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Fat Joe and Remy Ma’s “All The Way Up” was a big song: Although it only managed a peak at No. 27 on the Hot 100 chart, it because Fat Joe’s only 2-time Platinum single, and it earned him a pair of Grammy nominations, for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song. After the initial release, Jay-Z hopped on the official remix, and it turns out that version of the single also almost included Drake. However, Fat Joe has explained why, at Jay-Z’s request, Drake was kept off the song

On a recent episode of Open Late With Peter Rosenberg, Joe told the story, saying that Jay-Z didn’t want anybody else on the remix because it was his and Joe’s first song together since ending their long-standing beef:

“I always wanted to do a song with Jay-Z. I’m honored that he got on the remix. The craziest story is that I got a FaceTime call maybe three different times while ‘All The Way Up’ was out, and it was your man, the 6 God, Drake. He called me three different occasions out of nowhere, ‘Yo, send me the instrumental, send me the instrumental to ‘All The Way Up.” But, when I told Hov we were doing the song, he said ‘Look, Joe. It means so much to our history between me and you, let’s not put nobody else on the song.’ He’s not referring to Drake [specifically]… it could have been Kanye. 50 Cent was asking me to get on the remix. […] I’m beyond a huge fan of Drake, but I had to keep my word. My word is everything. So when I told Jay-Z, ‘Nah, nobody else is on the song,’ I had to keep my word. But man, I wish it was Jay-Z, Drake, Fat Joe, and Remy [Ma].”

Watch the full Open Late episode below, with the Drake story coming at about 29 minutes into the video.

Reports have indicated that the NBA will come up with some sort of resolution for its return to play a little later this week, and on Wednesday, the plan that Adam Silver plans to present to the league’s Board of Governors gained a bit more clarity. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Silver will bring forth a 22-team plan, something that had been speculated in recent days as a full, 30-team restart and a straight jump to a 16-team postseason have fallen out of favor.

As Charania lays out, the 22-team plan will bring the 16 current playoff teams and an additional six squads that will battle for the 8-seed.

The NBA’s 22-team format at Orlando’s Disney World would bring the 16 teams currently in a playoff spot, six additional teams, and include a play-in tournament for the eighth seed, sources said. The play-in tournament would work as follows, according to sources: If the ninth seed is more than four games behind the eighth seed, the eighth seed earns the playoff spot; if the ninth seed is four or fewer games behind, then the eighth and ninth seed will enter a play-in tournament that is double-elimination for the eighth seed and single-elimination for ninth. ESPN first reported the league was working on 22-team models.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN added some more details, indicating that all 22 teams will play games with an eye on seeding and that the expectation is this plan will get approved by the league’s Board of Governors.

The news comes on the heels of some reporting about the NBA’s plan to have these games occur in Orlando. On Tuesday, Wojnarowski added some additional details on a timeline, saying that the plan is for the league to restart on July 31 (something that was confirmed by Charania) and have mid-October as the latest possible date for the season to reach its conclusion.

There are still some logistical questions that would need to be sorted out, like timelines for a return, how all of these games will be scheduled out, and how this will impact the 2020-21 season. But while we’ll have to wait for Thursday for this plan to become official, all signs are pointing to the NBA’s return.

TMZ reports that the 17-year-old rapper Danielle Bregoli — aka Bhad Bhabie — has entered rehab for prescription medication abuse for the “next few weeks” as she also copes with childhood trauma. According to TMZ’s sources, Bregoli decided to seek treatment at an undisclosed location for 30 to 90 days on the advice of her management, which stated, “We are very proud of Danielle for recognizing that she needed help and seeking it out.”

The news comes just days after Bregoli was again called out for appropriative behavior as part of a discussion about allyship stemming from ongoing protests of police brutality. In the wake of several highly-publicized incidents of police brutality — police officers in Louisville killed Breonna Taylor while serving a warrant on the wrong person, while video shows officers in Minnesota choking George Floyd to death with a knee on his neck as he struggled to breathe — the importance of non-Black people being allies arose on social media. Commenters noted that many celebrities who rely on Black culture and music for a paycheck, including Bregoli, were suddenly silent on issues that deeply affected Black people and communities.

Bregoli, who was one of the earliest flashpoints in the ongoing debate when she first debuted her viral catchphrase on an episode of Dr. Phil, has been a target of criticisms ever since, parlaying her viral ubiquity into a rap career and a label deal with Atlantic Records. She often defends herself by claiming “no one can act a color,” which only makes things worse for her.

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

Our current situation has led to months-long shutdowns for almost every place a crowd can gather, including concerts, restaurants, and movie theaters. In the case of the latter, the in-person experience can’t be entirely replicated at home, but movies like Trolls World Tour have proven that people are more than willing to give it a go (with AMC Theaters reacting with a Universal ban). Now the largest U.S. theater chain is declaring “substantial doubt” that it can continue operations after months of closures for over 1,000 multiplexes.

The theater chain’s public regulatory filings were noted by CNN, which reports that AMC Theaters will have lost up to $2.4 billion in this year’s first quarter. Continuing for months with “effectively no revenue” this quarter could lead to bankruptcy and eventual closure for the company. Although U.S. states are lifting restrictions in stages right now, and theaters are allowed to open in many places, the company still faces another great challenge — a barren release schedule:

“Even if governmental operating restrictions are lifted in certain jurisdictions, distributors may delay the release of new films until such time that operating restrictions are eased more broadly domestically and internationally, which may further limit our operations,” the company said.

The release-schedule issue won’t be solvable overnight, given that when tentpoles like Fast and Furious 9 began pushing back nearly a year on the calendar, other moneymakers soon followed suit. At this point, a few big titles (a Russell Crowe road-rage movie, along with Tenet and Wonder Woman 1984) still appear to be holding firm on release dates for summer, but will audiences return to theaters before fall? Hollywood Reporter quotes an analyst (Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter) that notes previous doubt about the theater chain’s liquidity, and he predicts that the company will “have to restructure completely” if the situation doesn’t dramatically improve by November. Many high-profile movies are lined up for fall, when the ball will be in theatergoers’ courts.

(Via CNN & Hollywood Reporter)

While protests are one way to bring about change, another is by voting in local and national elections. There are a lot of those happening this month, so Lizzo, Rihanna, and Camila Cabello (among others) are encouraging fans to make their voices heard via the ballot box.

Tapping out a beat on a drum machine, Lizzo offered a simple rap about voting, and as she rapped, text on the screen read, “Hey you! Do you know how you can help make a change today? Vote! Presidential primaries today. DC. Iowa. South Dakota. Rhode Island. Maryland. New Mexico. Indiana. Montana. Pennsylvania. There are many ways to protest. Find your voice and use it. We need you.”

Rihanna shared a similar message, taking to Instagram to share the same list of states and write, “VOTE. Ya ain’t got sh*t else to do man! Get yo ass off the couch and go vote!!! I don’t wanna hear another excuse!! Stop believing that your vote and voice don’t matter! This the illest way to protest…vote for the change you want!!!”

Somebody wrote in the comments, “Voting ain’t gon change sh*t,” and Rihanna was having none of that. She responded, “sick of hearing this. Ya know what ain’t gon change sh*t? not doing sh*t!!!!”

Camila Cabello also hopped on Instagram and shared a message, in both English and Spanish, about voting, writing, “We promised to use this time to prepare for ACTION – so one of the most important things you can do right now is VOTE. 23 states have elections this month. Your vote has the power to create lasting change and you’re voting for more than just the president. Don’t let this moment pass you by. Verify your voter registration, get vote-by-mail info, know your ballot: headcount.org.”

While the elections mentioned took place yesterday (June 2), as Cabello alluded to, there are still plenty of others coming up this month. In June, states that will be holding state primary and/or presidential primary elections include Georgia, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, Kentucky, New York, Virginia, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Utah.

Those three weren’t the only music figures to implore their fans to explore their right to vote, so check out posts from Ariana Grande, Snoop Dogg, and others below.

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

Keeping track of all the new albums coming out in a given month is a big job, but we’re up for it: Below is a comprehensive list of all the new albums coming out in June 2020. If you’re not trying to potentially miss out on anything, it might be a good idea to keep reading.

Friday, June 5

• Baauer — Planet’s Mad (Mad Decent)
• Black Rainbows — Cosmic Ritual Supertrip (Heavy Psych Sounds)
• Blanco White — On The Other Side (Yucatan Records)
• Bruce Brubaker And Max Cooper — Glassforms (InFiné)
• Bruno Major — To Let A Good Thing Die (AWAL Recordings)
• C. Diab — White Whale (Injazero)
• Camille Delean — Cold House Burning (E-Tron Rec)
• Corey Harper — Overcast EP (AWAL Recordings)
• Currents — The Way It Ends (SharpTone Records)
• Discovery Zone — Remote Control (Mansions And Millions)
• Eben — Honeydew EP (Atlantic Records)
• Ebonivory — The Long Dream I (Wild Thing Records)
• Emilie Nicolas — Let Her Breathe (Mouchiouse Music)
• Flatbush Zombies — Now More Than Ever EP (Glorious Dead)
• The Fox Sisters — Bust Out! (Dive Records)
• Fuck Yeah, Dinosaurs! — 65 Million Beers Ago (self-released)
• G-Eazy — Everything’s Strange Here (RCA Records)
• The Gay Agenda — Penetrating (La Escalara Records)
• The Ghost Inside — The Ghost Inside (Epitaph Records)
• GoGo Penguin — GoGo Penguin (Gondwana Records)
• Gordon Koang — Unity (Music In Exile)
• Gorlvsh — New City Vibe (Ancient Temple Recordings)
• The Harmed Brothers — Across The Waves (Lackpro Records)
• Hinds — The Prettiest Curse (Mom & Pop)
• Iann Dior — I’m Gone EP (10K Projects/Caroline Australia)
• JayDaYoungan — Baby23 (Atlantic Records)
• Jennifer Touch — Behind The Wall (FatCat Records)
• Jockstrap — Wicked City EP (Warp)
• Joe Louis Walker — Blues Comin’ On (Cleopatra Blues)
• Kaleo — Surface Sounds (Atlantic Records)
• Katie Malco — Failures (6131 Records)
• Leifur James — Angel In Disguise (Late Night Tales)
• Mare Berger — The Moon Is Always Full (self-released)
• Matt Lovell — Nobody Cries Today (Daddy Kool Records)
• Michael McDermott — What In The World (Continental Record Services)
• Molly Joyce — Breaking And Entering (New Amsterdam)
• Momma — Two Of Me (Danger Collective Records)
• Mr Eazi — One Day You Will Understand EP (Empawa Africa Limited)
• Mt. Joy — Rearrange Us (Dualtone Music)
• Muzz — Muzz (Matador)
• Natalie Slade — Control (Eglo Records)
• Nick Lowe with Los Straitjackets — Lay It On Me EP (Yep Roc Records)
• Nicole Mercedes — Look Out Where You’re Going (self-released)
• No Age — Goons Be Gone (Drag City)
• Paisley Fields — Electric Park Ballroom (Don Giovanni Records)
• Paul Kalkbrenner — Speak Up EP (B1 Recordings)
• The Prison Music Project — Long Time Gone (Righteous Babe Records)
• RMR — Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art EP (Warner Records)
• Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever — Sideways To New Italy (Sub Pop)
• Roxy Girls — A Wealth Of Information EP (Moshi Moshi Records)
• Run The Jewels — Run The Jewels 4 (BMG Rights Management)
• Sarah Jarosz — World On The Ground (Rounder Records)
• Soft Plastics — 5 Dreams (Paper Bag Records)
• Sondre Lerche — Patience (PLZ)
• Stepson — Help Me Help You (SharpTone Records)
• Tenci — My Heart Is An Open Field (Keeled Scales)
• Trash Talk — Squalor EP (Trash Talk)
• Trickfinger — She Smiles Because She Presses The Button (AcidTest)
• Vinyl Williams — Azure (Requiem Pour Un Twister)
• Working Men’s Club — Working Men’s Club (Heavenly Recordings)
• Yoste — A Few Brief Moments EP (Spinnin’ Records)

Friday, June 12

• The Aces — Under My Influence (Red Bull Records)
• Becky And The Birds — Trasslig EP (4AD)
• Bibio — Sleep On The Wing (Warp)
• BPMD — American Made (Napalm Records)
• Connie Han — Iron Starlet (Mack Avenue)
• Cory Smythe — Accelerate Every Voice (Pyroclastic Records)
• Death Valley Girls — Breakthrough EP (Suicide Squeeze Records)
• DJ Boring — Like Water EP (Technicolour)
• Dougie Poole — The Freelancer’s Blues (Wharf Cat Records)
• Drab City — Good Songs For Bad People (Bella Union)
• Electric Mob — Discharge (Frontiers Music)
• Ellen Allien — Aurra (BPitch)
• Ellie Goulding — Brightest Blue (Interscope)
• Elliott Waits For No One — Elliott Waits For No One (Dark Star Records)
• Eric Hutchinson — Class Of ’98 (Let’s Break Records)
• fish narc — WiLDFiRE (Gothboiclique Records)
• Flying Horseman — Mothership (Unday Records)
• The France — Indie Kate EP (Fear Records)
• Francesa Blanchard — Make It Better (Tone Tree Music)
• Healing Potpourri — Blanket Of Calm (Run For Cover Records)
• John Craigie — Asterisk The Universe (Thirty Tigers)
• Larkin Poe — Self Made Man (Tricki-Woo Records)
• Leah Senior — The Passing Scene (Flightless Records)
• Liam Gallagher — MTV Unplugged (Warner Records)
• Louis The Child — Here For Now (Interscope)
• Louise Goffin — Two Different Movies (Majority Of One Records)
• Melody — Teachers Pet EP (Lauren Records)
• Mondo Cozmo — New Medicine (Last Gang Records)
• Nate Lee — Wings Of A Jetliner (Adverb Records)
• Norah Jones — Pick Me Up Off The Floor (Blue Note Records)
• Oliver Tree — Ugly Is Beautiful (Atlantic Records)
• Orville Peck — Show Pony EP (Columbia)
• Paper Idol — Money For Flowers EP (Lowly)
• Paul Weller — On Sunset (Polydor Records)
• Photay — Waking Hours (Mexican Summer)
• Retro Color — Arcadian (Daddy Kool Records)
• Sammy Brue — Crash Test Kid (New West Records)
• Shape Of Water — Great Illusions (Eclipse Records)
• The Silver Field — Sing High! Sing Low! (Crossness Records)
• The Sounds — Things We Do For Love (Arnioki Records)
• Spacey Jane — Sunlight (AWAL Recordings)
• Unwed Sailor — Look Alive (Old Bear Records)
• Video Dave — Week 1560 (AutoReverse Records)
• Wargirl — Dancing Gold (Clouds Hill)
• Wild — Goin’ Back EP (Nettwerk)

Friday, June 19

• Angela Muñoz — Introspection (Linear Labs)
• Bad Touch — Kiss The Sky (Marshall Records)
• Becca Mancari — The Greatest Part (Captured Tracks)
• Bob Dylan — Rough And Rowdy Ways (Columbia Records)
• Braids — Shadow Offering (Secret City)
• Cat Clyde — Good Bones (Cinematic Music Group)
• Chew — Darque Tan (Stolen Body Records)
• Clint Black — Out Of Sane (Black Top Records)
• Commonwealth Choir — No End EP (Know Hope Records)
• Constant Smiles — Control (Sacred Bones Records)
• Don Bryant — You Make Me Feel (Fat Possum)
• Etuk Ubong — Africa Today (Night Dreamer)
• Fran Lobo — Brave EP (Slow Dance Records)
• Gabby Barrett — Goldmine (Warner Music Nashville)
• Gordi — Two Skins (Jagjaguwar)
• Gum Country — Somewhere (Burger Records)
• Imaginary Tricks — Art Flakey EP (Park The Van)
• Japandroids — Massey Fucking Hall (Anti-)
• Jenny O. — Truth (Mama Bird Recording Co.)
• Jessie Ware — What’s Your Pleasure? (Interscope Records)
• John Legend — Bigger Love (Columbia Records)
• John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch — John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch OST (Drag City)
• Jonah Yano — Souvenir (Innovative Leisure)
• Juke Ross — Chapter 2 (RCA Records)
• Kacy Hill — Is It Selfish If We Talk About Me Again (self-released)
• Lamb Of God — Lamb Of God (Epic)
• Llynks — Become The Root (584231 Records DK2)
• Local Nomad — Local Nomad EP (Warner Music)
• Mac DeMarco — Here Comes The Cowboy Demos (Mac’s Record Label)
• Mac DeMarco — Other Here Comes The Cowboy Demos (Mac’s Record Label)
• Maya Hawke — Blush (Mom + Pop)
• Michael Franti & Spearhead — Work Hard And Be Nice (Boo Boo Wax)
• The Microdance — Our Love Noire (Somewherecold Records)
• Moon Panda — Make Well EP (Fierce Panda)
• Mounika — I Need Space (MaJu Records)
• Nana Grizol — South Somewhere Else (Arrowhawk Records)
• Nasty Cherry — Season 2 EP (Vroom Vroom Recordings)
• The National Parks — Wildflower (self-released)
• Neil Young — Homegrown (Reprise)
• Ocean Alley — Lonely Diamond (self-released)
• Owen — The Avalanche (Polyvinyl Record Co)
• Permanent Collection — Nothing Good Is Normal (Strangeway Studio)
• Phoebe Bridgers — Punisher (Dead Oceans)
• Protest The Hero — Palimpsest (Spinefarm Records)
• R Beny — Seafoam & Dust (Dauw)
• Riches Of The Poor — The Long Way Down (Crocodile Tears Records)
• Ryan Langdon — Lit In The Sticks EP (Hidden Pony Records)
• Scarlet Pleasure — Garden (Copenhagen)
• Shirley King — Blues For A King (Cleopatra Blues)
• Solaris — Un Paese di Musichette Mentre Fuori c’è la Morte (Bronson Recordings)
• Sports Team — Deep Down Happy (Island Records)
• Switchfoot — Covers EP (Fantasy Records)
• Trapt — Shadow Work (The Label Group)
• Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile — Not Our First Goat Rodeo (Sony Classical)

Friday, June 26

• Absolutely Yours — Natural Wonder (Universal Music)
• Arca — Kick I (XL Recordings)
• Bananagun — The True Story Of Bananagun (Full Time Hobby)
• Becca Mancari — The Greatest Part (Captured Tracks)
• Blimes And Gab — Talk About It (B.A.G. Enterprises)
• Bluey — Tinted Sky (Shanachie Records)
• Bobby Watson — Keepin’ It Real (Smoke Sessions Records)
• BOYO — Where Have All My Friends Gone? (Park The Van)
• Brian McKnight — Exodus (Caroline/SoNo Recording Group)
• Civic Center — The Ground Below (American Dreams Records)
• Country Westerns — Country Westerns (Fat Possum Records)
• The Dead Tongues — Transmigration Blues (Psychic Hotline)
• Derrick Hodge — Color Of Noize (Blue Note Records)
• Dirty Projectors — Flight Tower EP (Domino Recording Company)
• Evening Hymns — Heavy Nights (Shuffling Feet Records)
• Grand Pax — PWR EP (Blue Flowers Music)
• Grey Daze — Amends (Loma Vista Recordings)
• Haim — Woman In Music Pt. III (Columbia)
• James Krivchenia — A New Found Relaxation (House Arrest)
• Justine Brown — Wander Feeler (Loantaka Records)
• Kansas — The Absence Of Presence (Insideout Records)
• Khruangbin — Mordechai (Dead Oceans)
• Lionel Boy — Who Is Dovey EP (Innovative Leisure)
• Long Distance Calling — How Do We Want To Live? (Insideout Records)
• Magick Touch — Heads Have Got To Rock’n’Roll (Edged Circle Productions)
• Melissa Sullivan — Late Last Night (Daring Sparrow Entertainment)
• Nadine Shah — Kitchen Sink (Infectious Music)
• Neon Trees — I Can Feel You Forgetting Me (Thrill Forever)
• Nick D’Virgilio — Invisible (Sweetwater Sounds)
• Ola Runt — Beggin 4 A Body (Front Street)
• Phoebe Ryan — How It Used To Feel (Columbia)
• Prof — Powderhorn Suites (Rhymesayers Entertainment)
• Ray Lamontagne — Monovision (RCA Records)
• Remo Drive — A Portrait Of An Ugly Man (Epitaph Records)
• Sam Spiegel — Random Shit From The Internet Era (Spectrophonic Sound)
• Sara Rachele — Scorpio Sun (Angrygal Records)
• Soccer96 — Tactics EP (Moshi Moshi Records)
• Space Kamp — Electric Lemonade (RHM)
• Tenille Townes — The Lemonade Stand (Columbia Nashville)
• Thad Cockrell — If In Case You Feel The Same (ATO Records)
• Various Artists — Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga (Soundtrack) (Arista Records)
• Will Hoge — Tiny Little Movies (EDLO Records)

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

After a week of violent protests following several high-profile deaths of Black people at the hands of police — and ex-cops — YG crystalizes the mood of the moment with his latest song, “FTP.” Following in the vein of his Compton predecessors NWA and his own protest of Donald Trump, YG chants “f*ck the police” over a sparse, piano driven, G Funk beat.

YG, who previously responded to criticisms of the ongoing protests with his typical blunt approach, gets straight to the point on the new track as well, advocating for self-defense in the face of a violent oppressor. “Fuck the police, that’s how I feel / Buy a Glock, break down the block, that’s how I feel,” he snarls, “Murder after murder after all these years / Buy a strap, bust back after all these tears.”

While the Compton-bred rapper may be primarily known as the heir to the torch of gangsta rap, he’s been known to address social issues in similar fashion in the past as well. On his 2016 album, Still Brazy, he spoke again on police brutality with “Police Get Away Wit Murder,” stressed the need for solidarity among minorities on “Blacks & Browns,” and famously expressed the feelings of many toward Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric on “FDT.”

Listen to YG’s “FTP” above.

One of the more interesting developments in the upcoming TV season is, what’s going to happen with Brooklyn Nine-Nine? Is anyone really in the mood for a wacky cop comedy? That’s a conversation I’m sure creators Dan Goor and Michael Schur, producer Andy Samberg, and the writers are currently having, but on Twitter, one of the show’s stars is asking other actors who have played cops to donate to help arrested protesters.

Stephanie Beatriz, who plays Rosa Diaz on B99, gave $11,000 to the Community Justice Exchange and shared the receipt on Twitter. “I’m an actor who plays a detective on TV. If you currently play a cop? If you make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in residuals from playing a cop? I’ll let you do the math,” she tweeted, thanking The Tick star and Blank Check co-host Griffin Newman for the inspiration. “I’m an out-of-work actor who (improbably) played a detective on two episodes of BLUE BLOODS almost a decade ago,” he wrote. “If you currently play a cop? If you make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in residuals from playing a cop? I’ll let you do the math.”

Others have joined in, from reasons ranging from “My wife loves Paul Blart” to “I’ve tweeted this meme twice where Al Pacino plays a member of the LAPD! I’m sorry!” to “I played Sgt. Fogarty in my high school’s production of Chicago. I did a *very* bad job.”

The rest of the Brooklyn Nine-Nine cast and Goor also chipped in with a $100,000 donation to the National Bail Fund Network. “The cast and showrunner of Brooklyn 99 condemn the murder of George Floyd and support the many people who are protesting police brutality nationally,” Goor wrote. “Together we have made a $100,000 donation to the National Bail Fund Network. We encourage you to look up your local bail fund: the National Bail Fund Network is an organization that can lead you to them. #blacklivesmatter.”

You can donate here.

After the unprecedented, historical success of A Star Is Born — particularly the Grammy-winning single “Shallow” — Lady Gaga has never been better. So why did it still feel like she was still facing an uphill battle when it comes to pop itself? Well, fanatical, die-hard fans aside, Gaga’s pop music bonafides weren’t necessarily bolstered by the movie’s emotional, left-of-center ballad or ironic sell-out tracks. And after Joanne failed to get her back on top the way her camp hoped it would, the string of lackluster albums since the (unjust) flop of Artpop back in 2013 was only getting longer.

It’s not that her quick jazz standards follow-up a year later wasn’t another welcome example of her musical ambidexterity — Cheek To Cheek with Tony Bennett won a Grammy and debuted at No. 1 on the charts — it’s simply that amid all this pivoting, the monsters weren’t getting fed. They didn’t want family legacy-oriented anthems of self-discovery or, frankly, record-breaking soundtracks. They wanted dancefloor epics — needed them. And after an initial delay of Gaga’s album release due to the pandemic, it finally arrived last week.

Enter Chromatica, an album that constructs an entire world of glittering, pathos-driven bangers, each and every one of them ripe for both official and unofficial remixes, each and every one of them a full-blown, no-holds-barred pop song. Mother Monster knew her limit, a return to form was necessary, and the songs on Chromatica — which is apparently a new planet/universe she constructed to escape this one — still rely heavily on earth’s tried and true house music as a backbone. Even the orchestral interludes – not one, not two, but three — help showcase the bangers through elegant juxtaposition that, in the case of transitions like “Chromatica II” into “911,” enhance the whole listening process through dramatic effect.

Yet, Chromatica is not an easy listening album that immediately hits every sweet spot the first time through. In true Gaga fashion, some of the songs are remarkably sad, and in even truer Gaga fashion, plenty of them make absolutely no sense lyrically, sometimes venturing into a hodgepodge of symbols that are never fully fleshed out (See “Alice,” “1000 Doves,” and “Sine From Above,” to name a few). But if it manages to do anything, Chromatica creates a specific world and a distinct sound that’s the most cohesive sonic statement she’s released since 2011.

This cohesion can be credited, in some ways, to BloodPop, the producer who Gaga worked with most closely on the release. Of the sixteen songs, which includes three orchestral interludes as previously mentioned, the only tracks BloodPop doesn’t have a writing and producer credit on are the interludes and the track “Replay.” Though her earlier albums featured majority collaborations with producers like Fernando Garibay, RedOne (aka Nadir Khayat), and Paul Blair, never before has a Gaga album been dominated so completely by one collaborator.

Perhaps after years of wandering into jazz, movie soundtracks, country-pop and more, it was this kind of singular focus that brought her back to great heights as a pop queen — though it’s worth noting that BloodPop also produced nearly every song on Joanne, but most of those songs were Ronson co-writes and his influence came through stronger back then. In an interview with Paper magazine in March of this year, Gaga goes so far as to call BloodPop the “nucleus” of Chromatica, and like the emerging pop star-producer relationship between Charli XCX and A. G. Cook, the studio marriage of a pop icon/vocalist with a futuristic electronic producer is an excellent one.

The heart and soul of the record live in the first two singles, the ebullient, crackling lead single “Stupid Love,” followed up with the Ariana Grande-assisted “Rain On Me,” a flawless duet between one of pop’s veterans and a star just entering her imperial phase. Though plenty of other songs on Chromatica are excellent — and appearances from Blackpink (“Sour Candy”) and Elton John (“Sine From Above”) are just as notable — there’s a sense that Ariana can do no wrong at the moment, and her co-sign alone catapults “Rain On Me” to a rarefied realm. Paired with a dystopian dance video, it becomes the kind of hit Gaga needed to get back on top, and a song about survival and resilience sung by two female pop stars who have faced so much trauma is particularly powerful.

Exploring her experience with PTSD — the psychological result of her teenage rape, including the lingering physical pain of fibromyalgia, and later, a severe hip injury — Chromatica plays with Wonderland themes on “Alice,” aptly named after Lewis Carroll’s fearless — if clueless — heroine. The cyclical, escapist hit is the album’s de facto debut track (coming after the first interlude) and starts off a bit icy, making way for the warmer tones of another standout, “Free Woman,” which directly challenges the idea that singledom is a death sentence for a lady. Despite its name, “Fun Tonight” is about when things turn out just the opposite and is a potential low moment on the album, along with “Plastic Doll,” which hits a pretty empty trope of famous-woman-as-barbie-doll.

But on a standout like “911,” Gaga manages to expertly balance her suffering and self-frustration with the dancefloor freedom that defines the album — “My biggest enemy is me / Pop a 911,” she sings, promoting the prescribed, productive pills that help so many of us regulate our mental health, rather than escapist, addictive drugs that can so quickly derail even the best and brightest. As a pop star who is intimately familiar with highs and lows, Lady Gaga is successful on Chromatica because she doesn’t flinch away from the darkest parts of the world, or herself, but instead drills down beneath the surface until she finds something bright and molten, something she can shape a new universe from.

Chromatica is out now via Interscope Records. Get it here.

A Law & Order: SVU spinoff starring Christopher Meloni in his long awaited return as Elliot Stabler is still coming, but it will do so without writer Craig Gore. Franchise creator and executive producer Dick Wolf has fired Gore from the law enforcement/procedural show after his social media remarks (and an incendiary photo) referencing George Floyd protests. “I will not tolerate this conduct, especially during our hour of national grief,” Wolf declared in a statement posted to Twitter. “I am terminating Craig Gore immediately.”

The remarks from Gore in question included his Facebook-penned threat to “light motherf***ers up who are trying to f*ck w/my property.” The remark followed a photo of himself (apparently geotagged from West Hollywood), posing with a firearm with the following caption: “Curfew…” The postings were screencapped and tweeted by Drew Janda (a producer of HBO’s Big Little Lies) with a shoutout in Meloni’s direction.

Prior to Wolf’s statement, the situation went down with some confusion. Janda previously labeled (before correcting himself) Gore as a showrunner, and Chris Meloni responded that, nope, Matt Olmstead (Chicago P.D) is his spinoff showrunner. Further, as Meloni stated, “I have no idea who this person is or what they do.”

It’s now clear that Gore’s not doing anything on this new spinoff, which shall be based in New York City and could potentially crossover with SVU. Once per season, perhaps? Make it so. The world’s been through a lot lately, and ongoing Olivia Benson-Stabler reunions would arrive as no small comfort. Regardless, it’ll be good to see an un-retired Stabler onscreen again.