baddies get saddies, and that’s the hardest truth / Call your mommy and daddy, they don’t know what to do.”
In March, Jonas posted a TikTok saying, “The way I would’ve bodied this trend if I weren’t in the studio working on something new [eyeballs emoji].” In the following weeks, Jonas continued to tease new solo music with TikToks — one showing Jonas in the studio with Alexander 23 and other collaborators — soundtracked by original sound.
As for Joe’s ongoing Jonas Brothers duties, the Jonas Brothers will perform Rock In Rio Lisboa on June 22. The iconic trio is scheduled to resume their headlining Five Albums. One Night. The World Tour. in Mexico City, Mexico on August 21. See all of their upcoming tour dates here.
Roddy Ricch had a huge debut album era with Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial: The project went No. 1 and spawned the chart-topping single “The Box.” Since then, he’s come through with the 2021 album Live Life Fast and the 2022 mixtape Feed Tha Streets III. Now he’s ready to add to his legacy once more, as he is gearing up to launch a new era.
On Instagram yesterday (May 30), Ricch shared a new image gallery, photos of him wearing a suit and blankly looking at the camera. He wrote, “2024 is PERSONAL not business.” He also indicated his next project is called The Navy Album by sharing on his Instagram Story a post from a fan page declaring, “The Navy Album era has begun.”
In his 2022 Uproxx cover story, Ricch spoke about his biggest takeaway from the first chapter of his career, saying, “A lot of times, you may get distracted by trying to rekindle relationships with different things. I feel like just what I learned is just sometimes, even if it’s broke, sometimes it’s just better not to deal with certain things or don’t let certain things bother you — everything’s not going to be perfect. Sometimes when you sit down and think about a lot of sh*t, you try to make everything perfect, and I feel like the thing I learned is it’s okay to not be perfect. There’s perfect in imperfection.”
Earlier this week, Shelby Cassesse, a sports reporter for WPXI in Pittsburgh, shared footage of when she realized that her shirt was on inside out. “Nothing knocks you down a peg like realizing your shirt has been inside out the entire day. This was after an interview, a breaking news live shot and a full day of OTAs coverage. Great!” she wrote, along with the thumbs up emoji.
The exchange — which thankfully wasn’t a live shot — went like this:
Cassesse: “I have this shirt on inside out. All day.”
Cameraperson: “You have time if you want to go…”
Cassesse: I mean, you can’t really tell…”
Here’s the clip:
Nothing knocks you down a peg like realizing your shirt has been inside out the entire day.
This was after an interview, a breaking news live shot and a full day of OTAs coverage. Great! pic.twitter.com/aRyjks1zgA
In the replies, someone wrote, “Laughing at our minor mistakes is good for us and everyone else! Your credibility keeps growing!” to which Cassesse responded, “Nothing to do but laugh!” It’s a good mindset to have. Cassesse, who was reporting on the Pittsburgh Steelers OTAs at the time, must have laughed a lot covering the team’s quarterbacks last season.
With how ingrained shopping and doing other things online are in our lives, this means that a ton of companies have access to our personal data. Ideally, they’re taking care to keep it safe, but sometimes, things happen. Well, it looks like a thing just happened: As Consequence notes, the hacking group ShinyHunters claims to have stolen the personal data of 560 million Ticketmaster customers.
ShinyHunters says they’ve stolen 1.3 terrabytes of data from Ticketmaster, including a lot of sensitive information: usernames, contact information, order info, and partial payment info like the last four digits of credit card numbers and expiration dates. They are offering to sell their haul for $500,000.
Ticketmaster themselves have yet to acknowledge the supposed hacking, but a spokesperson for Australia’s Department Of Home Affairs told the Australian Broadcasting Department it’s “working with Ticketmaster to understand the incident.”
This news arrives while Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation is already not having an awesome time: It was reported last week that the US Department Of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, “accusing [Live Nation Entertainment] of illegally maintaining a monopoly in the live entertainment industry.”
Public sentiment really turned against Ticketmaster in 2022, when the platform had significant issues as tickets for Taylor Swift’s wildly popular The Eras Tour went on sale.
On a recent episode of the Kelce bros-hosted New Heights podcast, retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason brought up a Reddit fan theory that his sibling will be announced as part of the cast for Happy Gilmore 2. “I didn’t even know there was a job opening for a Happy Gilmore 2,” Travis replied. “But if there is, I’ll be a f*cking extra, anything to just get around Happy Gilmore or Adam Sandler set, count me in. Obviously, I’ve been a huge fan of the Sandman but, yes, this is exactly what it says it is – a conspiracy theory.”
Earlier this year, Sandler revealed that he wants the sequel to be a tribute to original cast members Carl Weathers, Joe Flaherty, and Bob Barker, who have all have passed away since 2023. “I would love [The Price is Right host] Drew Carey to be in this movie out of respect to Bob,” he said. “When we were writing stuff, Bob was alive. When we were writing stuff, Carl Weathers was alive. When we were writing stuff, Joe Flaherty was alive. It sucks, we love those guys. They were such a big part of the movie and just great people. But we’re going to get them involved somehow. They’ll be involved.”
It’s been a long time since Selena Gomez fans have gotten to see her on tour: Her most recent tour was 2016’s Revival Tour, but Gomez ended up cutting the run short. At the time, she explained that anxiety, panic attacks, and depression are side effects of her then-recently revealed lupus diagnosis and said, “I want to be proactive and focus on maintaining my health and happiness and have decided that the best way forward is to take some time off.”
As for whether Gomez will ever tour again, that is uncertain.
In a new Time interview, Gomez said she’s “50-50” on whether she’ll hit the road in the future, explaining, “Nothing makes me happier than 90 minutes of being with my fans and just celebrating together, [but] it is very emotionally draining for me. And then you realize you’re just surrounded by a bunch of people that you’re paying.”
In that same interview, she also spoke about her pre-Benny Blanco plan to have children, saying, “I was alone for five years, and I got really used to it. A lot of people are afraid of being alone and I probably tortured myself in my head for like two years being alone, and then I kind of accepted it. Then I came up with my plan, which was I was going to adopt at 35 if I had not met anyone.”
Last Thursday, May 23, Travis Scott, Tyga, Alexander “AE” Edwards, and Cher attended Richie Akiva’s annual amFAR The After party during Cannes Film Festival, where Edwards and Scott engaged in “a physical altercation,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Several outlets reported the fight. TMZ provided grainy video showing punches thrown between Edwards and 808 Mafia producer Southside, with Scott eventually getting involved. TMZ cited unnamed witnesses claiming “Alexander ‘AE’ Edwards was the instigator, as he ran up on stage and initiated physical contact with Travis Scott.”
On Wednesday, May 29, TMZ caught Edwards, a Universal Music Group executive who has been romantically linked to Cher since late 2022, at Los Angeles International Airport and asked him about the messy ordeal.
Edwards initially played dumb when asked about the “crazy incident” before shaking his head and saying, “It’s all good.”
“Shout-out Southside,” Edwards said during the two-minute TMZ video. “That’s my n****. I know he was defending his boy and doing what he was supposed to be doing as his boy. I don’t got no hard feelings. It is what it is. It went how it went. That’s it.”
The TMZ reporter asked Edwards to clarify what initiated the fight, but Edwards declined to go into detail, saying, “I don’t wanna fight. I don’t initiate that sh*t. […] But I’m gonna protect myself and my people. That’s it. That’s all it is.” Edwards said he hasn’t spoken with Scott and didn’t have any message for him. “They got the message,” he said.
Of course, Edwards was also asked whether Cher was upset about Edwards’ behavior, and he cited Future and Metro Boomin’s “GTA” in response: “Hell nah. Like Future say, ‘Whatever I’m with, my b*tch with it, too.” Edwards laughed and clarified, “My woman, but the lyrics are the lyrics.” Edwards concluded by confirming that he and Cher are “a happy family.”
Read an excerpt from TMZ’s original report below.
“Sources familiar with the situation tell us the fight started after both Travis and Tyga were on stage behind the DJ booth … and when Richie grabbed the mic he gave props to both rappers, saying something to the effect of, ‘We got T-Raww, AE and Travis in the building.’
We’re told Travis seemed pissed he was being lumped in with Tyga — possibly a Kylie Jenner exes thing — so, Travis snatched the mic out of Ritchie’s hand, prompting AE to say something to Trav. For context, AE and Tyga are besties.”
JoJo Siwa turned 21 earlier this month, and she’s ready to be taken seriously as an adult.
In March, the Dance Moms and Dancing With The Stars alum posted to her 11 million Instagram followers, “The following content is not made for children, and may be disturbing or offensive to some viewers. May contain sexual themes, violence, strong language, traumatic scenarios and flashing lights.” The following month, Siwa’s edgy, dance-pop single “Karma” dropped. It would appear that was only the beginning.
“For the last few weeks, the world has been f*cking brutal,” Siwa said in a nine-second TikTok posted on Wednesday evening, May 29. “They’ve been talking so much sh*t. But I don’t give a f*ck. ‘Choose Ur Fighter,’ b*tch!”
Siwa posted the same video to Instagram alongside the caption, “Ready or not… here it comes.”
Siwa’s official website has also been overtaken by a “Choose Ur Fighter” graphic, featuring a loading bar and pre-save links for Apple Music and Spotify. As of this writing, Siwa has not yet confirmed the song’s release date.
In late April, Siwa performed “Karma” at Miami Beach Pride 2024.
In January 2021, Siwa posted a TikTok showing her dancing along to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” which has since been liked 7.8 million times, and more definitively came out with an X (formerly Twitter) post showing her wearing a shirt reading, “BEST. GAY. COUSIN. EVER.”
“I still don’t know what I am,” Siwa told People in April 2021. “It’s like, I want to figure it out. […] But, like, I don’t know, bisexual, pansexual, queer, lesbian, gay, straight. I always just say gay because it just kind of covers it or queer because I think the keyword is cool.”
Siwa continued, “I like queer. Technically, I would say that I am pansexual because that’s how I have always been my whole life is just like, my human is my human.”
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ok fine here’s a tiny little something 
COMING 2024
