Table of contents for June 2024 in Rolling Stone

COVER STORY Landing Major Moves With Cardi B Adrienne Raquel Photographer Photographer Adrienne Raquel grew up saving photos of the powerful Black women who filled the pages of magazines like Vibe, Essence, and Ebony in the Nineties and late 2000s — what she calls the “golden era of pop culture.” Now, she’s creating her own pop-culture legacy: For the June issue of Rolling Stone, Raquel captured the fearless, ever-evolving spirit of Afro-Latina rapper Cardi B. The superstar from the Bronx commands the cover, appearing in a bold stance with wind-whipped, dip-dyed green hair and a neon-green netted bodysuit to match. Her pose reflects strength and confidence, and it’s a cinematic moment that happened right when Cardi was dancing to music on the set of the photo shoot. “This shot…

ON THE NIGHT OF APRIL 13, after the leak of his diss track “Push Ups,” Drake posted a screenshot from the movie Kill Bill on his Instagram Story. It was the iconic fight scene during which Uma Thurman’s character takes on a roomful of ninja assassins only to emerge victorious. The metaphor couldn’t be more applicable to Drake’s situation, as he fends off countless peers out for blood. Rap’s civil war began, in one sense, with Future and Metro Boomin’s recent album, We Don’t Trust You, featuring Kendrick Lamar taking not-so-subtle shots at Drake and J. Cole on the hit “Like That.” But the tension appears to be dredging up feelings that go back much further. Here’s a guide to all of the frenemies who have turned on the…

In 2020, when Billie and I started imagining a book about prominent LGBTQ+ couples, we were shocked it didn’t exist yet. So we started with a definition: Anyone in this book would be out, partnered, and influential in mainstream culture. And as we began this work — the day after our wedding — we realized it didn’t yet exist because living at the intersection of those three things was a relatively new experience. After four years and dozens of interviews and photo shoots, our book — Queer Power Couples: On Love and Possibility — explores that reality through 14 couples across generations. “There’s still not a lot of maps for queer experiences,” Mike Hadreas of Perfume Genius told us. But each couple played a role in making queer lives…

AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY, right around the time Almost Famous made her an instant superstar, word got around that Kate Hudson could sing, for real. Inevitably, the pop machine, which happened to be running at maximum efficiency in that particular historical moment, tried to catch her in its gears. “People in the industry would say, ‘Let’s make a record,’” says Hudson. “‘Let’s do this. Let’s do that.’ And I always felt not ready. I don’t know why that was my response. Something was stopping me, and I wasn’t reflective enough at the time to really think about it — until I got older, and I was like, ‘Why am I so hesitant with something I love more than anything?’” The answer, Hudson says, “was always fear of…

JANE FONDA has two Best Actress Oscars (and five more nominations) to her name, but over the past five-plus decades, the Hollywood icon, 86, has become far better known — and sometimes excoriated — for her political activism. She’s protested the Vietnam War, fundraised for the Black Panthers, and stood with Native Americans fighting to reclaim land. She’s condemned violence against women and advocated for reproductive rights. She’s been jailed, spat on, and cursed at. And she’s been undeterred. These days, it’s the climate crisis that consumes her. In 2019, Fonda co-founded Fire Drill Fridays, a recurring climate protest in Washington, D.C. (She was arrested five times during those actions.) In 2022, she founded the Jane Fonda Climate PAC to fund state and local candidates who refuse to accept…

‘I’VE KNOWN I WAS GOING to make a record called All Born Screaming since I was 23,” says St. Vincent. “But I just wasn’t ready. I wasn’t really worthy of the title, ’cause you have to live a lot to be worthy of a title that really says it all. It’s the beauty, it’s the brutality, and it’s all part of the same continuum.” St. Vincent’s superb new album of that name is suffused with beauty and brutality in equal measure, with Nine Inch Nails-worthy noise bursts, some elegant crooning, and a few of her most streamlined hard-rock tracks ever, some assisted by Dave Grohl on drums. There are also a few entirely unexpected moments on the album, which is the first the artist, 41, has produced on her…

“I Have a Lot of Hope” IN 2016, ASH WILLIAMS became pregnant for the first time. Williams wants to be a parent eventually — but he wasn’t ready for a child then. He didn’t know much about what an abortion entailed, and he needed a ride, so he called up a friend who drove him. When they got to the clinic, Williams, who is trans, remembers the people working there didn’t care enough to get his name right — using, instead, the name on his license. Never mind asking about pronouns. “Working with the actual provider was really fucked up, too,” he says. “I just remember he didn’t say one word to me, and I felt sad about that.” After the procedure, Williams’ friend, who also happens to be…

THE AVERAGE HIGH temperature in Quebec City in March is 33 degrees Fahrenheit, with a low of around 18. That’s apparently of no consequence to the locals, who have chosen the month for an outdoor music festival appropriately dubbed Igloofest. The annual event, billed as “the coldest music festival in the world,” is an opportunity for Québécois music lovers to flex their winter gear, with revelers in full-body ski suits, snow goggles, and what appears to be the most advanced outdoor apparel on the market. Kaytranada, this year’s headliner, arrives backstage around 8 p.m. wearing black Celine sweatpants and Balenciaga wraparound sunglasses. He’s flanked on either side by his mom and sister, as well as a bevy of crew members trailing as he heads toward the main stage for…

WATCHING SASHA JANE Lowerson paddle out into the chilly Pacific, it becomes hard to tell her apart from the couple of dozen other surfers waiting for their moment. Lowerson is patient, and it’s a good while before she comes cruising in on a southerly, slow-rolling wave — the kind that takes you all the way in. At this moment, none of her pro titles really matter, nor do the culture-war dramas of being the first out transgender surfer on the competition circuit. The ride is everything. Until last week, Lowerson had spent months out of the ocean as she recovered from gender-affirming surgeries. Surfing hasn’t felt the same since she came to recognize her true identity. “It’s easier,” she says with a smile. “I don’t have this fake front…

WHEN YOU VISIT BOB RITCHIE AT HIS HOME in the jagged hills outside Nashville, the guy who will likely greet you at the door is a tall, well-dressed, exceedingly polite gentleman who goes by “Uncle Tom.” Because of course he does. Ritchie makes his living as Kid Rock, but a big part of being Kid Rock these days involves doing things that are simultaneously provocative, offensive, and, at least to him, funny. It tracks, then, that a middle-aged white guy who began his career more than three decades ago in thrall of a Black art form, but who has since thrown his lot in with an overwhelmingly white political movement criticized for its racist rhetoric, would have a white butler named after a racial slur aimed at Black people…

WHAT’S NEW, WHAT’S NEXT, WHAT’S NUTS REMI WOLF’S EYES are scanning the immediate area surrounding the metal table we’ve claimed on a side street in New York’s Chinatown. “Fuck, there’s no wood,” she says, swiveling her head around once more before finding what she’s looking for. About six feet away, outside of a barber shop, sit two wooden chairs — and, as she sees it, the key to continuing her streak of good luck, or at least warding off any potential bad fortune. “I’ve developed a knocking-on-wood tic,” she explains after jogging over to double-tap her fist against the seat. “Another friend of mine has it. Maybe I caught it from him.” Wolf, 28, has too many stars aligning at this moment to take any chances. A few weeks…

AMERICA AFTER ROE KRISTA HARDING’S daughter was eight weeks old when that police cruiser pulled behind her on the interstate and hit the lights in September 2019. She called her boss at the Little Caesars in Pinson, Alabama, where she’d just been promoted to manager: I’m going to be a little late, but I’m coming in! Don’t panic. Harding’s registration tag was expired. She figured the officer would write her a ticket and she’d be on her way, but when he came back after running her driver’s license, he had handcuffs out. There was a felony warrant out for her arrest, he said: “Chemical endangerment of a child.” Harding used her most patient customer-service tone to ask the officer if he’d please check again. But there was no mistake,…

WHEN JANE SCHOENBRUN was in high school, they spent hours devouring Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Schoenbrun watched Sarah Michelle Gellar play Buffy, who over the course of seven seasons, figures out who she really is — a powerful woman chosen to fight evil forces. And Schoenbrun imagined how they might fit into the show. They saw themselves in everyone, from the wacky pal Xander to the broody vampire Angel to Willow and Tara, a pair of witches in love — gender be damned. “If you’d told me I could press a button and become a cool, goth, queer girl, I would have been like, ‘Give me the button. I want to press the button,’” Schoenbrun tells me. “But it would take me 20 years to understand that that was…

You seem like you’re constantly working. What do you do to relax? Just this weekend, I was up in the Catskills at my house there. I love it. I love seeing my friends and hosting them, and not necessarily being in public. I love going out and having fun and drinking, but it’s also nice to do it in an environment where you’re not observed. To take that away and have a home that is big enough for your friends to come over — that’s one of the best things about being successful, that you can make your own space. What are some of the worst things about being successful? The lack of anonymity and the huge level of self-consciousness. I had to walk out earlier, and a man…