Job opportunities; weekly roundups for music, art, and footwear; A24 built the Backrooms; and more
Welcome Digest [5.15.26]
Welcome To May 15th
Today’s Important Headlines
Music roundup
Drake dropped three albums: Iceman, Habibti, Maid of Honour; Lucki’s album is out along with a new documentary; New Carti remix on a track with rising Atlanta rapper FATT SMAXK; Bladee drops a new song “Blondie” along with a video; The Rolling Stones with a new single “In the Stars” along with a music video featuring deepfake younger versions of themselves; There’s also new releases from SALEM, Vegyn, Ear (A24 collab), Klein, The Strokes, Lil Shine, bleood, and BNYX.
Artworld roundup
Check out our Venice Biennale roundup here. In the wake of the Biennale buzz, NYC Art Week is now in full swing: Frieze New York opened Wednesday with 80 galleries participating in tonight’s Tribeca Gallery Night; The Met is set to merge with Neue Galerie in a deal bringing over $1.5 billion worth of art into its orbit; the second-most expensive Rothko ever was sold at public auction this week; London artist Anouska Samms accused the Met Gala’s Costume Institute of stealing and failing to credit her work; Iris van Herpen is receiving a retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum; and the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize has been awarded to Jongjin Park.
A24 built The Backrooms in real life
Ahead of A24’s upcoming Backrooms film, the studio built an immersive IRL backroom in Burbank, California, in which last night they hosted a DJ set from experimental musician Instupendo, whose work has long revolved around the aesthetics of liminal spaces. Spanning 30,000 square feet of endless fluorescent-lit yellow maze hallways, visitors can wander through the damp, carpeted liminal nightmare through today.
Highly anticipated SALEM x Supreme collection came with a surprise 31-track project
SALEM and Supreme dropped a small collection this week featuring New Era snapbacks, half-zip stadium jackets, zip-up hooded sweatshirts, rhinestone-studded graphic tees, and hospital grippy socks. SALEM, who has not released music since 2020’s Fires in Heaven, also dropped Red Dragon, a project compiling 31 tracks that had never been officially released before. The collab is highly hyped and is already projected to resell at significant mark-up. In other Supreme news, Supreme-branded gold bars released this week.
The AP x Swatch collab was a bait-and-switch
The internet went crazy this week when AP and Swatch announced a collaboration. AP said the piece would be inspired by its Royal Oak model, a highly coveted design typically worth thousands of dollars. As a result, many began camping for the release six days before launch. In a turn of events, the collaboration turned out to be a cheap detachable lanyard piece, only very loosely inspired by the craftsmanship of an actual AP Royal Oak.
Footwear roundup
adidas Originals, Y-3, and Wales Bonner’s three-way collaboration spanning footwear, apparel, and a statement leather handbag; Thrasher x adidas Predators bringing skate culture into a football silhouette; Nike Shox’s unconventional ballet shoes; Vans x Better With Age patchwork sneakers; Chloé’s jelly mules; Nike x Kids of Immigrants on a T-90 mule, which revives a classic Nike archive silhouette; Converse x Madhappy collaboration; Camper Lab’s modular shoes designed to be worn in 16 different ways; and Our Legacy Work Shop x Converse Chuck 70 “Overdyed Black” with a distressed finish.
Headline curation and words by Mikail Haroon (@mvkail)
From The Archive
An extra piece of content from the Welcome Archive for Magazine subscribers only.
White throated dippers are one of the only songbirds that hunt underwater.
They trap air in their waterproof feathers, which helps keep them warm while walking along riverbeds searching for food.
Classifieds
Exciting opportunities, employment and otherwise
VICE — Junior Social Producer (London, UK)
Full-time fixed-term role supporting shoots, guest booking, logistics, editing, and social publishing across VICE Magazine platforms. Responsibilities include producing call sheets and risk assessments, researching ideas, creating decks, and assisting across fast-paced editorial productions. Ideal candidate can shoot and edit content, thrives in collaborative environments, and has strong social media and production instincts.
Fashionista — Editorial + Multimedia Summer Intern (Remote / NYC or LA Preferred)
Paid summer internship supporting Fashionista across editorial, social media, podcast editing, and short-form video production. Responsibilities include pitching and writing stories, editing video and podcast content, creating social assets, analyzing performance, and assisting across multimedia projects. Ideal candidate is deeply engaged with fashion, beauty, and internet culture, with experience in writing, video editing, and digital content creation.
Carhartt WIP — Intern Graphic Design (Berlin, Germany)
Full-time graphic design internship supporting marketing campaigns, print materials, social assets, and digital design projects. Responsibilities include assisting with layouts, image editing, presentations, visual research, and maintaining digital archives. Ideal candidate is enrolled in a design-related degree program and proficient in Adobe Creative Suite.