Reports surfaced Sunday that Kanye West has trademarked his Yeezy brand in order to expand his reach to makeup and cosmetics. While the rapper is possibly pivoting towards beauty products, he wouldn’t be the first musician to do so. Selena Gomez and Lady Gaga have both formed their own line of makeup and now Teyana Taylor is getting her chance in cosmetics: The singer is partnering with MAC Cosmetics for an exclusive line of makeup products.

The MAC x Teyana Taylor collection has been in production for over a year. The singer worked closely with MAC to infuse her own style into every aspect of the collaboration, from shades of makeup to the packaging. In a statement, Taylor said she drew inspiration for her collection from Harlem in the ’90s. “I was inspired by the 90s and the heart & soul of Harlem and wanted to show that through the shades and packaging,” Taylor said. The singer continued that she’s been a fan of MAC’s products ever since she began experimenting with makeup at 15 years old:

“I’m very excited to be partnering with a company like MAC who I’ve watched collaborate with strong women of color over the years. I’ve been a fan of MAC ever since I was 15 years old and started experimenting with makeup, it was the first brand that made me like makeup. I’m so grateful and excited to be sharing this beautiful collection I created with the MAC team but also hoping to inspire other young women that anything and everything is possible.”

Announcing her makeup line on social media, Taylor wrote she appreciates that MAC was one of the first makeup brands to be inclusive of women of color as well as the LGBTQ+ community. “That was big for me being a young black girl from Harlem telling myself that one day that would be me plastered in that window,” she wrote.

MAC’s Global Chief Marketing Officer Ukonwa Ojo complimented Teyana Taylor’s bold style: “As a longtime friend of the brand, we’ve grown to know and love Teyana for having a style unlike anyone else. She’s fierce, bold and unapologetically herself, no matter what she’s wearing – all qualities we stand for at MAC, and are so excited to bring to life through this new collaboration.”

MAC has yet to reveal the launch date of Taylor’s makeup line but fans can find more details here.

With election day drawing nearer, a non-profit is looking to increase political engagement for young people across the country. Rock The Vote is kickstarting its Democracy Summer campaign with a two-hour virtual concert. The organization has invited many big-name musicians and celebrities to join the livestream, with Katy Perry and Black Eyed Peas headlining the event.

The livestream will be co-hosted by actors Logan Browning and Rosario Dawson. Along with Perry and a reunion show by Black Eyed Peas, musicians like Saweetie, Ne-Yo, Rich Brian, Big Freedia, Dove Cameron, and Sofia Carson will make appearances during the livestream.

In a statement alongside the concert’s announcement, Perry said she was honored to be a part of the event: “I’m excited to be a part of this kickoff to Democracy Summer 2020 with so many amazing talents, activists and speakers. The young people of America are speaking loud and clear on the streets and online, and come November, it will be more important than ever to fight for justice and equality, and against systemic racism, with our ballots.”

Ne-Yo echoed Perry’s statement, saying that voting in the upcoming election is crucial: “We are seeing the urgency for change in America happening in real time. This is the moment for us to use the most important tool on the planet to fight for that change…our right to vote. Our democracy needs our voices. Voting is the moment to be the voice for injustice and for equality. But most importantly, to be the voice for humanity. We cannot let each other down in the local elections or on Nov. 3.”

Rock The Vote aims to bring 200,000 new voters to the polls this November. The organization has also been active at a number of protests over the last few weeks. Rock The Vote CEO Carolyn DeWitt says the non-profit was able to register a whopping 107,000 new voters in the wake of the demonstrations against George Floyd’s murder. “Young people are looking for things they can do and actions they can take in order to create change,” DeWitt said. “We want to make sure we’re continuing to sustain that fire and passion into November, and make sure young people know the power of their votes and create the change they want to see.”

Rock The Vote’s Democracy Summer livestream kicks off 6/18 at 8 p.m. EDT. Watch it here.

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The ‘Billions’ Stock Watch is a weekly accounting of the action on the Showtime drama. Decisions will be made based on speculation and occasional misinformation and mysterious whims that are never fully explained to the general public. Kind of like the real stock market.

STOCK UP — Episodes about an entire office doing speed of questionable origin

There is a long and storied history of prestige-type dramas doing episodes about an entire office doing some sort of unregulated speed together in the middle of the day. And by that, I mean it has happened twice: once in the legendary “shady doctors injects quote-unquote medicine into everyone’s butt” episode of Mad Men; and now, in an episode of Billions where everyone took an as-yet-unapproved Limitless-style pill called — in the Billions tradition of perfectly named fake products like Ice Juice and SugarVape — Vigilantrix.

What was your favorite part of the Vigilantrix debacle? Was is Axe and company almost galaxy-braining the entire company into a disastrous $3 billion loss in a play for, and I quote, minerals? Was it Mafee and Ben Kim all geeked out and giddy like a couple of puppies who got into the cold brew? Was it a tweaking Axe seeing numbers in the air around him like he was in some combination of The Matrix and A Beautiful Mind?

All fair selections. For my $3 billion, though, it was one of two things

• A sober Taylor showing up like an older sibling who found out their younger siblings threw a house party and trashed everything, taking a deep breath, and calmly trying to undo whatever was undoable about Axe’s brain-surge-induced play to corner the market on anything that lies under the Earth’s surface
• New employee Rian convincing herself she could learn Spanish in one hour and then phoning what must have been a very confused Chilean government figure to deliver what amounted to an unhinged lunch order

I love these kinds of episodes. Every show should do one. Give the Stranger Things kids synthetic speed next season. Let’s get wild.

STOCK DOWN — Todd Krakow

Todd Krakow, noted useless weasel and Secretary of the Treasury, remained only one of those by the end of the episode. He lit himself on fire during an official government meeting, shouting about corruption and whether he will or will not have it and altogether just giving a delightfully performative monologue triggered by Chuck and Sacker’s ruse about a fictional investigation he may or may not have been a focus of. The biggest takeaways here are as follows: one, Axe’s bank charter is now in deep trouble; two, I very much hope this is not the last we see of Todd Krakow.

I’ve covered this before but still, no one on television plays a weasel better than Danny Strong. The faces, the voice, the posture, all of it. Did you see him in the press conference after the meeting where he said he’s going back to “making the ca-ching machine go ca-ching”? It was tremendous. It must be so much fun to write for that character, just putting the most insufferable words you can think of into his mouth and then shouting “action.” He somehow becomes more redeemable the less redeemable he behaves. I have no idea how it works. I love him.

STOCK UP — Mike Prince

I still haven’t figured out Mike Prince, exactly, but I do know at least three things about him:

• He’s often positioned in poses like the one above when the “dramatic music” caption pops up on screen, which always makes me very suspicious of him and his actions, even before he makes a move that could be interpreted as a beneficent gesture or a tactic in a game of diabolical 4-D chess
• He makes references to Wile E. Coyote, which I love
• Every single thing he does infuriates Axe, who has now vowed to ruin him during the comedown from Vigilantrix

I like Mike Prince a lot. He’s more interesting than Axe. There’s a mystery to him. I won’t be entirely surprised if we learn he has an alter ego as a supervillain who is preparing to poison the Manhattan water supply.

STOCK UP — Shady sunglasses-wearing Dr. Louis Litt from Suits

Chuck still needs a kidney for Senior and is testing out increasingly dubious plans to acquire one, ranging from “forcing everyone who works for him to get a blood test under false pretenses” to “shaking down a steroid cheat to get a meeting with the shadiest doctor you’ve ever seen, played by the same actor who played Louis Litt on Suits, except now he’s a huge scumbag who wears sunglasses inside only accepts cash and openly discusses buying kidneys from displaced immigrants while talking to the Attorney General of New York in the Attorney General’s actual office.”

Yes. Yes. I broke into a huge smile when I saw this unfold on my screen. It made me so happy. A Suits–Billions crossover is exactly what I need. Keep this character around for the rest of the series. Have him pop up every now and then to offer people body parts, and not just organs, feet and fingers, too. (“What size shoes do you wear? 12? Tough size to find shoes for. I can get you a pair of 10-sized feet for $9k.”) Give him Vigilantrix and let him deliver the keynote speech at a medical conference. The people deserve it.

STOCK DOWN — Artistic principles

Big shoutout to Nico Tanner, who went from complaining about listening to a potential buyer try to interpret his art at the beginning of the episode (during the awkward dinner I’ll be discussing shortly) to curling up like a purring kitten in the metaphorical lap of a wealthy divorcée as she did exactly the thing he claimed to hate. It was all a plan set in motion by Axe before his speed adventure, for the sole purpose of torturing Wendy for the unforgivable crime of showing affection for another man who claims to have integrity.

It must be exhausting to know Axe. Like, he might just up and ruin your fun relationship through expensive and nefarious tactics that take weeks to unfold and are done only so he can prove his warped view of the world remains true. I would like to see someone smash an entire pineapple on his head, just once.

STOCK UP — Awkward dinners

Moments from the awkward dinner at the beginning of the episode, ranked:

5. Axe fumes when Wendy runs Nico’s extremely muscular shoulder

4. Chef Ryan shows up to serve fancy sushi and then wisely gets the hell out of there after reading the room for under three seconds

3. Me saying “Hang on… is Axe’s date.., former tennis superstar Maria Sharapova… who last appeared in season three… and whose presence at this dinner is not addressed by anyone in the moment or afterward”?

2. Wags casually mentioning to his very young date that he wants to have her help raise the child he wants to put inside her, which caused her to briefly choke, as one does in this kind of situation.

1. I’m still not over the Sharapova thing. I hope they get married. Let’s just go ahead and do it all.

STOCK UP — Telling a long story that meanders toward the point you’re trying to make

One of my favorite things about Billions is how no one ever just says anything. They give a long speech first, about anything. Sometimes it’s wildlife, as with Taylor and the falcon metaphor last season. A lot of the time, it’s a Godfather reference. This week we had two: Chuck telling a very morbid story about a violent Sicilian women using her ex-lover’s head as a flower pot (pictured above), and Sacker telling a story about a maniac preacher who threw his pants into a fire (below).

I’m not being sarcastic or ironic when I say I love this. I want to start talking this way. All the time. Like I’ll be in the drive-thru at Dunkin’ Donuts and the lady will ask me what I want and I’ll say “Let me tell you a little story about Jules Leotard, a one-time law student who abandoned the profession to join the circus and later invented the article of clothing that bears his name.” Forty cars behind me honking like crazy as I spin my yarn. All for a medium iced coffee. Yes, this is how I talk now. Everyone is going to hate me so much.

HBO Max’s original programming lineup is about to get more crowded, with the impending premieres of Adventure Time: Distant Lands, Doom Patrol, and Search Party.

Created by Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers, and Michael Showalter, the millennial-satirizing comedy aired for two very funny seasons on TBS before HBO Max (not to be confused with HBO) picked it up for two more seasons. The new episodes can’t get here soon enough, as the last time we checked in with Dory (played by Arrested Development‘s Alia Shawkat), she had just been arrested for murder.

Season three finds Dory, as well as Drew (John Reynolds), Elliott (John Early), and Portia (Meredith Hagner), “swept up in the trial of the century after Dory and Drew are charged for the semi-accidental murder of a private investigator,” according to HBO Max. “As Elliott and Portia grapple with whether or not to testify as witnesses, the friends are pitted against each other and thrust into the national spotlight. Dory’s sanity begins to fracture, and it becomes increasingly clear that the group may not have brunch together again for quite some time.” Guest stars include Louie Anderson and Chelsea Peretti.

Search Party returns on June 25. Brad Pitt will be watching — will you?

As the NFL begins the process of getting their facilities back up and running, with the insistence that the season is going to happen as planned, they have been given the green light to test players for the novel coronavirus ahead of opening the doors for training.

On Monday, the league’s two Texas teams reportedly received test results back that confirmed that “several” players on the Cowboys and Texans had tested positive for COVID-19, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

While the teams do not disclose the names of those player that tested positive, Ezekiel Elliott’s agent confirmed to Rapoport that the star running back was among those to test positive, but offering an update that Elliott was “feeling good” despite the positive test.

Hopefully, as was the case with the known positive cases for players in the NBA, all of the players involved will be able to make full recoveries and not deal with a severe case of the dangerous and deadly disease. That more serious, non-fatal cases can do significant damage to the body’s respiratory system — among other things — is one of the chief concerns athletes have about contracting the virus, as there are still questions about all of the long-term effects of the disease.

That Elliott is feeling good is hopefully an indication that he has a mild or asymptomatic case and will be able to return to the field at full capacity in the near future, but it also shows that the NFL will likely see plenty of positive cases around the league and will need to prepare for plans to change as the season nears and case numbers in the United States continue spiking significantly.

Kevin Durant’s basketball career has been on pause for a full year now as he rehabs an Achilles injury, and while he won’t be making any surprise returns to the NBA’s bubble in Orlando, he’s been plenty busy expanding his off-court business portfolio.

Durant has always had one eye looking to the future and ensuring himself financial stability long-term, launching Thirty-Five Ventures, which has business holdings, a media arm, and more. On Monday, his latest investment became official as Durant has added sports ownership to his portfolio, purchasing a 5 percent stake in the MLS’ Philadelphia Union ownership group, with an option to add an additional 5 percent in the “near future.”

That the announcement video puts his old number 35 on his jersey rather than his new number 7 is a bit funny, and also understandable given he hasn’t played a game in 7 yet so it’s not hard to forget he made that change when he moved to Brooklyn. Durant and the Union’s partnership also includes a pledge from the team to expand their community outreach efforts

“I’m excited to partner with the Philadelphia Union for years to come. My team and I connected instantly with the Union coaching staff and leadership, as well as the team’s story,” said Kevin Durant. “Off the pitch, I’m looking forward to working in the Chester and Philadelphia communities and making an impact in the same way that the KDCF has been able to in my hometown of Prince George’s County.”

…

The Union and Thirty Five Ventures have committed to developing programs in the Chester and Philadelphia areas with three main focuses. First, they will work to empower Chester’s youth to tackle social and racial injustice in their community and beyond via social justice programs and resources. Second, they will address needs related to COVID-19, with support for food banks and local small business recovery efforts. Finally, they will support youth sports programming and development in Chester and surrounding areas.

The MLS will return to action with the MLS Is Back Tournament in Orlando in July at the same site as the NBA’s return at Disney’s Wide World of Sports, so Durant will have an eye on his new team, the Union, while also cheering on his Nets as they fight for playoff position in the East.

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.

It’s fitting that RMR’s debut EP, Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art, arrives at the midpoint of a year filled with debate, discussion, and reflection on the classification of Black music. After Tyler The Creator pointed out the drawbacks of his Best Rap Album Grammy win in February, the discussion culminated in the week leading up to RMR’s release, with Billie Eilish echoing Tyler’s sentiments and Republic Records announcing the discontinuation of the term “urban” after the industry’s Black Out Tuesday in response to the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

RMR (pronounced “Rumor”) emerged into this strained climate with the surprise hit “Rascal,” a remake of “God Bless The Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts. The video, which went viral within a day of its release, features stereotypical rap visuals but twists them around an unexpected concept, as the ski-masked RMR, clad in designer bulletproof, brandishes guns at the camera and occasionally flashes a gold-grilled grin. The lyrics, repurposed from the lovelorn anthem to a “f*ck 12” refrain, center around plugs and flexing — the standard accoutrements of rap stardom. The juxtaposition flouts the rules of genre even more flagrantly than Lil Nas X had with “Old Town Road” just a year before. And he followed it up with the “trap&B” hedonism of “Dealer,” suggesting that his debut project would subvert expectations — whether listeners expected an industry plant gimmick, or a typical trap rap technician.

Throughout the seven tracks on Drug Dealing — “Dealer” appears twice, including a remix featuring Future and Lil Baby — RMR makes it his mission to dab into various genres without rinsing his paintbrush in between. Opening with a Westside Gunn feature that wouldn’t be out-of-place on turn-of-the-millennium, New York mixtape, RMR flies in the face of purists who insist that rap music be separated into neatly regimented categories. He doesn’t care for the sensibilities of traditionalists who “hate it when food touches.” Anything goes in RMR’s laboratory, where there are no control samples, just formulas to be mixed and remixed until something interesting happens.

In a recent interview published on Complex, RMR detailed “showing you what the future could look like” in a few years, when consumers “stop listening to one-track-minded artists and open up to different variations” of music unconstrained by petty distinctions that mark most genres’ boundaries. He describes his own music as “anointment” sans genres or labels, insisting that the inspiration just comes to him. However, his assertion that “Rascal” was the first song he ever made — and that “Dealer” was the second — runs contrary to the polish on a track like “Nouveau Riche.” Blending elements of trap rap, R&B, and country as liberally as his prior efforts, “Nouveau Riche” sounds like the result of painstaking trial and error that belies parts of the organic narrative RMR and his management have promoted.

In the end, though, it doesn’t much matter how genuine his breakout stardom has been. As pointed out by NPR’s Mano Sundaresan, RMR is far from the first artist to utilize mystery or focus-grouped, forced virility to promote themselves. There’s plenty of others accused of being industry plants; look no further than TikTok for a list of suddenly-famous, former nobodies who have possibly paid their ways to the top. Within hip-hop alone, MF Doom, Leikeli47, and more have used masks to draw attention and provoke curiosity. The aforementioned Lil Nas X added the nearly-untouched tools of country music to hip-hop’s kit, and he was hardly the first. And debate has raged about the classification of Black singers like Ty Dolla Sign and The Weeknd and whether they are singers, rappers, pop, or R&B.

RMR presents the most polished, promising possibility of the world where those distinctions are less important than the music itself. I don’t fool myself into thinking that new artists won’t be marketed in the future with overwrought backstories of struggle or authenticity, or that Black artists will stop getting pigeonholed into a narrow range of genre markers like R&B and rap. However, Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art is an intriguing peek at what such a world may look like. After all, rumors often spread faster than even the people who’ve started them intend. One day, the message this RMR has put out into the world may end up being accepted as nothing more than common sense.

Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art is out now on CMNTY CULTURE/Warner Records. Get it here.

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

The U.S. Supreme Court unleashed a flurry of rulings on Monday, including a surprising turn from the court’s current conservative-leaning players. In a 6-3 decision (Bostock v. Clayton Country, Georgia) authored by the Trump-nominated Justice Gorsuch, the court ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act not only bars sexual discrimination in the workplace but also protects LGBTQ employees from being terminated over their sexual orientation. Gorsuch was joined in the majority ruling by Chief Justice Roberts, along with liberal Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Breyer, and Kagan.

More than a mere Title VII ruling, though, this decision is a federal declaration that recognizes trans people and supports their truth for the LGBTQ community. Although it’s not a unanimous ruling from the court, it’s a resounding one. It’s also worth noting that the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s decades-long roots arrived only following Black freedom movements, which in turn are advancing freedoms for more Americans. So, it’s a timely declaration in light of current Black Lives Matter visibility, and this couldn’t be a more welcome decision during Pride Month, even against a somber U.S. backdrop (and after the Trump administration nixed transgender health protections last week).

Justice Gorsuch explained in the majority opinion why the court determined to evolve Title VII from its original legislative vision and apply it to this case:

“Likely, they weren’t thinking about many of the act’s consequences that have become apparent over the years, including its prohibition against discrimination on the basis of motherhood or its ban on the sexual harassment of male employees. But the limits of the drafters’ imagination supply no reason to ignore the law’s demands.”

“It’s a victory for liberty and justice for all,” tweeted Hillary Clinton in response to the decision. “Happy Pride month.” She was joined by ecstatic Hollywood figures, including The Matrix visionary Lilly Wachowski, Queer Eye‘s Jonathan Van Ness, and Drag Race star Peppermint, along with George Takei, Mandy Moore, and more.

While the NBA and NBPA both nearly unanimously approved the league’s 22-team return to play plan for an Orlando bubble from July through October, there are still plenty of questions that needed to be answered and negotiated by both sides.

Complicating matters beyond just figuring out how to play out the remainder of an 8-game season and then full postseason during a global pandemic are the nationwide protests of police brutality and systemic racism that have been taking place for two-plus weeks following the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police in Minneapolis and Louisville. Players spent the weekend having calls and discussing the best ways to ensure that basketball doesn’t become a distraction or escape for people from confronting the problems in this country, with some like Kyrie Irving voicing their concern that playing would take away from the movement.

NBPA executive director Michele Roberts spoke with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne about those calls and explained that it’s not a fight happening internally, but a much needed discussion around whether playing harms or enhances the movement they all embrace.

“It’s not a question of play or not play,” Roberts told ESPN. “It’s a question of, does playing again harm a movement that we absolutely, unequivocally embrace? And then whether our play can, in fact, highlight, encourage and enhance this movement.

“That’s what they’re talking about. They’re not fighting about it; they’re talking about it.”

The positioning of reports has, at times, made it seem as though there’s a growing number of players with large enough concerns to be willing to sit out, but the ESPN report indicates that isn’t really the case. What is important is that the players use this moment to ensure that they are able to take whatever position they want and can make statements to try and, as Roberts says, “highlight, encourage, and enhance this movement” while in Orlando. Given the immense financial pressure on the NBA to return and the PR disaster it would be for them to let things fall apart because they wanted to put limitations on players ability to speak out on such a big issue, the players seem to have ample leverage to push the league to ensure they are able to make whatever statements they deem fit.

These are discussions that needed to happen and maybe should’ve happened prior to the swift vote to approve the return plan format — if for no other reason than the optics, even if false, that there’s sudden dissension internally over a plan that was unanimously approved. Talking as a whole about how to proceed and raising questions and concerns is literally the point of having a union, but it seems there’s optimism from the executive director that they will figure this out and have a plan of their own in place to ensure basketball elevates, rather than pushes down, the Black Lives Matter movement.