Rolling Stone

Getting a Little Closer to Justice LEGAL NEWS Four years ago, Paul Solataroff’s Rolling Stone feature “And Justice for None” [RS 1304/1305, January 2018] exposed grotesque misconduct by law enforcement in the state of Massachusetts and helped lead to the exoneration of more than 37,000 defendants who had been charged with drug infractions under questionable circumstances. The story went on to spawn the hit Netflix docuseries How to Fix a Drug Scandal, featuring crusading lawyers Luke Ryan and Dan Marx, who revealed corrupt practices in crime labs and in the district attorney’s office. On June 1, Ryan and and Marx won another victory, bringing in a sum of $14 million to repay thousands of victims for the fines and fees they’d been forced to pay into the system — after they…

COVER STORY Up Close With Megan Thee Stallion When Megan Thee Stallion and Mankaprr Conteh pulled up to the studio to hear some of the rap queen’s new music, an engineer offered Meg’s guest some tequila. Just one problem: There was nothing around to chase it — so Meg gave up some of her own lemonade. “She was very gracious,” says Conteh, whose profile of the Hot Girl (p. 48) is her first Rolling Stone cover story. “It’s telling that she’s maintained this positivity in spite of all the negativity she’s endured.” Conteh has been following Megan since the rapper’s early days, drawn to her raunchy lyrics and forceful personality. “It’s nice to work with people whose discography and persona mean something to you,” Conteh says. “To spend time with someone who…

SOME PUNK bands might have trouble translating their inherently scrappy art form from their natural club habitats to larger stages. But at their biggest headlining show to date — at New York’s 1,800-cap Brooklyn Steel in May — Melbourne’s Amyl and the Sniffers leveled up beautifully, suggesting a sweaty mashup of the Stones and the Stooges, with singer Amy Taylor flinging herself around the stage like a renegade aerobics instructor. “It’s not always easy for an Australian pub band to come play overseas,” Taylor says, “so what an honor to get the response of people wanting to come down and have a good feral time.”…

KING PRINCESS has a new song she can’t wait to talk about. It’s a breakup song that starts out soft and dreamy before erupting into a scorched-earth mid-Nineties rager, with the biggest chorus she’s ever belted. But the description that really nails “Change the Locks” — the one that makes King Princess beam as she shares it — came from someone in the studio, who said it sounds like menstruating at Lilith Fair. “I was like, ‘Cunt! That’s exactly what I’m going for!’” she says. “It’s a journey.” This is what it’s like to converse with Mikaela Straus, 23, the indie-pop visionary behind King Princess. With her feathery, shoulder-length chocolate-brown hair and extensive knife collection, she exudes a rock-star persona as purely savage as anyone in her generation — she could be…

ETHAN COEN WASN’T exactly a Jerry Lee Lewis scholar, or even a fan. Sure, the Oscar-winning filmmaker knew “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire.” He knew about Lewis marrying his 13-year-old cousin in 1958 and the ensuing scandal — but that was about it. Coen had also, by his own admission, “left the movie business.” Then, he and his wife, film editor Tricia Cooke, found themselves several weeks into a lockdown in the spring of 2020. “I think [the mentality] was: We’d make a movie about almost anything right now,” Coen says. It was around that point that they got a call from music producer T-Bone Burnett, proposing a Lewis doc. Two years later, Coen and Cooke’s Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind, due for release through…

TOUR 1. The Weeknd Four years removed from his last run of shows, the Weeknd finally embarks on his After Hours til Dawn Tour this summer, kicking off in Toronto in July. Spanning 19 dates in North America, the tour is Abel Tesfaye’s first-ever stadium run and will support his two latest critically acclaimed albums, After Hours and Dawn FM. BOOK 2. ‘The Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond’ In this new memoir, Chris Blackwell looks back on the seminal moments he witnessed in music history, including the recording of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Catch a Fire. He also writes about his childhood and adventures in Jamaica — you can feel his love of the island, its people and music, and all he owes to the place. PODCAST 3. ‘Deliver Us From Ervil’ From Rolling Stone…