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    Julia Fox and Others Try Nearly Nude Looks at Oscars and Vanity Fair

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    Julia Fox followed up Bianca Censori’s much-discussed Grammys moment with a sheer dress at Vanity Fair’s party. Others joined her in the less-is-more approach.About a month after Bianca Censori caused a commotion for posing on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards in a completely sheer minidress, another woman with ties to Ye arrived in a similarly nearly naked look to Vanity Fair’s Oscars after-party on Sunday. This time, it was Julia Fox, who previously dated the rapper and designer formerly known as Kanye West.Ms. Fox’s sheer garment of choice, by the Turkish designer Dilara Findikoglu, was a maxi dress that involved some ruching to give it a bit more shape. Strands of Ms. Fox’s wavy hair extensions were strategically placed underneath the dress, covering the necessary areas.It was a look that drew a great deal of attention and one that invited numerous comparisons to Ms. Censori, whose outfit reveal at the Grammys was bold enough that some falsely said it had led to her and Ye, her husband, being asked to leave.On Sunday night, Ms. Fox was not the only one at the Vanity Fair party in a provocative look.Among the provocative looks at Vanity Fair’s Oscars party were, clockwise from top left, Zoë Kravitz in Saint Laurent, Olivia Wilde in Chloé, Emily Ratajkowski in Ludovic de Saint Sernin and Kendall Jenner in vintage Mugler.Clockwise from top left, Amy Sussman/Getty Images; Danny Moloshok/Reuters; Neilson Barnard/Getty Images; Amy Sussman/Getty ImagesHistorically, Vanity Fair’s annual event has allowed celebrities the freedom to be a little more risqué and experimental in their fashion choices after the comparatively conservative red carpet at the Oscars. In 2023, Emily Ratajkowski wore a long-sleeved, see-through chain mail gown by Feben. Hunter Schafer’s Ann Demeulemeester look from 2023 consisted of a single leather feather for a bandeau top and a silky slip skirt. In 2024, Vanessa Hudgens revealed her baby bump in a sheer black Alberta Ferretti dress with a cape.This year, though, naked dressing seemed to particularly thrive at the event.Zoë Kravitz wore a satin long-sleeved gown by Saint Laurent that exposed her bottom through a bead-embellished mesh cutout on the back of the dress.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Ye’s Website Selling T-Shirts With Swastikas Is Taken Down

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      A commercial for the shirts aired in some local markets during the Super Bowl, days after the rapper and designer called himself a Nazi on social media. The website was taken down Tuesday.Ye, the rapper and designer formerly known as Kanye West, aired a commercial in some markets during the Super Bowl that promoted a website selling a single product: T-shirts with swastikas.In the 30-second commercial, Ye appears to be filming a close-up of his face while lying in a dentist’s chair. “I spent, like, all the money for the commercial on these new teeth,” he said, smiling into the camera. “So, once again, I had to shoot it on the iPhone.”Ye then directs people to his online store, Yeezy.com, which was selling only one item as of early Tuesday: a $20 white T-shirt with a black swastika. According to Variety, when the commercial aired Sunday night, the website was selling a range of non-branded clothing, but shortly after it was selling only the shirt with the swastika.On Tuesday morning, the website for his store appeared to have gone offline, replaced by a message that said, “This store is unavailable.” A spokesperson for Shopify, the online platform that processes the website’s orders, said that Ye’s online store “did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms so we removed them from Shopify.”The ad aired days after Ye unleashed a rant on social media in which he called himself a Nazi and professed his love for Adolf Hitler. He later deactivated his X account.On Monday, the Anti-Defamation League condemned the commercial, writing on X that “there’s no excuse for this kind of behavior.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Ye Takes Back Apology and Calls Himself a Nazi in Social Media Rant

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      The rapper praised Hitler and took back an apology he made in 2023 for his past antisemitic remarks.Ye, the rapper and designer formerly known as Kanye West, took back the apology he made in 2023 for his past antisemitic statements, declared that he was a Nazi and professed his love for Adolf Hitler in an hourslong rant on social media.“I’m never apologizing for my Jewish comments,” he said in a post laced with vulgar language on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, as part of a barrage that began late Thursday night and lasted into Friday morning.The taunting statements were in stark contrast to an apology he made in 2023 after he had come under fire for making a series of antisemitic and pro-Nazi remarks, prompting businesses including Adidas to cut ties with him. In his 2023 apology, which was written in Hebrew, Ye asked forgiveness and said it “was not my intention to offend or demean, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused.”Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement on Friday morning that the organization had condemned Ye’s “dangerous behavior” and called the rapper’s recent posts on X “a flagrant and unequivocal display of hate.”“We know this game all too well,” Greenblatt said. “Let’s call Ye’s hate-filled public rant for what it really is: a sad attempt for attention that uses Jews as a scapegoat. But unfortunately, it does get attention because Kanye has a far-reaching platform on which to spread his antisemitism and hate. Words matter. And as we’ve seen too many times before, hateful rhetoric can prompt real-world consequences.”A representative for Ye did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.Ye’s other posts touched on a series of topics, including Elon Musk, President Trump’s inauguration, and the see-through dress his wife, Bianca Censori, wore on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards last Sunday. “I have dominion over my wife,” he said.Over the years, Ye had mentioned several times a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, but in a podcast interview this week, he said that he had been misdiagnosed and that he has autism. More

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      Kanye West Announces He Was Diagnosed With Autism

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      The rapper and designer formerly known as Kanye West revealed the diagnosis during a podcast interview where he also discussed his upcoming album.Less than a week after his controversial appearance on the Grammy Awards red carpet, in which his wife stripped down to an entirely sheer dress, Ye, the rapper and designer formerly known as Kanye West, announced in a podcast interview that he had been diagnosed with autism.Over the past few years, Ye has frequently mentioned a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, which he alluded to on the cover of his album “ye” in 2018, with scrawled green text that read “I hate being Bi-Polar its awesome.”On the track “Yikes,” Ye said being bipolar was not a disability but rather a superpower. That same year, in an interview with The New York Times, he said he had been “learning how to not be on meds.”But on an episode of “The Download,” hosted by Justin Laboy, a former professional basketball player turned internet personality, Ye discussed his mental health and said he had been misdiagnosed. In the interview, which was released on Wednesday, he said that his wife, Bianca Censori, had challenged him to get a second opinion, and that he sought out a doctor who he said had previously worked with the singer Justin Bieber.“Come to find out it’s really a case of autism that I have,” Ye said.“Autism takes you to a ‘Rain Man’ thing where you’re like, I’m gonna wear this Trump hat because I just like Trump in general, and then when people tell you to not do it you just get on that one point,” he added, making reference to the 1988 film starring Dustin Hoffman as a man with autism.Messages to a representative for Ye seeking further clarity on the diagnosis were not immediately returned.In 2020, Kim Kardashian, who was then married to Ye, defended the rapper in an Instagram post after a series of erratic social media posts. In it, she attributed at least some of his actions to his diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Two years later, Ye made a series of antisemitic and offensive comments that led Adidas to end its longtime relationship with him and the Creative Artists Agency to drop him as a client.On social media, the reactions to this week’s podcast interview, in which Ye also discussed his upcoming album, “Bully,” and the ongoing feud between the rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake, were mixed.In comments on the podcast’s Instagram account, some users praised Ye for his openness and chattered excitedly about the new album, which he said will be released later this year. Others continued to criticize him for the barely there dress he designed for Ms. Censori to wear at the Grammys.On the social media platform X, other users voiced concern for Mr. West’s mental health, with many noting that diagnoses of autism and bipolar disorder do not have to be mutually exclusive. More

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      DJ Clark Kent, Who Introduced Jay-Z to the Notorious B.I.G., Dies at 58

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      He was a producer and club D.J. who helped rappers find their voices and fortunes, and who later became known as a raconteur of hip-hop history.Antonio Franklin, known as DJ Clark Kent, a widely respected hip-hop insider for four decades who had influential relationships with many leading rappers, died on Thursday at his home in Greenbrook, a township in northern New Jersey. He was 58. The cause was colon cancer, his wife, Kesha (Vernon) Franklin, said.Mr. Franklin’s career followed the trajectory of hip-hop itself. He entered the scene just as it was taking shape, in New York in the 1980s, and he reached prime time when rap itself did, in the mid-90s. After being a club D.J. for years, he moved on to work as a producer and took jobs with Atlantic Records and Motown.In 1995, he produced a rap classic — and his first hit song — with “Player’s Anthem” by Junior M.A.F.I.A., a group formed by the Notorious B.I.G., who also appeared on the track. The song became a breakout single for the group and introduced Lil’ Kim to the international hip-hop audience.The next year, he produced three songs on Jay-Z’s debut album, “Reasonable Doubt.” His most noteworthy contributions were to the song “Brooklyn’s Finest.” Mr. Franklin provided the vocals for the hook, and he suggested to Jay-Z and his manager, Damon Dash, that they include Notorious B.I.G. on the track. The two somewhat hesitantly agreed — without realizing that Mr. Franklin had already asked Notorious B.I.G. to wait downstairs. The collaboration took place instantly.That kind of behind-the-scenes orchestration was ordinary for Mr. Franklin. In 1998, he saw a young man who went by Shyne freestyling in a barbershop, then introduced him to Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, who signed him to a record deal on the spot.“I practically knew every rapper before they made their records,” Mr. Franklin told the pop culture publication Complex. “They wanted to be familiar with the D.J.s and what was happening in hip-hop. I was happening in hip-hop.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Why is Ye, Formerly Kanye West, Doing a Show in China?

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      The provocative artist once known as Kanye West has received approval that was denied to Maroon 5 and Bon Jovi. China’s economic woes might be why.When the news broke that Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, would be performing in China on Sunday, the elation of many of his fans was mixed with another emotion: confusion.Why would the notoriously prickly Chinese government let in the notoriously provocative Ye? Why was the listening party, as Ye calls his shows, taking place not in Beijing or Shanghai, but in Hainan, an obscure island province? Under a trending hashtag on the social media site Weibo on the subject, one popular comment read simply “How?” alongside an exploding-head emoji.The answer may lie in China’s struggling economy. Since China reopened its borders after three years of coronavirus lockdowns, the government has been trying to stimulate consumer spending and promote tourism.“Vigorously introducing new types of performances desired by young people, and concerts from international singers with super internet traffic, is the outline for future high-quality development,” the government of Haikou, the city hosting the listening party, posted on its website on Thursday. But it is unclear whether the appearance by Ye — who would be perhaps the highest-profile Western artist to perform in mainland China since the pandemic — is part of a broader loosening or an exception.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The 15 Songs That Hit No. 1 This Year (So Far)

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      Hear tracks by Shaboozey, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar and more.Shaboozey reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 this week for the first time with “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”Daniel PrakopcykDear listeners,It’s Caryn the editor here again, seizing control of the playlist one more time (don’t worry, you’ll have Lindsay back next week).On Monday, Shaboozey reached the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” making him the second Black artist to hit No. 1 on both the all-genre singles chart and Hot Country Songs. Somehow both milestones came this year: Beyoncé did it first with “Texas Hold ’Em.”The news got me scrolling through what’s topped the Hot 100 so far in 2024 — over the last 27 weeks, 15 songs have done it. And we’re going to listen to all of them in The Amplifier today.It’s always interesting to see how the official chart stacks up against cultural vibes. It may feel like the summer of “Espresso,” but Sabrina Carpenter’s Certified Bop hasn’t hit No. 1 in the United States (yet). It doesn’t just seem like Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” is dominating 2024: It is, with 11 straight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. But only one of its songs — its opener, “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone — has spent any time atop the Hot 100. Ariana Grande’s “Eternal Sunshine” has had two songs summit the singles chart; Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” had the one. Billie Eilish and Chappell Roan haven’t hit No. 1 yet this year, but I wouldn’t count them out.The longest run belongs to “I Had Some Help,” by Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen (six weeks, five of them consecutive). Two songs from the Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake beef hit No. 1; perhaps unsurprisingly considering the outcome, they were both Lamar’s.So let’s take a trip through the recent past together — and for fun (or counterprogramming), see how the biggest songs of the year (so far) compare to our critics’ best songs of the year (so far).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Julia Fox: The Popcast (Deluxe) Interview

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTubeThis week’s episode of Popcast (Deluxe), the weekly culture roundup show on YouTube hosted by Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, features an interview with the actress and downtown New York icon Julia Fox, speaking on a range of topics, including:Her appearance in the recent Charli XCX music video, “360,” with a slew of other “It Girls”Being the anti-“It Girl”Making decisions after starring in the movie “Uncut Gems,” along Adam Sandler, to right-size her fameHow motherhood has changed her relationship to adventureUpcoming acting projectsHow being transparent about her wild teen years shapes how she presents nowWhat she learned, good and bad, from her relationship with Kanye WestHer new song, “Down the Drain”Pop songs made by It Girl icons Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Addison Rae, Kim Kardashian, Farrah Abraham and Naomi CampbellTrying on different creative costumes, from acting to TV hosting to musicHer favorite magazines and online mediaWhat she learned from her infamous viral apartment tour videoSnack of the weekConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. More

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      Ye Is Sued for Hostile Work Environment at Donda Academy and Yeezy

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      A former employee sued the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, claiming a hostile work environment at Yeezy, his fashion brand, and Donda Academy, his private school.Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, was sued Tuesday by a former employee who accused him of discrimination and creating a hostile work environment by calling Adolf Hitler “great,” disparaging Jews and saying that “gay people are not true Christians.”The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by Trevor Phillips, who says he was hired in November 2022, around the time a series of antisemitic remarks publicly made by Ye lost the artist his major-label record deal and put his businesses in jeopardy.Phillips was initially hired to oversee “projects related to growing cotton” and other plants in an effort to make Yeezy, Ye’s fashion brand, “self-sustainable,” the lawsuit said, and then went on to work for Donda Academy, Ye’s private school in Southern California.Phillips’s lawsuit claims that Ye made antisemitic comments in front of staff members at Donda Academy, including, “the Jews are out to get me” and “the Jews are stealing all my money.” After Adidas ended its decade-long partnership with Ye over his public remarks, the lawsuit claimed, the rapper told Phillips: “The Jews are working with Adidas to freeze up my money to try and make me broke!”The lawsuit claims that Ye treated Black employees at Donda Academy, including Phillips, “considerably worse than white employees.”Representatives for Ye and Donda Academy did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More