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With climate change continuing to grow in importance as one of the most urgent issues facing society today, non-profit booster Propeller and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) are launching a new awareness initiative called the “NOW: Climate Action Campaign” to raise public consciousness of the looming dangers of climate change.

Beginning Earth Day (April 22) and continuing throughout the year, NOW will leverage the platforms of musicians and festivals to promote climate awareness. To encourage fans to take action — signing petitions, making donations, planting trees, and signing up for education courses — artists and festival partners will offer prizes like custom bikes and more.

Among the artists participating are Lil Dicky, who is offering a trip to an exotic location impacted by climate change so fans can see its effects firsthand, Julien Baker, A-Trak, and The National, while BUKU Music + Arts Festival, Deep Tropics Festival, and Sub Pop Records are all billed as participants as well.

Propeller, a digital marketing company that works to connect non-profit social causes with celebrity endorsers to, well, propel these movements beyond what they might be capable of otherwise, highlighted the importance of the NOW campaign in a press statement from founder Brandon Deroche. “Climate change is only going to be solved with sustained attention and pressure from all of us, and we see this campaign as a way to help energize the movement,” he said.

Lil Dicky, who previously recorded the celebrity charity song “Earth” in 2019 and donated the profits to environmental causes, echoed Deroche’s sentiment. “Climate change is an incredibly important cause for me,” he said. “I’m excited to get fans that may be new to the cause activated through the NOW Climate Action Campaign, and give them the chance to see the impact of climate change first hand.”

More information will be forthcoming but for now, you can learn more at propeller.la and nrdc.org.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

All artists must have a certain degree of self-belief, but very few have as much as Lakeyah. It’s one thing to record your innermost thoughts over a beat and put them out, knowing that someone, somewhere in the world will want to hear them and relate, but it’s another thing entirely to convince your mom to pay for art school in Atlanta for the sole purpose to pursuing a label deal with Quality Control Music.

That’s exactly what the Milwaukee-bred 20-year-old did, though, enrolling in the Art Institute of Atlanta in order to have a pretext for relocating to Coach and P’s hometown, only to drop out just two months into the semester to chase her rap dreams full time. The leap of faith had a soft landing; not only did Lakeyah, who’d first gained a semblance of notoriety with a series of freestyle videos from her car (a la Saweetie, to whom she’s sometimes compared), ultimately ink the deal just a few months later, she’s now two projects into her career and receiving the full-fledged support of the “family-oriented” label.

Her latest release, In Due Time, arrives just months after her debut Time’s Up. While both records are glitzy affairs, Lakeyah is also committed to a much more lyrics-focused approach than some of the artists she gets compared to, owing to her early fascination with the songwriting of Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Wale. Displaying her love for witty wordplay on “Easy,” and the Gucci Mane-featuring “Poppin,” she also layers in a newly refined sense of storytelling, fleshing out the emotional corners of tracks like “Dirty World” and “From The Bottom.”

Over the phone with Uproxx, Lakeyah relayed the challenges of starting a career during a global music shutdown, reflected on the support she’s received from her label home, explained the thematic importance of “time” to her first two releases, and agreed that pursuing a dream often means being your own superhero.

How has your last year been? I know it’s not the most ideal situation to start your career in the middle of a global, once-a-century pandemic. How have you been handling it? What have you been doing with the time that you would have been touring or whatever?

It’s kind of sad but at the same time, I’m kind of blessed to have been signed during a pandemic, it’s preparing me for when the world opens up. I’ve been doing a lot of Zoom interviews and I stay in the studio. I’m shooting videos a lot and I’m always getting content ready for Instagram. That’s what it’s about right now, while there’s nothing going on.

“Time” is a theme in your album titles. Why is that so important for you to highlight that theme?

I feel like success — slow success — builds character. I was just talking to P about this. Everything is going to happen at the perfect time for me. The next tape is going to be called Perfect Timing. I just feel like everything is going to fall into place. I’m just working my ass off right now being super consistent. It’s all about timing. You don’t want to burn yourself out, out here.

Right. And you’re 19, you’re young. You have time. Jay-Z didn’t put out Reasonable Doubt until he was 26. With that being said, what are some of the things that you’ve learned from being around older fellows like Coach and P, as opposed to being around your own peers?

To stay out of drama. To be focused on the job. I’m around a lot of people that have a lot of money and they ain’t making money being in bullsh*t. Focusing on work and putting everything I have into my career, my artistry: that’s what I’ve been learning.

I had to hit Google a little bit and look for Milwaukee rappers because I don’t know any rappers who are from Milwaukee except for K Camp. Do you have rappers from your city that you look up to? If not, who have you been looking up to?

I don’t have any from my city because, to be honest, I was young. I wasn’t shooting music videos like everybody else, I was just doing freestyles in a car. So I didn’t get really a lot of recognition when I was in the city. I had dreams of being global and not local. So growing up I definitely always listened to Nicki Minaj, Drake. I love Rick Ross and Wale. I like people who really care about the bars, the lyrics, make you feel like a boss.

I’m surprised, but not surprised, to hear you say “Wale.”

I love him.

I remember when he came out, like early on. We’re the same age. So hearing someone talk about someone who I came out with, someone the same age as me, that’s crazy.

He’s super poetic but it’s still that music you want to listen to. Sometimes people are so talented that they can’t make a song, but Wale makes songs, hits actually. I love him. I’m a big fan.

Why do you focus so much on lyrics and how do you find that balance between being a good rapper and being a good songwriter?

Well, like I was just saying, people be so good that they can’t make a song. Me and P even had this discussion. I come from freestyling, where you got to take that element and really put it into the music. You want people to still feel your music, but not get bored with you. I have a huge vocabulary. I read a lot of books. I don’t want people to be like, “What she say?” But I still want people to think. I got to make sure everything is like, “It’s a bop,” but it’s still like, “She’s saying some real sh*t. It’s a balance I’m still learning.

One of the bars that actually did crack me up listening to your album was on “Easy.” You say you’re 19 and you’re making more money than your father. When your father heard that line, what did he say to you?

He got a rich daughter. He like, my daughter got money, I can get a house.

Your mom may have had a slightly different reaction. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you convinced her to send you down south for school, and then you just decided that you were going to drop out and pursue rap. What did she say when you got signed? What is she thinking now? Has there been any change over the past year?

Yes. A huge change. When I first told myself, “I’m not doing college no more,” at first I’m like, “I’m not telling nobody.” I don’t know what my plan was because I knew I was going to have to tell somebody, but I wasn’t telling nobody. I was skipping classes. But I’m not promoting that sh*t. Education is key.

So when I told her, she was yelling, she was cussing me out. She was like, “I put all my money… I moved you out here.” I had to go through that. And then a couple of months later, I got signed. So she was proud. She probably thinking she wanted to see her daughter graduate college, but she’s super proud.

You have Gucci Mane on “Poppin.” To me, my generation, that is impressive. Like, “Okay, who is this kid to be getting a Gucci Mane feature?” How does you feel about having this veteran of the trap scene come through and bestow the blessing upon you?

It’s so, so, so lit. Growing up in Milwaukee, that’s one of the people we listened to. So, it’s a blessing beyond measure. And he really killed the track, I was super surprised. I remember I got in the studio with Hitmaka and we made the song, they must’ve sent it to P, and P sent it back to me a week later with a feature on it, and it’s Gucci. I’m like, “You’re kidding me right now, is that my song?” So it was super exciting. The video was fun to shoot, and both P and Gucci are super humble people. And they really support these artists out here trying to make it.

I know that this is sort of an old man, uncool thing to ask anybody under 20, but do you have anything even remotely resembling a five-year plan for your career in hip-hop?

Honestly, I really, really plan to be the biggest artist — not “female rapper,” not “female R&B”… but the biggest artist in the world. Whatever steps it takes to get there, that’s part of the five-year plan. I’m only 20 like I said. I got so much time and sometimes I get caught up judging my success off of what’s going on with other artists. But, I heard somebody say a week ago, it takes 10 years to become an overnight success.

Being a new artist, you probably do a ton of interviews and get asked a lot of the same questions. Do you have anything that you would love to talk about that you just wish somebody would ask you about, but they just haven’t?

A lot of people don’t know the type of stuff I like, like superheroes and sh*t. I like Marvel and DC movies. I’m a super big fan of Avengers movies and all that. And vampire, supernatural movies too. I do not want to watch f*cking rom-coms or nothing like that. I want to see people flying in the air.

Who is your favorite Avenger?

Oh my God. I cried when Iron Man died. I was sick about it.

You know what? I think we all cried when Iron Man died. If you got a superpower, what would your superpower be? And what would your superhero name?

I think I would teleport, but I want to read minds, too.

So you want to be a telepathic teleporter?

I don’t know what my name would be.

Why not “Lakeyah?” A rap name is a superhero name. You are your own superhero, right?

Exactly.

In Due Time is out now on Quality Control Music. Get it here.

Kung Fu (CW, 8:00pm) — A mid-twenties Chinese-American woman, takes a life-changing journey to an isolated Chinese monastery after dropping out of college. Upon her return, she must banish crime and corruption in her hometown with her newfound martial arts skills and Shaolin values, all in the name of justice. This week, Nicky’s attempt to readjust back to life in said hometown isn’t going well, and the same goes for Jin’s life in general. Naturally, they handle this mutual issue in vastly different ways.

Why Did You Kill Me? (Netflix film) — This chilling true-crime documentary film follows a mother’s search for both justice and revenge after her daughter (24-year-old Crystal Theobald) is killed. The mother uses MySpace to investigate the crime, and there’s immense fallout for multiple families as a result.

Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! (Netflix series) — Jamie Foxx is now playing a dad, y’all. He’s doing full-time duties for a teenage daughter while juggling business ownership and some semblance of a personal life. Good luck, Jamie Foxx, because life is total chaos, so you might as well embrace that face. The series also stars Kyla-Drew (as the lucky daughter who gets to laugh at dad), David Alan Grier, and Porscha Coleman.

The Circle: Season 2 (Netflix series) — The social-media-focused reality show continues with plenty of shade, twists, shade, turn, and more twists. This season, eight fresh contestants will attempt to figure out who is catfishing and who is real. My goodness, this looks dizzying and maybe a little bit depressing, but people can’t stop watching, so maybe you’ll get sucked in, too? Good luck.

Nancy Drew (CW, 9:00pm) — Nancy and her crew must save one of their own while Ryan is distracted by his very compelling conversation with Celia. Focus, Ryan.

Snowfall (FX, 10:00pm) — The John Singleton-co-created series sees Teddy trying to save his own butt (operation- and career-wise) while Franklin is battling to survive.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Willie Geist, Maria Bakalova

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Keith Urban, Jon Batiste

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Gayle King, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Anderson East

In case you missed these picks from last Wednesday:

This Is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist (Netflix series) — Settle in for this revisiting and exploration of the so-called “biggest art heist in history.” Over four parts, this documentary series will dig into the 1990 St. Patrick’s Day heist, which saw over half a billion dollars worth of legendary works stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Rembrandts and everything! The series promises to dig into all the dead ends and lucky breaks that this unsolved mystery has to offer.

Exterminate All The Brutes (HBO Max) — This four-part documentary series tells a story of survival with a powerful message. Prepare to witness a search for truth and an scrutinization of how history is written, and expect to watch this show while reexamining much of what you thought you knew about European colonialism, American slavery, and Native American genocide. Tonight, Parts 1 and 2 revisit the U.S.’ legacy as a colonial power, including stories of Christopher Columbus and Trail of Tears, as told from an indigenous perspective.

Welcome to SNX DLX! What’s this, a weekly roundup featuring Reebok, Brain Dead, Adidas, and two PUMA entries? One not overly dominated by Nike? Is this some sort of dream?

Let’s be real, Nike gets a lot of love here at SNX. But make no mistake, we’re almost always actively rooting against the behemoth. We love the underdogs, the swoosh simply drops a ton of great shoes and we’re often forced to give credit where credit is due.

This week is different, and we’re happy to see some other brands in play. We’ve got a grip of spring-centric colorways and some hyped brand collaborations from Brain Dead and Sean Wotherspoon to show you. If you’re looking for an outfit to complete your look, be sure to hit up our weekly streetwear roundup, too.

Let’s dive in!

Brain Dead x Reebok Zig Kinetica II

Los Angeles-based label Brain Dead has just dropped their third collaborative sneaker with Reebok and this one is definitely the most out there. Inspired by Zig Man, a Kaiju-style superhero created by Brain Dead (watch the promotional film here, it’s bonkers), the Zig Kinetica II features Reebok’s Floatride Fuel cushioning in a shell wrap with wild and wavy overlays and a speckled midsole gradient. The sneaker drops in both a natural white/grey colorway and a green-gray makeup.

The design is pretty radical, but both colorways manage to look unique and different from one another and that’s super cool, a testament to Brain Dead’s design ethos.

The Brain Dead Reebok Zig Kinetica II is set to drop on April 12th for a retail price of $160. Pick up a pair at Brain Dead or Dover Street Market.

Nike Dunk Low Green Glow

The Easter Dunks just keep on dropping!

This week brings the minty Green Glow, which sees an all-leather Dunk adorned with some pastel green overlays that make the silhouette look like Easter eggs or candy hearts. It’s cute, but it’s a pastel green Dunk… what else can we say? If you love Dunks, you’re going to love this.

Unfortunately, this design is only available in WMNS sizes, so if you’ve got big feet, sorry, no Dunks for you! We won’t stop beating this drum though: start dropping all your big releases in full-size runs, Nike!

The Nike Dunk Low Green Glow is set to drop on April 16th for a retail price of $100. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Reebok Answer IV OG

In celebration of Allen Iverson’s 2001-2001 MVP campaign, Reebok is relaunching the Answer IV. Featuring a loud racer-inspired colorway of red, white, and grey, the Answer IV features a zip-up shroud upper with a velcro strap for added support, 3M reflective detailing throughout, a TPU bridge plate, and an outsole featuring DMX foam which should give you a nice energy return.

The 20th-anniversary collection also drops alongside a run of commemorative trading cards illustrated by Peter Richter.

The Reebok Answer IV OG is set to drop on April 15th for a retail price of $130. Pick up a pair at the Reebok webstore and select Reebok retailers.

Sean Wotherspoon x Adidas ZX8000 SUPEREARTH

King of Corduroy Sean Wotherspoon returns! To be fair to Wotherspoon, he’s designed loads of shoes since his original pair of the corduroy-adorned Air Max 97s, but we’ll never forget him for making corduroy a streetwear staple material. So we’re going to keep calling him that.

The designer (and owner of retailer Round Two) has linked up with Adidas for a patchwork take on their ZX 8000, which is composed of recycled materials and features the sort of attention-to-detail Easter eggs that make Wotherspoon such a unique designer.

The Sean Wotherspoon x Adidas ZX8000 SUPEREARTH is set to drop on April 16th for a retail price of $140. Pick up a pair via the Adidas confirmed app.

Air Jordan 1 Hyper Royal

This pair is just too damn clean! Featuring a light spring-friendly colorway, the Air Jordan 1 Hyper Royal combines a pristine white leather upper with faded blue (almost denim-like) suede overlays, complete with a contrasting smoke grey leather swoosh and collar with a white wings logo which pops nicely on the faded blue.

Jordan 1 fans have been absolutely spoiled for the last two years with amazing colorway after amazing colorway. We might even have to update our best Jordan 1s list as a result!

Light and airy for spring, this pair features faded light blue synthetic unbuckle overlays over a white upper toe and mid-panel. The shoe is touched off by a smoke grey leather swoosh with a white wings logo on the collar.

Pick up a pair at GOAT or Flight Club.

Adidas Yeezy BOOST 700 Bright Blue

I know Ye didn’t plan on dropping a Yeezy for hardcore New York Knicks fan, but that’s kind of what the Yeezy BOOST 700 Bright Blue is. How are we supposed to think of anything else when seeing the color combo of orange and blue? Is this some sort of slight against Jay-Z’s Brooklyn Nets?

Who knows why Kanye does what Kanye does, and it doesn’t really matter because at the end of the day these are dope and that’s all that we care about. Keeping making dope sneakers, Ye! Also, we’re glad to see this colorway on the original 700 design, rather than the more alien-like 700 V3, which has already gotten a lot of love this year.

The Adidas Yeezy BOOST 700 Bright Blue is set to drop on April 17th for a retail price of $240. Pick up a pair at GOAT.

Nike Air Huarache Scream Green

Probably Tinker Hatfield’s most underrated design, Nike has been showing a lot of love to the often forgotten Air Huarache. This week, the silhouette is dropping in one its original colorways, the Scream Green, and features a light and breathable neoprene upper with soft synthetic accents, a heel clip, and that iconic bootie construction.

The Nike Air Huarache Scream Green is set to drop on April 19th for a retail price of $120. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

PUMA Mayze

PUMA is unveiling an all-new sneaker design and they’ve recruited everyone’s favorite retro-disco pop star Dua Lipa as the face of the campaign. The new sneaker, dubbed the Mayze, features a distinct stacked midsole with split derby construction and an all-leather upper. The Mayze drops in two different black and white variations, which was a smart call by PUMA as the Mayze already looks like a classic silhouette by the brand.

The PUMA Mayze is set to drop on April 16th for a retail price of $90. Pick up a pair at the PUMA webstore.

EDITOR’S PICK: PUMA Court Rider

Forget baseball and football. Forget professional hoops. Pickup basketball is America’s true sport. You know, played outside. Shooting on a weatherbeaten rim. With at least one dude who sweats excessively on each team.

As a lifelong pickup baller, I appreciate these. Because while they’re made as a performance sneaker — with LaMelo Ball, Katie Lou Samuelson, and more wearing them in the pros — they don’t feel out of place walking around town. So you can get your runs in, then hang without having to bring a bag full of gear to the park.

Better still, this design is clean in a world of noise. There are just enough dad shoe touches to feel like a throwback, but the lines are modern. Pale neon shades of yellow, orange, blue, and green exist in melodic harmony and the silhouette doesn’t feel overly ornamented with zips and straps. Meaning you could wear these to the court or out and about in a way that few hoops shoes can truly pull off.

The Puma Court Rider launched yesterday on the Puma webstore and select retail outlets for $100.

Disclaimer: While all of the products recommended here were chosen independently by our editorial staff, Uproxx may receive payment to direct readers to certain retail vendors who are offering these products for purchase.

In a welcome bit of good news after a very long year of projects getting delayed, Walton Goggins has revealed that filming for The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 is underway. On Wednesday, the actor posted a photo to Instagram of himself in character as Baby Billy Freeman with the caption, “Baby is back! Done. You know what time it is!!! #TRG.” Goggins can also be seen giving the thumbs up while standing outside a trailer bearing The Righteous Gemstones logo.

While not much is known about the plot for Season 2, The Righteous Gemstones star Edi Patterson revealed back in July 2020 that the production took a brutal hit at the start of the pandemic. According to Paterson, they had a massive set built and ready to go in Charleston, South Carolina,and had just wrapped their first day of filming. The next morning, the call came in to shut everything down.

“I think there was a hope in the beginning of like, ‘Oh, we’ll just press the pause button for a minute’ and, you know, “even if it’s a month or a month and a half,’ Paterson told The Hollywood Reporter. “Then it just started looking super confusing, and then it became clear like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna have to wait awhile.’”

That wait turned into a year, but the good news is The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 is back on track, and there’s still talk of a Christmas special that will hopefully arrive in time for the holidays. And we can always just keep watching this until then.

(Via Walton Goggins on Instagram)

Prior to European colonization of North America, millions of bison roamed the Great Plains. By the turn of the 20th century, those numbers had dropped to less than 1,000. The deliberate decimation of buffalo herds was a direct attack on the Native American people, who colonizers saw as an obstacle to their “Manifest Destiny,” and who the U.S. government engaged in a systematic attempt to eliminate or force into docile submission.

For thousands of years, bison were a sacred, inseparable part of life for Indigenous tribes of the Great Plains, used for food, shelter, utensils, and clothing, in addition to spiritual and emotional well-being. Wiping out the bison population nearly wiped out the Native tribes they were connected to.

Though bison numbers have increased significantly thanks to conservation efforts, governments are still grappling with the ugly legacy, and some municipalities are taking steps to try to repair some of the damage done. As one example, the city of Denver, Colorado has taken the step of giving some of the city’s bison population managed by Denver Parks and Recreation to Native American tribes engaged in bison conservation efforts.

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In a unanimous 13-0 vote, Denver City Council gave the final approval Monday to donate 13 buffalo—around half of which are pregnant—to the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations in Oklahoma and one buffalo to Tall Bull Memorial Council in Colorado. In addition, Denver Parks and Recreation will no longer hold its annual auction to keep its bison herds at a healthy population size and ensure genetic diversity, but rather will work with tribal partners through the year 2030 to give surplus bison to Native tribes across the country to enhance conservation herds on tribal lands.

“This donation is the result and culmination of a very long, storied history and relationship with the State of Colorado,” Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Governor Reggie Wassana told 9 News. “The Tribes plan to use the donated bison as a cultural, conservation and educational resource, with the goal of locating the bison on our own tribal natural plains habitat.”

“We appreciate this gift and hope to grow our relationship with the great state of Colorado,” said Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Lt. Governor Gilbert Miles.

Denver Councilwoman Pro Tem Jamie Torres told 9 News she was “proud and honored” to carry the ordinance forward.

“This is a unique opportunity to not only return the bison to tribes across the country and support their conservation efforts but to honor those who have cared for these ancestral lands before us,” she said. “The land acknowledgment we adopted in 2020 asks us to work to dismantle legacies of oppression and inequity, and today we are doing that.”

The land acknowledgment, which is read at each city council meeting following the Pledge of Allegiance, reads:

“The Denver City Council honors and acknowledges that the land on which we reside is the traditional territory of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples. We also recognize the 48 contemporary tribal nations that are historically tied to the lands that make up the state of Colorado.

“We honor Elders past, present, and future, and those who have stewarded this land throughout generations. We also recognize that government, academic and cultural institutions were founded upon and continue to enact exclusions and erasures of Indigenous Peoples.

“May this acknowledgment demonstrate a commitment to working to dismantle ongoing legacies of oppression and inequities and recognize the current and future contributions of Indigenous communities in Denver.”

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock also acknowledged the significance of the ordinance, according to NPR, seeing the annual donations as one form of reparation.

“I don’t think it’s ever too late to acknowledge the challenges and the wrongs of the past,” he said. “We got a chance to simply apologize, acknowledge the challenges of the past and to forge a relationship going forward that allows us to exercise our common objectives around the conservation of the tribal lands and of these animals.”

Nathan Hart, executive director of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes’ business department who oversees the tribe’s herd of 530 buffalo, told NPR that the city’s donation will help the tribes toward their goal of sustaining a herd of 800.

“Everybody’s really excited to grow the herd with this addition,” Hart says. “The bison was very significant to our well-being in the past — we have still have a lot of respect for the animal.”

He also credits the bison for the tribes’ relationship-building with Denver’s city officials.

“We’re developing these relationships because of the bison,” he says. “That’s what brought us together … it all came from the bison themselves.”

Beautiful. Here’s to seeing more of these restoration and conservation efforts in the future.

Natalie Fernando, 44, was walking down the seafront at Southend-on-Sea in Essex, England with her five-year-old son Rudy when he refused to turn around after she asked him. Rudy has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and it’s common for people with it to have difficulty being redirected, especially if they are enjoying an activity.

“My son loves to walk, but he hates to turn around and walk back, we usually try to walk in a circuit to avoid this but on his favourite walk with the boats we have no choice but to turn back,” Natalie wrote on her blog’s Facebook page, “Better to Be Different.”

This caused Rudy to lay down on the ground and throw a tantrum. Natalie apologized to passersby for his loud noises, but she still received judgemental stares.

It’s common for Rudy’s tantrums to last for an hour or more and he can become very aggressive.

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But a man named Ian, who was walking down the seafront with a two-year-old in a stroller, saw Rudy and came to the rescue.

“This man, my hero this morning saw my son on the floor and like any other person would assume that he was having a tantrum, he asked my little Roo what his name was and when I explained he didn’t really understand and that he is autistic and has a host of other challenges making this part of the walk difficult he said, that’s cool I’ll lay down with him,” Natalie wrote.

After Ian got down on Rudy’s level and started a conversation, it distracted him from his tantrum and he began to calm down. Soon, Rudy was back on his feet and ready to go home.

“He then proceeded to chat with us whilst walking back to the car,” Natalie wrote. “I am so thankful to this chap Ian, I will not forget his kindness. In a world where you can be anything be kind.”

Ian was smart to know to get down on Rudy’s level and to be empathetic. Children with ASD aren’t having meltdowns to be defiant. “Children with autism aren’t crying, wailing, or flailing to get at us somehow,” Healthline says.

“They’re crying because it’s what their bodies need to do in that moment to release tension and emotion from feeling overwhelmed with emotions or sensory stimulations,” the article continues.

Ian should also be commended because, at a time when most people ignored the tantrum or were judgemental, he stepped up and tried to help.

Natalie says she welcomes all the help she can get when her child melts down in public. “If you see a parent struggling, maybe take the time to say, ‘Are you OK?’ don’t judge the parenting, try not to judge the child, just be kind,” she said on Facebook.

“We’re all walking our own path and navigating the journey the best we can, sometimes it takes a moment of kindness from a complete stranger to completely change your day,” she added.

She ended the post by thanking the man we should all strive to be more like. “Thanks Ian from Southend Sea Front, you truly are a kind man…”

Though Lizzo has been fairly inactive on her Twitter page over the last year, the singer has been using TikTok to connect with fans, give insight into her personal life, and use her platform to spread awareness about the body positivity movement. In the past, the singer has detailed how hateful comments have affected her body image and now, Lizzo shares what she believes is the real goal of the body positivity movement.

Lizzo explains how the body positivity movement isn’t just about body acceptance, but it also recognizes how some people can be discriminated against in healthcare and the workplace because of their size.

Responded to a user who asked their followers if they would “trade places with someone who was on the heavier side,” Lizzo expanded on the question:

“If I asked you right now, ‘Have you been shamed?’ Yes, you’ve been through a lot, yes, it sucks being a person in this society because we have to go through so much to love ourselves. But would you switch places with a fat person’s body tomorrow? You would not because you know there’s a whole system that oppresses fat people that you do not experience that you will never experience. So let’s remember body positivity. Yes, we want to end harassment and shame, but we also are working to dismantle a system that oppresses fat people.”

Following up on the explainer, Lizzo responded to a user who commented that he would, in fact, opt to trade bodies with a larger person so that he could “lose it all.” “Ain’t nobody asked you if you could lose weight or not,” Lizzo said. “First off, you’re a man. Second off, you’re genetically predisposed to be an athlete according to your f*cking name and your f*cking pic, so you have no idea how hard or how easy it is for any other body to do anything except for your f*cking body, the one you’ve been given. It’s not just about food and intake. It’s people like you that make people feel like sh*t for just existing, or sh*t for their genes.”

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

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for… family. The new F9 trailer has it all: Vin Diesel and John Cena pointing guns at each other; Helen Mirren driving a car; Charlize Theron with a terrible-but-not-as-bad-as-the-one-she-had-in-The Fate of the Furious haircut; magnets; and the return of Han. Also, folks, they did it. They really did it.

[“Pigs in Space” voice] Ludacris and Tyrese in space.

It might seem preposterous to have Roman and Tej in a car in scuba diver-looking space suits considering this franchise’s humble origins (humble compared to The Rock flexing so hard that his cast explodes). But director Justin Lin swears that there’s an “emotional” reason for sending them flying. “It’s been years in the making. Through the years, I always can just play and feel like I come up with the craziest ideas and see if there’s an appropriate way for us to earn that,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

Lin continued:

“I remember I was working on the script and there was an emotional character thread, and it was for like four months, and when the idea finally hit and it felt right, I drove to Vin’s house and we looked to each other and we said, ‘Yep, this is the one.’ We’ve been talking about it for years, but this is the one where we really get to push it.”

Who among us hasn’t driven to Vin Diesel’s house to pitch him an idea? I did it last week with my new script (the script is a single page with a drawing of the moon and the word “profit?” on it). Lin says the visuals in the space sequence “speak for themselves, and it’s a promise of something that is going to not only be visually and action-wise fun, but also I think there’s an emotional reason for its existence.”

I am going to be so mad if F9 gets delayed again.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Earlier this week, YouTube star and hopeful boxer Jake Paul became the subject of sexual assault allegations by TikToker Justine Paradise. In a YouTube video, the 24-year-old accused Paul (who is also 24) of sexually assaulting her in July 2019 at his Team 10 Mansion in Calabesas, California

Via The Daily Beast, Paradise explained that she had been asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement when she entered Paul’s home, and for that reason, she was reluctant to reveal her allegation. Her video explanation of the alleged incident arrived with a trigger warning, after which she accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex. She further alleges that he “just shoved himself in me, he didn’t ask for consent or anything. That’s not okay. On no level at all is that okay.”

In a statement to People, Paul’s attorney (Daniel E. Gardenswartz) responded to Paradise’s allegation with a full denial:

“Our client is aware of the recent allegation against him. While others have already begun to debunk the claim alleged against him, our client categorically denies the allegation and has every intention of aggressively disproving it and pursuing legal action against those responsible for the defamation of his character.”

“Our client believes that any false allegations diminish the credibility of those who have truly been victims of misconduct,” Gardenswartz said.

During her YouTube video, Paradise explained that she wasn’t attempting “to ruin someone’s career for something that they did,” and she added, “I feel guilty even though I was the one who was assaulted.”

(Via People)