Entertainment
With the album “MOTH” Fana Hues enters a new era of sound and beauty
Dana Trippe
Singer and songwriter Hues fan it actually lives as much as its name, meaning “spiritual joy.” And not only because the singer from Los Angeles visited the ESSENCE office wearing a fashionable patterned top, auburn braids, radiant skin and a smile that lit up the room. Plus, as soon as you press play on her new album, released today, you too will feel comforted by soulful, melodic tracks like “Rental” and “Paper Tigers.”
“My music is where I gain the most self-reflection,” says Hues – known for her collaboration with Tyler The Creator and her albums and – says. “This album is definitely the moment where I look forward in the mirror and see where I am, where I want to be and how to get there.”
Regarding the title of this album, Hues explains that it stands for “Matters Of The Heart”, which can be one of the songs included on the project. “I was very raw and honest with myself in this song,” she says. “I also like that its acronym, moth, can stand on its own. I think moths are similar to butterflies. They are just misunderstood because they are considered ugly” – Fana – whose inspirations include Stereolab and Portishead, while Brandy and Toni Braxton shaped her vocals as she grew up.
Like a new musical era, Hues also reaches for a new beauty style. “I’m working with a new stylist, Esteban. It teaches me a lot about playing and trying new things,” he says. To keep her skin glowing, she uses brands like Youth To The People, Supergoop! and Paula’s Choice. “I’ve also been loving juicers lately. But not the super long ones, because I feel like I can’t function,” he says with a laugh.
Meanwhile, her favorite hair stylist, Bryce, makes fresh and unique braids. Under? “I recently cut off three inches of my hair,” she says. “But I’m trying to grow it out” with the help of TGIN products. “My hair is definitely a huge part of my identity.”
And when Hues is not touring, making great R&B songs or dreaming of collaborating with artists like Brandy and Kelis, he finds time for some well-deserved pampering. “My mother is a herbalist and healer, so she always sends me a packet of supplements to take,” she says. – Besides, I bathe a lot.
Looking ahead, you possibly can expect to see Hues on tour with Lucky Daye this summer. “I’ll be gone for a long time. I’m really excited. I’m even more excited that people will listen to the album. I really took my time with it,” she says. “I trusted myself more than ever before.”
Entertainment
Destiny’s Child reunites to celebrate Michelle Williams’ debut “Death Becomes Her.”
It’s been just over 20 years since Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams announced that their destiny had been fulfilled with the discharge of their final studio album Destiny’s Child, however the trio still strongly support one another’s fates.
On Thursday, November 21, it was Michelle Williams’ turn as her former bandmates showed up at New York’s Lunt-Fontanne Theater for the premiere of her latest Broadway show, “Death Becomes Her,” alongside Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles. To celebrate Destiny’s Child’s impromptu return, Beyoncé shared photos from the Broadway show on Saturday, showing the trio hugging backstage. Instagram. The montage featured her duet “Cowboy Carter” with Miley Cyrus, “II Most Wanted” which notably includes the lyric “I’ll be your shotgun rider until the day I die.”
Williams responded to the post, commenting, “I try not to cry too early in the day, BUT…. My sisters forever!”
Beyoncé added on Sunday one other tribute to her longtime friend, a portrait of Williams posing in the home of an empty theater with the caption “My Beauty.”
As reported People MagazineRowland also marked the special day by posting a close-up of her hand holding a “Death Becomes Her” sign to Instagram Stories. “Oh my God!!” – she signed the post.
Williams stars as Viola Van Horn in the brand new musical adaptation of the 1992 hit film starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn. Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard bring back the roles of Streep and Hawn – Madeline Ashton and Helen Sharp, respectively. Williams plays the temptress who leads the rival duo to extreme youth and sweetness efforts, with disastrous results. But as she noticed in your individual post honoring her enduring bond with Beyoncé and Kelly, their dynamic stays free from competition.
“They help me shine!!!” – she wrote next to a photograph of the three on the premiere, probably referring to the lyrics and theme of Robert Glasper’s single Experiment “Shine” “This song has been my theme lately, but it also reflects the love in my life!” – she continued. “It’s a blessing!!”
Entertainment
Lizzo’s unrecognizably slim figure has fans singing her praises years after struggling to lose weight
Lizzo has lost a number of kilos and it shows.
In recent months, the “Truth Hurts” singer has been documenting her fitness journey, with fans increasingly noticing the singer’s slimming figure in her Instagram posts. Since then, she has been bombarded with the whole lot from comments praising her latest look to accusations that she uses weight loss drugs like Ozempic.
However, after Lizzo’s recent post, some people had a double response.
The photos showed her sitting in what appeared to be a service vehicle and taking several selfies at an angle above her head. It’s unclear where she was going, nevertheless it looks like she was trying to achieve a certain look with her outfit.
She posed within the backseat wearing a white off-the-shoulder dress with ruffles. She paired it with denim shorts or a denim bustier, nevertheless it’s hard to tell due to the angle at which Lizzo took the selfie. Another essential element of the styling was the hairstyle.
Lizzo opted for 2 messy and thin braids and wrote within the caption, “Last night I wore milkmaid braids.”
Fans reacted to the photo in disbelief within the comments, considering Lizzo said she used to weigh almost 300 kilos and now seems much smaller.
One person said: “No way this is lizzo.”
Another person wrote: “I can not even recognize what happened to her that she doesn’t appear like herself. I would like to see a greater photo.
A 3rd commenter went thus far as to say, “This is a fake photo. artificial intelligence.”
The “Cuz I Love You” singer is well-known for being the face of body positivity, as lots of her topics in past interviews have focused on self-love within the context of being a plus-size woman within the industry.
However, earlier this yr, Lizzo shared with The New York Times that she is currently in an area of “body neutrality” when it comes to how she views her body shape.
“The idea of body positivity has been moved away from an outdated mainstream concept,” she says he said“evolved towards body neutrality.”
“There are days when I love my body and there are days when I don’t feel entirely positive,” she added.
Since Lizzo lost some weight after years of promoting body positivity and loving her curves, she hasn’t let bullies and web trolls throw it in her face.
Lizzo appears unrecognizable as she continues to showcase the outcomes of her dramatic weight loss.
The singer denied the Ozempic rumors and as an alternative attributes her latest look to rigorous workouts and healthy eating. pic.twitter.com/psbJ8WjzKE
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) November 25, 2024
However, the 36-year-old claims that not so fast. She made it clear that her going to the gym and eating higher will not be about losing weight. It’s about being overall healthy.
The “Hustlers” actress clarified this in 2023 in response to one other Tik Tok creator who claimed that Lizzo was “not trying to escape obesity” with her workouts.
“I think a lot of people see a fat person that way and immediately assume that all they do is be thin” – Lizzo he saidaccording. “I’m not trying to be thin. I never want to be thin. Will my body fluctuate from this size? Will I turn into a bit of smaller depending on a few of the selections I make or a bit of larger depending on a few of the selections I make in life. Yes, I’m used to fluctuations.
Entertainment
“GNX” features Kendrick Lamar at his truest self – Andscape
Kendrick Lamar has all the time been certainly one of rap’s more fascinating and sensitive artists. He took us into the deep recesses of his past, his way of considering and his motivations. But Lamar’s latest, surprise-titled album features the Compton, California MC as his most raw, unfiltered version of himself. And that is largely due to the feud that modified the trajectory of his profession.
For the past 15 years, Lamar has rigorously crafted his personal story for the masses. A person who claimed to guide a boring life was in a position to convey every aspect of his messages to the world. We discovered he went to Africa when he told us the trip inspired him in 2015. Near the top, we learned that Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Anthony “Top” Tiffith once robbed Lamar’s father. Lamar revealed his own relationship and mental health issues on the show. Unlike, say, Drake, who lives on the Internet and filters most of his personal life through TMZ, NBA courtside memes, and his own ecosystem of rumor mills, Lamar only shows up when he desires to tell us enough to feel a connection to him.
But all the pieces modified in 2024.
The feud with Drake forced Lamar to show to another person who’s putting his business on the road. This caused him to react for the primary time in his profession. And although he eviscerated Drake throughout the whole argument, this exchange of pure aggression taught us more about Lamar than we ever knew. Namely, we learned that Lamar is a compassionate and tender, yet vengeful, Gemini demon seed that’s equal parts hate and love, with each emotions flowing from his pores with the intensity of 1,000,000 warheads. It was through his feud with Drake that we learned what drives Lamar: his must be the perfect, the non-public insult he feels when someone tests him, his love for hip-hop and uniting culture with home, and the undeniable fact that this man I do not know what exaggeration is. We’ve spent the last decade learning lots about Lamar at our own pace, but now we all know what makes him… And I suppose we will thank Drake for that.
gives us a Lamar who has the alternative in his hands. He can ignore the unintentional leakage of a deeply felt ethos and create something latest. Or he can lean on the Lamar we all know and love greater than ever. Fortunately, he selected the latter and gave us an album that, while reflecting more of his complaints, also frees Lamar to point out his love as loudly as ever before. Sure, his harsh attacks on rapper Snoop Dogg I’m posting a Drake diss track earlier this 12 months and his sadness over rapper Lil Wayne’s anger at not being chosen for the Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans in February 2025 will make headlines like other victory laps on Drake ‘at. But the album can also be a tribute to the influences that made Lamar who he’s.
In fact, it’s an old-school Buick, and the sounds of the album appear to be the music Lamar listened to when he was a child, driving around in certainly one of these classic cars. We get a Luther Vandross sample, interpolations of a Tupac Shakur song, an SWV hook, and a complete lot of West Coast tracks backed by DJ Mustard. This last one is particularly necessary to handle, dear reader, because many individuals check with these songs – “hey now”, “tv off” and “dodger blue” amongst them – as mere “Not Like Us” riffs. Please ignore them as they arrive from an era and understanding of hip-hop that doesn’t bear in mind regional sounds and a real love for music that sounds at home. In their very own way, these songs are also a rebuke to Drake. You see, the Canadian MC from “Houstalantavegas“fame helped usher in an era of Frankenstein music that connected so many regions that it became increasingly difficult to inform Atlanta from New York or Los Angeles from Chicago. But Kendrick uploaded the album clearly G-Funk inspired, synth driven, powerful The West Coast sound powered by the biggest producer within the region. Each song appears like it could possibly be a Super Bowl halftime hit and features hometown rappers (Dody 6, Sam Dew, Roddy Ricch and more), continuing the show’s theme of bringing the neighborhood together.
But it’s the opposite moments, those during which Lamar is menacingly introspective, chest out after crushing his rap peer, which can be as triumphant as DJ Mustard’s horns. “man at the Garden” is already amongst my most played songs of November. The song is inspired by Nas’ “One Mic,” one other early influence, and features the affirmative chorus “.” The song is not as up-tempo as protest anthems “Alright” or “Not Like Us,” but it surely has a chant that helps listeners end our own battle with imposter syndrome. “,” he raps on the track.
But Lamar’s Gemini tendencies are showing again on the album as he stands proud his chest and reflects on his flaws. ON “heart part 6” Lamar walks us through the formation of Top Dawg Entertainment and his group Black Hippy, while taking blame for the group’s shortcomings and admitting where he might have been more mature. This is the sort of vulnerability we have come to expect from Lamar, but it surely feels much more real because we all know him higher now.
The “Heart” series normally appears before Lamar’s album release. Add that to the very fact preview fragment the album features two cars and a song that wasn’t on the album, and it looks like we’ve got one other full-length project on the way in which. Lamar has been releasing songs during American holidays since his feud with Drake began, so I would not be surprised if there was a song for Thanksgiving, or somewhat MLK Day releases (which took place per week before the presidential inauguration). Either way, perhaps we’ll get a project that tells a whole story, like most of Lamar’s albums.
For now, we will bask within the organic, chaotic, experimental reality of the brand new Lamar, who feels most familiar and down-to-earth at the same time as his profession enters a special stratosphere.
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