The rent is too damn high. Cardi B went live on Instagram recently to talk to her fans as she usually does and she told them about her trying to help a friend get an apartment in New York City.

And when Cardi suggested that her friend settle for an apartment in her hometown of the Bronx because she assumed it would be cheaper, she later realized that rents have also skyrocketed there after doing some research online. “Yo, why I go on StreetEasy and I start to look for apartments in the Bronx for them,” she began. “Yo, why rent for them is so expensive? How the f—k is rent so expensive in the most f—kin’ cheapest borough?”

She then went on to apologize to her fans for asking them to buy her recent album Am I the Drama? “I don’t know how people are surviving,” she said. “I am so sorry for asking y’all to buy my album and this is how the economy is right now, that the rent is so f—king high and crazy in the Bronx, no matter where. I am so sorry.”

The Bronx rapper then turned her ire towards President Trump and how his current administration is currently handling America’s cost of living crisis. “I hate the fact that I know if you was to say something to the Trump administration about the cost of living right now, they’ll be like, ‘Yeah, suck it up,’” she told her fans. “You know what I don’t like? I don’t like that there’s a lot of single people, there’s a lot of students, there’s a lot of people that are working nine-to-five and because they’re working they don’t get no help from the government. I always hated that.”

During that same IG Live, Cardi also told fans that she was thinking about doing an Instagram video for her BIA diss record “Pretty & Petty” but decided not to because she didn’t want to feel like a “bully.”

Maybe Happy Ending had a big night at the Tony Awards in June, winning six awards (more than any other show this year), including best musical and best original score. The show’s stars, Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen, performed “Chasing Fireflies” and “Never Fly Away” on the telecast. Will that translate into a Grammy win for best musical theater album when the 68th annual Grammy Awards are presented on Feb. 1?

If the album wins, Criss, who won a Tony for best lead actor in a musical, will be three-quarters of his way to an EGOT. He won a Primetime Emmy in 2018 for outstanding lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie for playing spree killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. (That’s what you call range.) Criss would share the Grammy for Maybe Happy Ending with Hue Park and Will Aronson, who collaborated on the score.

First, Maybe Happy Ending must be nominated. Grammy nominations will be announced on Nov. 7. The field, as always in this category, is packed with cast albums from both new shows and revivals; from Broadway, off-Broadway and London’s West End, in addition to some studio cast recordings.

Buena Vista Social Club and Death Becomes Her, which tied with Maybe Happy Ending for the most Tony nominations of any shows this year (10), are also likely to be nominated. All three shows are still running on Broadway.

Buena Vista Social Club features music by Buena Vista Social Club, whose landmark 1997 album of the same name won a Grammy for best traditional tropical Latin album and a Billboard Latin Music Award for tropical/salsa album of the year by a group. In 2022, the album was voted into the National Recording Registry. Two years later it was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The Buena Vista Social Club ensemble performed “Candela” on the Tony telecast.

Death Becomes Her star Megan Hilty performed the entertaining “For the Gaze” on the telecast. Noel Carey and Julia Mattison collaborated on the score.

Sunset Blvd: The Album is also a strong contender. The revival of the show by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber won three Tonys, including one for Nicole Scherzinger, who managed to beat the all-time Tony winner, Audra McDonald, for best lead actress in a musical. Scherzinger, who had a series of hits with The Pussycat Dolls, sang the show’s most prized song, “As If We Never Said Goodbye,” on the telecast. The album from the original production, starring Glenn Close, was nominated in this category in 1995, but lost to the album from Stephen Sondheim’s Passion.

Just in Time is based on the life of the late, great Bobby Darin, who won the first Grammy ever awarded for best new artist and just the second ever awarded for record of the year, for the still-thrilling “Mack the Knife.” Jonathan Groff, who received a Tony nod for playing Darin, performed “Mack the Knife,” “That’s All” and “Once in a Lifetime” on the Tonys. The show is still running. Playbill reports that it is playing to 102.81% of capacity, which I guess means standing room only. (I’d stand for that.)

That’s five albums, the usual number of nominees in this category, but there are many more albums on the entry list that could move up if any of these presumed front-runners falter. David Foster, a 16-time Grammy winner, was the composer of Boop! The Musical, with lyrics by Susan Birkenhead. While the show went 0-3 at the Tonys, and didn’t land a coveted performance on the telecast, Foster’s stature in the music world could carry it to a nomination here.

Gypsy would set a Grammy record if it’s nominated, becoming the first show to spawn five nominated albums in this category. (The album from the original production starring Ethel Merman won in 1960, a revival starring Tyne Daly was nominated in 1991, a revival starring Bernadette Peters won in 2004 and a revival starring Patti LuPone was nominated in 2009.) Right now, Gypsy is tied with West Side Story, Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street with four nominated albums each. It’s never a good idea to bet against Gypsy, but this revival went 0-5 at the Tonys, and McDonald’s performance of “Rose’s Turn” on the telecast was uncharacteristically histrionic.

Three more shows landed performance slots on the Tony telecast, which could help them land nominations here. (We presume that virtually everyone voting in this category watched the Tonys.) Those three shows are Dead Outlaw (the ensemble performed “Ballad” and “Dead”), Floyd Collins (the ensemble performed “The Ballad of Floyd Collins” and “The Call”), and Real Women Have Curves (the ensemble performed “Jugglin’”). Joy Huerta of the popular Mexican pop duo Jesse and Joy co-wrote the songs for the latter show with Benjamin Velez.

Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, who have won twice in this category (for Hairspray and Some Like It Hot) are entered for the musical adaptation of Smash (which went 0-2 at the Tonys).

Hadestown won in this category in 2020. The show is still running on Broadway. That could boost Hadestown: Live From London by the original West End company.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is Broadway royalty, which could lift Warriors (which he co-wrote with Elsa Dvais) to a nomination. Warriors is a concept album, inspired by the 1979 action film The Warriors. It features a diverse group of artists, including hip-hop stars Lauryn Hill, Busta Rhymes, Ghostface Killah and RZA, as well as Latin musician Marc Anthony and dancehall singer Shenseea. The album was conceived as a standalone musical work, but following its release, Miranda and Davis confirmed plans to develop a stage adaptation.

Several other albums by people with strong ties to the music industry will also likely get a look, including F**k 7th Grade (music and lyrics by the late Jill Sobule, who died in May), London Tide (PJ Harvey, credited as Polly Jean Harvey, and Ben Power), Saturday Church (Sia, credited as Sia Furler) and Swept Away (The Avett Brothers, credited as Scott Avett & Seth Avett).

The entry list consists of 58 albums. Here’s the Recording Academy’s explanation of who is eligible in this category: “For albums containing greater than 51% playing time of new recordings. Award to the principal vocalist(s), and the album producer(s) of 50% or more playing time of the album. The lyricist(s) and composer(s) of 50% or more of a score of a new recording are eligible for an award if any previous recording of said score has not been nominated in this category.”

Justin Bieber is passing his swag down to one-year-old son Jack Blues.

In a series of adorable photos shared by the pop star Thursday (Oct. 9) on Instagram, the little one explores a golf course speckled with loose golf balls on what appears to have been a father-son golf date. Though you can’t see Jack’s face, he looks just like his dad, wearing sneakers and an oversized hoodie pulled over his head — which is basically Justin’s every day uniform at this point when he isn’t going shirtless.

The Grammy winner also shared photos from the same day of his son — still wearing his pink sweatshirt with a psychedelic swirl pattern and cute houndstooth patterned pants — toddling around at home and playing with toys in a playpen. That night, Justin would wear a similar fit to his company Skylrk’s basketball game at The League in Los Angeles, sporting a mossy green hoodie that he at one point shed to put his chest and back tattoos on full display.

Justin welcomed Jack in August 2024 with his wife, Rhode founder Hailey Bieber. Though the couple have kept their son’s face hidden from the public, both stars have shared a number of photos of the young Bieber. Ahead of his upcoming 2026 headlining gig at the festival, for instance, Justin snapped a collection of steamy pics with Hailey in the center of Coachella Valley last month, with baby Jack making a cameo in some of them.

In between playdates, Justin has had a busy summer. In July, he surprise-dropped his first album in four years: Swag, which he quickly followed up with September’s Swag II. The former reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200.

He’s also been active on Instagram throughout this past year, frequently checking in with updates about his mindset and spirituality. “Thanking Jesus for his patience with me this morning,” he wrote in July. “I can be extremely selfish and impatient yet Jesus always has his arms open toward me.”

Even so, Justin playfully rejected his mom’s recent public prayer for his wellbeing. After Pattie Mallette took to Instagram to ask God to to “heal every wound” in her son’s “heart, mind and body,” the singer quipped in the comments, “Only thing I need healing from is my rolled pinky toe from playing ping pong.”

Every now and then, a sneaker arrives that refuses to fit neatly into a single category. The Vans Old Skool 36 “Souvenir” is one of them — pulling direct inspiration from Chanel’s cult-classic 2015 On the Pavements Messenger (aka the Graffiti Bag), a rare piece famously worn by rappers Lil Yachty and Central Cee, to create a silhouette that exists at the crossroads of skate culture, streetwear, music, and high fashion.

Born in California’s skate scene, Vans has long been the uniform of rebels, musicians, and those who carve their own paths. Chanel, in contrast, is the epitome of Parisian refinement, structured, polished, and timeless. On paper, they are worlds apart. But in practice? The Souvenir Old Skool proves rebellion and refinement can share the same canvas.

When the bag debuted under Karl Lagerfeld in 2015, it sparked conversation. Paying thousands for a canvas messenger splashed with graffiti, enamel pins, and frayed tweed shocked luxury purists. But that was the point. It blurred the line between street and couture, between authenticity and aspiration. Fast forward ten years, and Vans has reimagined that same ethos through a skate lens, turning a once-divisive luxury statement into something both accessible and subversive.

“The main design inspiration was centered around the idea of traveling — what you’d see while traveling to certain places, what you’d wear while traveling to these destinations, and what you’d take home with you,” says designer Greg Betty. “For this shoe, I wanted to make something that signified the end of a long journey — like a stamped-up passport or a stickered-up Rimowa — but tied to something iconic and undeniable that multiple generations of fashion lovers would get right away. The Chanel On the Pavements Messenger Bag checked multiple boxes.”

The design details make that connection undeniable. The upper features a dirty-dyed, olive-toned canvas that feels lived-in from day one. The classic Vans jazz stripe trades clean leather for frayed, multicolor tweed, a direct nod to Chanel’s signature fabric. Scattered across the upper are enamel pins that flip Chanel’s smiley-face and yin-yang motifs through Vans’ own lens, while leather accents and metal hardware elevate the finish. It’s grungy, glamorous, and grounded all at once.

“Everything about the shoe was considered and custom-made,” Betty explains. “From the colors and thickness of the tweed, to the placement of the distressing and embroidered paint splatter, to the graphic motifs on each pin… It was truly a team effort to make sure the storytelling was felt.”

The result? A sneaker that doesn’t just borrow from Chanel, it converses with it. This is luxury filtered through skate sensibility, where imperfection becomes intentional and wear tells a story. The Souvenir isn’t a souvenir from a single trip, it’s one from decades of culture converging: skaters in Southern California, models in Paris, rappers in London, and musicians in New York all intersecting through design.

And people noticed. The Souvenir Old Skool sold out almost instantly, proving that when streetwear and luxury meet in the middle, the world pays attention. As Betty reflects, “The reception has been extremely overwhelming, beautiful, and affirming. Seeing the interest is amazing, but the discourse and educational moments that have been brought up because of this shoe has been a pleasure to witness. I think more than anything, people loved the intentionality and care behind the design.”

From a wearability standpoint, the sneaker holds up beyond its concept. The materials feel premium — sturdy canvas that softens with wear, tweed that frays with character, and enamel pins that add personality without gimmick. It fits true to size, though wide-footed wearers may prefer a half size up. This attention to quality makes it one of Vans’ most elevated offerings to date.

But what truly sets the Souvenir apart is what it represents. It’s more than a reworked Old Skool, it’s a cultural remix. In a moment where artists like Lil Yachty and Central Cee blur the line between streetwear and high fashion, Vans steps confidently into that same conversation, proving skate culture has always influenced the runway. The Souvenir isn’t chasing luxury, it’s redefining it through authenticity.

So, is it a Flex, Trade or Fade? For me, this one’s a Flex — no question. The storytelling, the craftsmanship, and the symbolism all line up. It’s a sneaker that proves fashion, music, and skate culture aren’t living in separate worlds anymore — they’re sharing the same stage. The Souvenir Old Skool doesn’t just celebrate that connection; it embodies it.

But what do you think? Would you Flex, Trade, or Fade the Vans Old Skool 36 Souvenir?