Latest news with #XXL
Korea Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
New Young Posse EP drops next month
Rising hip-hop girl group returns five months after special album 'Cold' Young Posse will be releasing its fourth EP, 'Growing Pain pt.1 : Free,' on Aug. 14, according to its agency DSP Media, Monday. The group's return comes just five months after the release of its special album, 'Cold,' in March. At midnight Sunday, Young Posse unveiled a schedule for the new album via its official social media accounts, signaling the start of promotion activities. The EP will drop at 6 p.m. on Aug. 14 through major music streaming platforms. The schedule, filled with comic-like visuals of CDs, gloves, a cowboy hat, musical notes and cocktails, hints at a quirky concept in line with the group's unpredictable style. Young Posse also unveiled 'Off Route' ahead of the new release. In this series of mood films, the members challenge the norms in everyday settings with their playful, unconventional actions. Known for its rebellious image and traditional hip-hop sounds — as seen in tracks such as 'Macaroni Cheese,' 'XXL' and 'Ate That' — the group has been called the 'daughter of Korean hip-hop' for its fresh and daring take on the genre. Young Posse has continued to expand its global presence since its October 2023 debut, demonstrating its reach with a successful US tour and events in Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cash Cobain on Justin Bieber ‘Swag' Collaboration: 'We Were Just in There Being Free'
Those even casually familiar with hip-hop have already long-known Cash Cobain as one of the most-promising, fastest-rising rapper-producers in the game. A week since Justin Bieber's Swag released, the rest of the music world may be getting to know that too. Cobain delivered one of the best features on Bieber's latest album, released on July 11, the highest-profile moment in the rapper's career so far, with Cobain taking the opening verse on Swag's title track. More from The Hollywood Reporter Billie Eilish Reveals 3D Collaboration With James Cameron Is in the Works Astronomer CEO Andy Byron Resigns After Getting Caught on Coldplay Kiss-Cam Tyler, the Creator Reveals New Album Drops Monday As Cobain, a member of XXL's 2024 Freshman class, tells The Hollywood Reporter, that collaboration started earlier this year after he saw Bieber posted his song 'Trippin on a Yacht' online. He DM'd Bieber after, writing that 'we had to make some fire together.' 'We were chopping it up since then, and then one day, he was in New York and he was like, 'Yo, pull up on me,'' Cobain says. 'We were in this big apartment, there were a lot of people there. He had a studio in his living room, there were a few other musicians and writers there and we were sitting in a circle on the couches. He had this microphone, they were playing a beat and he was vocalizing and he asked me if I had anything for that. I started harmonizing, mumbling, just coming up with ideas. We were recording everything.' As Cobain recalls, Bieber called him again last week just before the album had released, asking for a few minor tweaks to the song they recorded together. That's how he found out the album, which Bieber surprise released Midnight last Friday, was coming out that week. 'I kid you not, he gets on the phone, he sent me the piece he wanted me to redo, a couple changes, andb the time I turned it in to him, the album came out the next day.' As far as the actual recording session, Cobain describes it as loose, saying there 'wasn't a process.' 'We were just in there being free,' Cobain says. 'And being creative. There wasn't any pressure, none of that, I just went in there and did my thing, I put a few ideas down. It was a long session too. We skimmed through and figured out what we liked. I'm glad it's out. I'm happy he was able to put out the album and song.' Swag is Bieber's first album since Justice back in 2021. Aside from the title track, which also featured rising Australian singer Eddie Benjamin, the record also features verses from Sexyy Red, Dijon, Lil B and Gunna. So far, 'Daisies,' with production from music's new guitar god is the album's standout hit, topping both Apple Music and Spotify's U.S. daily charts this week. As for what's next for Cobain, he's got a sophomore album on the way, as well as his Party With Slizzy headling tour slated to start in New York in September. Best of The Hollywood Reporter From 'Party in the U.S.A.' to 'Born in the U.S.A.': 20 of America's Most Patriotic (and Un-Patriotic) Musical Offerings Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Solve the daily Crossword
San Francisco Chronicle
30-06-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
The soaring popularity of this high-alcohol wine doesn't make any sense
The market reports are unequivocal: As Americans are drinking less, nonalcoholic and low-alcohol wines are skyrocketing in popularity. In fact, according to a leading analyst, these products were responsible for the only growth that the wine industry saw last year. And so no one would have expected that the industry's biggest phenomenon in 2025 would be an explicitly high -alcohol wine. But that's exactly what XXL, a brand of fortified, flavored, 16% Moscato, has become. XXL launched in 2023 and sold 85,000 cases, a modest showing for a brand with national chain-store aspirations. Last year, it grew to 1.8 million cases. This year, according to Marc Oliveira, CEO of parent company Tri-Vin Imports, it's on track to do more than 2.5 million. Its success doesn't make any sense, and yet the numbers can't lie. XXL may be an early indication that nonalcoholic wines are not guaranteed the swiftly upward trajectory that some analysts have assured. Or it may simply be this moment's requisite counterpoint to the overarching impulse toward moderation. There will always be people who just want to get drunk, wellness culture be damned. The way Oliveira tells it, he conceived of XXL as a rebellion. In 2023, he spoke on a panel at the wine trade show ProWein in Germany, where the rest of the panelists extolled low- and no-alcohol wines 'as being the future with the younger consumer and to save the industry,' he said. He bristled at the implication that every wine company should suddenly be following the same script, and he also sensed that the low-alcohol space was about to become very crowded. 'It's not innovation if 200 suppliers all rush in at once,' Oliveira said. Also, he thought most nonalcoholic wine was bad. If people keep trying nonalcoholic wines and they taste terrible, he figured, the category won't continue to grow. Instead of following the advice he was hearing, Oliveira decided to do the opposite. 'Nobody's asking for high-alc. Nobody's asking for flavored wines,' he said. 'They thought we were crazy.' At the time, Tri-Vin, a Connecticut company that Oliveira's father founded in the 1980s, was steadily growing but had yet to have a breakout brand. Oliveira sensed this could be its chance. The conference was in March. By August, Oliveira had product to sell, thanks to a supplier he'd found in Moldova. He launched with five flavors: blackberry, pineapple, mango, peach, and strawberry and grapes. The initial response from retailers was poor. 'Everyone was giving us the cold shoulder,' Oliveira said. 'We had some retailers tell us there will never be a day in which these wines will be sold in their stores.' As XXL took off, however, many eventually placed an order. These wines are not made so much as engineered. They begin with a base of Moscato, which is fortified with a neutral, grape-derived spirit (also known as brandy), then flavored and in some cases colored with caramel dye. Oliveira worked with 'an outside formula tasting lab' to develop the flavorings. He zeroed in on the name 'XXL,' but the trademark was already taken, so he trademarked 'XXL Moscato.' There were several back-and-forths with the feds, who kept rejecting XXL's labels as noncompliant. There's now a redacted line on XXL's front labels, a reference to what Oliveira calls his 'battle scars.' The magic alcohol-by-volume number, Oliveira discovered, was 16%, which is the highest that can legally be sold in grocery stores in every U.S. state. 'We realized other competitors would come after us,' he said. 'If they're going to try 17%, 18% to outdo us, we're going to shut them down, we're going to go as high as possible, end of story. So we went to 21%.' That would be the XXL Cali Extreme. When the war in Ukraine blocked Tri-Vin's access to the port of Odessa, XXL had to leave Moldova. It's now produced in Spain, France and California, the latter at Fior di Sol Winery in Napa. This year XXL is debuting cans and the juicebox-like Tetra Paks, as well as its first sparkling wines. This wouldn't be the first time that high-alcohol wine is trending. The late '90s and early aughts saw a surge in California Zinfandels, for one, that pushed past 16% and even 17%. Many consumers viewed the alcohol content as a proxy for quality: the bigger, the better. The brazenness of XXL's branding, coupled with the shameless alcohol levels, calls to mind Four Loko, which originally combined booze with caffeine. (Four Loko got rid of the caffeine after the Food and Drug Administration raised health concerns.) The similarity isn't a coincidence. Like Four Loko, 'we're trying to be unique and bold,' Oliveira said. But hopefully with fewer cardiac events: 'I remember drinking (Four Loko) when it came out and thinking my heart was going to explode.' XXL has become a fascination of TikTok creators, whose reviews are mostly enthusiastic while also observing that the drinks resemble liquor more than wine. As CrownMeCutie put it, 'It's like a wine margarita.' The TikTokers may love it, but a recent tasting of several XXL bottles in the Chronicle newsroom produced near-universal revulsion. The drinks are arrestingly sweet, so syrupy and boozy and heavy that it feels like you're swigging Gran Marnier. The best of the lineup, reporters agreed, were the guava flavor ('I could see bianco vermouth vibes,' said restaurant critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan); the sparkling Moscato, which recalled Martinelli's sparkling cider; and the blackberry, which despite its cloying density gestured toward some acidity. The boldest of the bunch, the 21% Cali Extreme, doesn't have any fruit flavorings — one might say it is wine-flavored. Somehow, that only made the sweetness more conspicuous. Oliveira is right that a lot of low- and no-alcohol wines taste disgusting. But the other extreme doesn't seem much better. The question is which end of the spectrum will have the greater staying power. Oliveira believes the growth of low-alcohol wines will ultimately be a blip: 'I think that people still want alcohol to be a part of their lives.'
Los Angeles Times
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Fat Joe claps back against ‘disgusting lies' amid allegations of coercion, sex with minors
Rapper Fat Joe took a stand on social media against allegations of coercion, intimidation and sex with minors that emerged last week in a lawsuit filed by his former hype man. The Bronx native (birth name Joseph Cartagena) broke his silence Wednesday in a statement on Instagram informing followers that he has 'been tested the last few months' with recent deaths in his family — and now legal woes. The 54-year-old musician said he is 'fighting against these disgusting lies' about his alleged behavior and promised, 'I will not break and I will NEVER back down.' Terrance 'T.A.' Dixon filed a federal lawsuit against his former employer last week, accusing Fat Joe of underpayment, swindling him out of pay for his contribution to album tracks, ditching him in foreign countries without money or transportation home and running a criminal organization built on intimidation and violence. The lawsuit also alleges that Fat Joe forced the hype man into approximately 4,000 sex acts with women in front of him and his team and accuses the rapper of having sexual relationships with girls who were 15 and 16. Fat Joe in his statement railed against people in his close circles who 'take my love and kindness for weakness' and claimed that 'people steal from me, grow jealous of me, lie on me.' He said ultimately he and his family face the fallout of betrayal. The 'All the Way Up' rapper did not name Dixon or explicitly relay the allegations against him but instead dwelled on how haters 'decide to go after one of the things you value the most — your reputation,' including by making up 'the most insane stories' as retaliation and taking their grievances to court. He said he won't be shaken down. 'I've never let anyone on the streets extort me, so how would I ever let a crooked attorney and coward ex-hype man extort me?? I'm from the Bronx!' he said. Fat Joe spoke out after his attorney Joe Tacopina dismissed Dixon's allegations as 'complete fabrications.' In April, the rapper sued Dixon for alleged slander after the former hype man accused him on social media of flying a 16-year-old across state lines for sex — hence the suggestion of retaliation. Dixon's attorney Tyrone Blackburn was also subject to Fat Joe's ire as the rapper promised 'we will finish you in court.' New York police arrested Blackburn on Wednesday; he was accused of hitting a process server with his car in New York City and booked on suspicion of assault, NBC News reported. Blackburn's lawyer told XXL the arrest seemed to be 'somewhat of a setup.' Fat Joe concluded his Instagram statement by asserting that the era of attorneys leveraging their 'law license as a badge to extort people and destroy families with no evidence is over!! 'I'm not the one!! You've messed with the wrong one this time!!' Times assistant editor Christie D'Zurilla contributed to this report.
IOL News
11-06-2025
- Business
- IOL News
New distribution centre powers Shoprite's XXL Saving promotion
At the forefront of this massive undertaking is the Riverfields Distribution Centre (DC) in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni. Image: Supplied. The Shoprite Group has showcased the capabilities of the retail giant's newest addition to its network of 29 distribution centres across South Africa: the state-of-the-art Riverfields facility. Shoprite said there was no better time to show off the new facility with its Checkers' XXL Savings currently taking place. Shoprite said that this year's promotion promises to deliver over R45 million in savings to customers daily. "Last year's XXL campaign was a resounding success, moving an astonishing 3 million litres of milk, 55 tonnes of instant coffee, and 650 tonnes of cheese—enough dairy to outweigh three Boeing 747s. With an extensive range of new deals across key categories including groceries, baby products, general merchandise, and liquor, Shoprite aims to surpass the record volumes achieved in 2024," the group said. At the forefront of this massive undertaking is the Riverfields Distribution Centre (DC) in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni. Strategically positioned to serve over 500 supermarkets across Gauteng, this advanced 94,000 m² facility is expected to meet the peak demand of the XXL campaign. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ At the forefront of this massive undertaking is the Riverfields Distribution Centre (DC) in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni. Image: Supplied. The centre's operational capacity allows for 220 trucks to be on-site at any given time, optimising logistics by shortening delivery routes, which in turn reduces transport costs and carbon emissions. Andrew Havinga, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Shoprite Group, highlighted the innovation behind their logistics. 'By optimising the distance between supplier, DC and store, we've created the shortest and most responsive supply chain in South Africa,' Havinga said. This efficient system is bolstered by real-time tracking, predictive analytics, and high-efficiency sortation technologies, ensuring customers receive the freshest and highest quality products daily. The Riverfields DC operates with an impressive selection of over 16,000 products, ranging from dry goods to perishables and convenience meals, including approximately 700 varieties of fresh fruit and vegetables. 'Riverfields was designed to support high-volume trading periods like the Checkers XXL promotion,' even as it lays the groundwork for the company's long-term commitment to infrastructure investment, enhanced supply chain capabilities, and job creation,' Havinga added. The introduction of the Riverfields DC has resulted in the creation of around 1,700 job opportunities, with 750 roles filled by local residents in a community grappling with an unemployment rate nearing 37%. The Shoprite Group's distribution centres across the country employ around 10,000 individuals, encompassing roles in warehousing, driving, and support services. As South Africa's retail landscape evolves, the Shoprite Group is poised to leverage technological advancements, operational efficiencies, and community engagement to redefine the shopping experience while supporting economic growth within its operating regions. At the forefront of this massive undertaking is the Riverfields Distribution Centre (DC) in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni. Image: Supplied. BUSINESS REPORT Visit:
