An exploration into the underlying fundamental functions, structures, and principles of rap.
Wasalu Jaco, professionally known as Lupe Fiasco, is a Chicago-born, Grammy award-winning American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and community advocate. Rising to fame in 2006, following the success of his debut album Food & Liquor, Lupe has released eight acclaimed studio albums, his latest being Drill Music In Zion, released in June 2022. His efforts to propagate conscious material garnered recognition as a Henry Crown Fellow, and he is a recipient of an MLK Visiting Professorship at MIT for the 2022/2023 academic year.
According to reports, rapper Flo Rida was awarded $82 million in court on Wednesday in his lawsuit against Celsius Energy Drink.
Flo Rida sued the company over money and stock options that were never paid as part of his endorsement deal. Per Forbes, “over $27 million of the damages represent 250,000 shares in Celsius the rapper said he was owed by the company.” What’s more, the jury found that Celsius not only breached their 2014 contract with Flo Rida, but also took action to fraudulently conceal the breach.
“He’s entitled to 500,000 shares of stock via the contract, and entitled to 250,000 shares of stock if certain things happen—one of those yardsticks is that a certain number of units of products need to be sold, but unfortunately the contract doesn’t specify which type of unit—is it a box, is it a drink? And there’s no timeframe or deadline,” Flo Rida’s lawyer John Uustal told Insider.
Uber Eats has enlisted Kris and Kendall Jenner to help launch the brand’s new positioning as it transitions away from its long-running ‘Tonight I’ll be eating positioning”.
The delivery platform, which launched in Australia in 2016, has enlisted the Jenners, along with a handful of Aussie celebrities, to showcase the brand’s expanded delivery offering, which now includes food, groceries, alcohol and more.
The new brand platform ‘Get almost almost anything’ aims to highlight the expanded service while acknowledging that Uber Eats still can’t deliver some things.
The campaign, which Special Group created in collaboration with Hello Social and MediaCom, features the brand’s trademark mix of celebrities employing self-deprecating humour.
Andy Morley, director of marketing at Uber ANZ, said: “This year we will continue to deepen our get “anything” offering across Uber Eats – building on our already rich range of restaurants, greengrocers, supermarkets, fishmongers, butchers, florists, to add even more retail items. While takeaway food will remain a hallmark, as our selection deepens and evolves we believe it’s time for a new brand platform to capture that. Get almost, almost anything absolutely does that job for us.”
Julian Schreiber, CCO & Partner of Special, said, ‘Being confident enough to discuss what you can’t do is a great way to create entertaining cut through about what you can do, particularly when it’s a huge new diverse offering. It delivers the message but also makes fun of all the over promises that marketing is constantly guilty of.”
The campaign comes as Australia’s food and grocery delivery market undergoes significant changes as it matures. Last year, British-owned delivery giant, Deliveroo, pulled out of the Australian market after six years in operation, citing “challenging economic conditions”. Meanwhile, food delivery service VOLY also withdrew from the market in November, blaming economic uncertainty.
The high concentration of big players in the Australian market has created a competitive landscape. Figures from last year revealed Uber Eats remained the market leader with around 53% market share, ahead of rival Menulog at 20%. Deliveroo held about 12% share, which is believed to have been shared among rivals, including Door Dash and HungryPanda.
Research from Roy Morgan revealed over 7 million Australians use food delivery services, which equates to almost one-third (33.4%) of the population aged 14-plus; this has increased from 3.6 million in 2020. According to the same research, Uber Eats is used by 3.5 million Australians, up from 2.3 million in 2020, confirming its position as the clear market leader.
It’s a position this latest campaign aims to solidify as the brand showcases its ability to deliver more than takeaway meals.
M&M’s is launching woke ‘all-female’ packs to celebrate female empowerment and attempt to shake things up in a continued shift toward progressive branding.
Mars, M&M’s parent company, debuted the feminist candy wrappers earlier this week, exclusively featuring the company’s three female mascots: green, brown and the newly-introduced purple.
The all-female package – upside down, to show how powerful women have ‘flipped the status quo’ – will be the first time the brown and green M&Ms have been featured together since a viral tweet from 2015 sparked rumors they were a lesbian couple.
The tweet contained a picture of the two characters holding hands on the beach, posted just two days after the Supreme Court effectively legalized gay marriage.
In fact, a search for the two characters in the notorious fan fiction site Archive Of Our Own produces 11 different results. The green M&M supposedly posted the tweet herself, writing: ‘It’s rare Ms. Brown and I get to spend time together without some colorful characters barging in.’
Mars has shifted the M&M’s brand in recent years multiple times in attempts to appear more progressive, with new CEO Poul Weihrauch looking to continue the trend.
They debuted ‘Purple’ – the first ever female peanut M&M spokescandy, who has been designed to represent acceptance and inclusivity and is ‘quirky, confident and authentic’.
More than 10 million fans voted to add the color to the confectionary’s current rainbow in May, beating aqua and pink.
Purple’s arrival was announced with ‘I’m Just Gonna Be Me,’ a new promotional song and music video, which launched on Tuesday.
Jane Hwang, global VP at Mars Wrigley said: ‘There is so much about our new spokescandy that people can relate to and appreciate, including her willingness to embrace her true self – our new character reminds us to celebrate what makes us unique.’
Purple joins the legendary cast of M&M’s characters, who were given a refresh with updated looks and more nuanced personalities back in January.
The iconic M&M characters – ubiquitous in commercials for the chocolate candies for decades – are getting a makeover that the company claimed will fit them in a ‘more dynamic, progressive world.’
The changes, which took effect immediately, gives the characters a more modern look to emphasize characters’ ‘personalities.’
The biggest changes appear to be to the two female M&M’s, the green and brown ones.
Mars, the maker of the candies, has been criticized in the past for making the green M&M too sexy, and either pushing a rivalry or a possible flirtation with the brown M&M.
The solution appears to be the green M&M losing her stiletto boots in favor of sneakers and the brown M&M wearing slightly lower heels than before to what Mars spokespersons called a ‘professional height.’
Mars wants the green M&M to be ‘better represented to reflect confidence and empowerment, as a strong female, and known for much more than her boots.’
As far as the relationship between the green and brown M&M’s, it will be based on the two ‘together throwing shine and not shade,’ as a reaction to how the two have been at odds at times in promotional material.
Each M&M has been given a Q&A to explain their new characters on the candy’s website, in which the brown M&M claims to be ‘not bossy, just the boss.’
Mars is also doubling down on the anxious orange M&M, whom the company believes is ‘one of the most relatable characters with Gen-Z, the most anxious generation.’
The orange M&M previously wore his shoes untied, but now will have them tied in an effort to represent his cautious nature, according to Mars.
The red M&M – voiced by cartoon icon Billy West in commercials and often vacillating between leader and bully toward the other M&M’s – will be adjusted to be more kind to his fellow characters.
The yellow M&M, classically dim-witted, appears to remain so. He once was quoted saying that the first thing he would do if today was his last day ever is ‘wake up.’
Mars hopes these changes will show the importance of ‘self-expression and power of community.’
Not all of us have had the chance to wear the McDonald’s uniform behind the counter, but that doesn’t mean we can’t rock it down the runway.
Finnish brand Vain is working in tandem with McDonald’s Finland to repurpose the fast-food restaurant attire into a collection of 27 stylish pieces for the fashion-hungry to don in their free time.
Vain takes the iconic branding of the Golden Arches and the signature black, red, yellow, and blue uniforms and turns them into something worthy of wearing down the street, or to a McDonald’s themed party. The lineup includes jackets, dresses, button-downs, sweaters, and accessories reimagined in never-before-seen silhouettes of the fast-food chain’s uniforms.
It takes dozens of people, expensive robots, and fancy cameras to bring a fast food commercial to life. But they use real food on set, so they work against the clock to film each take before it starts to wilt. We visit The Garage in Brooklyn, New York, to see how the crew films advertisements for clients like Hershey’s, Pepsi, and Domino’s.
Fashionistas might want to take a bite out of the yummiest item to have come out of Spring/Summer 2023 catwalks: a Lay’s potato chip bag.
The look was first teased by Balenciaga’s creative director Demna Gvasalia—often known simply as Demna—in June, when he attended Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts’ graduate fashion show toting a pack of Lay’s Original Wavy Potato Chips. The appearance fueled tittle-tattle about whether a snack-themed purse was in the works.
Well, before the idea got stale, the luxury house finally confirmed the moreish it-bag during its muddied presentation at Paris Fashion Week, where a couple of models were seen clutching Lay’s-branded calfskin bags and looking like ultimate snacks.
It appears that Balenciaga’s snack ‘bags’ will arrive in a few “flavors,” including classic, lime, and salt and vinegar. Closeup visuals shared by high-fashion curator Lil Jupiter on Instagram reveal that “Balenciaga Paris” are also branded on the clutches.
The bag retains a crinkled silhouette, scrunching in the middle as if perpetually being held in someone’s hand.
It’s too early for pricing details to be out, but you just know it’s going to be worth multiple crates of snacks. The perk is that you can fill this clutch with as many potato chips as you want. This won’t be one of those bags that comes with 50% air.
We got an inside look at how Army Culinary Specialists are trained at the Joint Culinary Center of Excellence at Fort Lee, Virginia. Three to four thousand members of the Army and National Guard graduate every year from the eight-week course, which trains soldiers how to prepare a wide array of food in a variety of settings. After instruction in the techniques of cooking and baking, trainees prepare three meals a day for their fellow soldiers in an actual garrison kitchen. Training culminates outdoors, where trainees cook for hundreds of soldiers in the same mobile kitchens they could be cooking in if deployed. Insider spent five days at the Joint Culinary Center of Excellence, where we observed different classes at various stages of training.
He loosened us with his wine, and pot brands, now Snoop Dogg hits us with his own wholegrain breakfast.
Snoopy turns cereal killer with Snoop Loopz, a boxed brekky that will drop at grocery stores through his Broadus Foods business.
Think gluten-free Froot Loops, with “more corn, more flavor and more marshmallows,” enthuses hip-hop entrepreneur Master P, who unveiled Snoop’s new snack food via his socials — accompanied with a cut of “Still A G Thang.”
Founded by Calvin Broadus (aka Snoop Dogg), Broadus Foods already boasts a range of Mama Snoop’s breakfast products, including cereal, oatmeal, grits, pancake mix and syrup, and supports charitable organizations, including Door of Hope.
These sneakers aren’t just made for walking — they have actual beer in them, and even come with a bottle opener.
Heineken Silver, the brand’s latest easy-to-drink brew, is launching a pair of sneakers that are kitted out with statement-making features.
Known as Heinekicks, these sneakers have discreetly built into the tongue a cool removable metal bottle opener. Yup, it’ll come in handy when you urgently need to crack open a bottle of beer, and don’t want to keep a spare bottle opener in, say, your pocket or your bag.
The Heinekicks’ most unique feature, though, is a see-through cushioned sole that has been injected with Heineken Silver beer, touted as the first of its kind in the world. After all, why walk on terra firma when you can walk on beer?
You may not be able to drink the beer from your shoes (obviously), but according to Heineken, “the soles provide the wearer with an unexpectedly smooth and unique sensation when on the go”.
To find out if that really is the case, you’ll need to be one of the lucky few in Singapore to get your paws on these sneakers. But it won’t be an easy feet, sorry, we mean, feat. There are only 32 pairs of Heinekicks in the world, and only seven will be made available in Singapore in the fourth quarter of the year.
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