Rolling Stone USA - 04.2020

(C. Jardin) #1

Normani, Megan Thee Stallion, and SZA are three
of music’s boldest new voices. But as we learned in
our second Women Shaping the Future issue [RS
1337], that’s not all they have in common. All three
have fought through personal pain and an unfor-
giving public life to build revolutionary careers.
Normani detailed the loneliness and bigotry she
experienced as Fifth Harmony’s only black member;
Megan Thee Stallion looked back on her intense
rise, which happened while she was grieving for
her late mother and working toward a health-care-
management degree. Similarly, SZA talked about
the insecurities she faces about carving out her own
path as an artist, while also reflecting on the losses
of her grandmother and her friend Mac Miller.


14 | Rolling Stone | April 2020


rusyaidigrnde:
Three queens
and we are still
waiting for the
collab!

Correspondence + LOVE LETTERS & ADVICE


Pop’s Ambitious New Class


“This is a


lady of today:


appearing


how she wants,


living and


thriving on her


terms. Truly in


love over this.”
—Melissa Cooper, via Twitter

“SZA is a force to be reckoned with,” tweeted
Alyssa Sullivan. “I’m glad she’s back in the game.”
Another reader wrote, “[Normani] was forced into
the background and then popped off with a record
that slaps. I have more than half of her songs on my
gym playlist because she motivates me.”
For some readers, the superstar trio on the cover
told a bigger story. “Thank you for this gorgeous
representation of black women in music,” tweeted
Sam Jones. “I want my daughter to see more mag-
azines that have covers with women who look like
her.” Others were just happy to discover new artists:
“Great article,” James Suman wrote about Normani.
“I didn’t know who she was before reading this
(sorry, I’m an ‘old man’). What a wise person.”

In our last issue, staff writer Tessa Stuart followed Stacey
Abrams, the Georgia politician quickly becoming the Demo-
cratic Party’s brightest star. Abrams detailed how she is
building Fair Fight, a coalition battling voting restrictions
and suppression tactics that raised $21 million in 2019 — and
traced her remarkable journey from poverty to Yale Law and
the Georgia House of Representatives. Among readers, the
story only confirmed what Joe Biden has hinted at since last
year: “With a ticket of Biden and Abrams, we would not only
win, but the two of them could put our country back togeth-
er,” tweeted Susan Dine.

Stacey Abrams’ Political Machine


REACTION


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Uncovering the
Plastic Crisis
This is the most comprehensive, enraging
piece I’ve read on this crisis [“Planet Plas-
tic,” RS 1337]. Thank you for illuminating
the true farce in our current “recycling”
system, and those who profit from it.
—Ryan Bartlett, via Twitter

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo plastics may be
unrecyclable, but couldn’t they be reus-
able? The government could force the
polluters to pay for their waste and reuse
it in other markets, as in shredding it up
and adding it to asphalt, for starters.
—Dianne Laheurte, via Twitter

The majority of the public is led to be-
lieve that our waste is managed through
recycling, not sold and swept under
the rug to pollute the oceans. So many
people try to do the right thing but are
misled, again. Lied to, again.
—Suzanne Cuey, via Twitter

Resurrecting Elvis
His estate is bound to suffer [“Can Elvis
Presley Rise Again?” RS 1337], but I think
Graceland is making the right move in
turning the grounds into a venue so a
broader audience will still be drawn to
a special place. It’s a national landmark.
Whether you like it or not, Elvis and his
legacy aren’t going anywhere.
—Aaron Halbrook, via Facebook
Free download pdf