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Erika and Steven make their contribution to The Ringer’s end-of-year list-making endeavor by talking about their top five pop culture friendship moments of 2023 from across reality TV, movies, music, podcasts, and television.
Hosts: Erika Ramirez and Steven Othello
Producer: Sasha Ashall
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Erika Ramirez
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Hip-Hop and professional wrestling have many parallels.
They are both filled with characters with larger-than-life personas that feed off the energy of their audiences and have critics who constantly question their authenticity. They also contain participants who tend to dabble in both.
From John Cena releasing a rap album to Wale hosting his yearly Wrestlemania weekend bash, Walemania, rap and wrestling seem to be kindred spirits. And Austin Gunn hopes to be the embodiment of said spirits.
Austin Gunn wrestles for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), one of the biggest wrestling promotions in the world and a direct competitor to the sports entertainment juggernaut World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He was trained by his father, WWE Hall of Famer and AEW talent coach Billy Gunn, with whom he frequently tags. Austin has been blessed with his father’s athletic talents and charisma, but his most surprising gift is his ability to rap.
Back on December 16, Austin released a video to his freestyle “Son of a Gunn” on his Twitter account. Fans and colleagues were taken aback by his ability to flow. Austin’s delivery was one of a pro, not a novice. His “hidden talent” became one of the most talked-about topics in professional wrestling.
We sat down with Austin to chat about his love for armbars and rap bars.
Austin Gunn: I didn’t fall in love with Hip-Hop until I started freestyling. I loved Drake growing up, and I would listen to almost everything. But in terms of actually appreciating Hip-Hop, it didn’t start until I wanted to hear my own voice over beats, and the vast artists there were to choose from [were] like J Cole, Eminem, PartyNextDoor, The Weeknd, Nas, Biggie, and Kanye West. It all depended on your mood and how you were feeling that day. Once I heard the different approaches they all had, but could sometimes tell the same message, that’s when I was hooked.
I was at my friend’s house in high school hanging out. 50 Cent came on the radio, and [my friend] wanted to see if we could both have a rap battle. He ended up not being very good at staying in rhythm, but immediately I was off to the races.
I went home that night and listened to 95.3 the whole ride home to see if I could freestyle on every single beat and challenge myself. It became a sense of therapy for me. I’m not good at talking about my feelings, so freestyling gave me an alternative to do in the car wherever I would go. I still do it to this day.
Funny enough, I’ve changed my dad’s perspective on a lot of music. His favorite artist is Post Malone. He knows every single word to every album he’s put out. I’ve also introduced him to Starboy by The Weeknd and he loves that album.
Tory Lanez, Always Never, and some other melodic types of Hip-Hop are his go-to. When it came to my music, he’s always supported it. He knows what it means to me and has always been my hype man, whether it’s in the ring or behind a microphone.
I never really did it for people’s approval. It’s always been this secret talent I’ve had and something I hold close to my heart. Up until the point I actually released an official video, my friends always knew I loved to freestyle (at parties, by myself, etc.)
Bless their souls, because I know I can get annoyed sometimes when all I wanna do is stay in the house and go through beats for hours on end. Thankfully my roommate (Saiflove) is an artist as well, so he’s the one I spend most of my time recording and creating with (we have a collab EP coming in February).
The feedback was beyond overwhelming though. Most wrestling fans want to stir up a conversation; sometimes that can be very negative. I was surprised at how well [the video] was received across all platforms (Instagram, Twitter, etc.) when I released it. It’s great to see all the positive feedback and only makes me wanna keep going. I was prepared going into it, whether the feedback was negative or positive, that I would continue to push myself and put my “art” out there into the world. All that matters to me, is if it makes one person happy, then I’m happy.
As I said, it’s a sense of therapy for me. I make time for my music on the weekends, in my long car rides to Jacksonville, and whenever I have free time at home. My mind races 24 hours a day on what my next approach will be when it comes to music.
Thankfully, I have my “notes” in my phone close to me at all times. So, no matter where I am, what I’m doing, or who I’m around, I can always put an idea in my notes and move on with my day and come back to it later. My notes are filled to the brim with lyrics, song ideas, intro ideas, etc.
I’ve always wanted to keep them separate. I never pictured myself being the “rapping wrestler” because I take music very seriously and want to tell stories within my music and my projects. For example, my wrestling character is very different from what you see when it comes to my music. In the ring, I like to have fun and be goofy with my dad. Whereas in music, I like to set the tone and dial it down. I am a huge fan of OVO and the whole vision that they portray (dark/moody/bad a** feeling to it). I just…think it would clash if I was very goofy in my raps because they come from a very different part of my life, and I approach [them] very differently.
My music influences are Drake. Everyone told me growing up I sound like “old mixtape Drake.” I’ve always appreciated his style and the way he approaches everything in music. I’m a huge fan of other artists as well — Always Never, The Weeknd, Tory Lanez, PartyNextDoor, DVSN, Roy Woods. I’m a big fan of the way OVO and XO share their vision for music. Their style is right up my alley and something I wanna portray, but in my own way.
“Drake (feat. Austin Gunn) / The Weeknd (feat. Austin Gunn).” I think those have a nice ring to it and would be a dream to actually happen. I’m trying to speak (or type) it into existence right now.
I’ve seen people in wrestling try to convert over to the music scene my entire life. The thing about music is that it’s subjective. There are a lot of people that enjoy certain types of music all over the world that I don’t particularly like, or I’m [not] a fan of… I just want to create my own vision, release my music, and if people like it, then that’s a win for me.
Music is a way for people to express themselves. I would hate for an artist not to release music because they don’t think they’re the best. At the end of the day, there’s probably a fan you don’t know about that lives and breathes your music. So, if you’re reading this: KEEP GOING and do it FOR YOU.
That’s a hard one. I think Travis Scott has so much energy that it would be extremely entertaining to see him in a ring. People would feed off his energy alone and get behind him. A wrestler that I think would be a great rapper is Austin Gunn (…I had to do it!).
You can catch Austin on AEW Dark.
AEW Dynamite airs every Wednesday at 8 PM on TNT.
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Deascent
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — The man charged with murder in the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur knew the gravity of his arrest last week near his home on the outskirts of Las Vegas, according to police body camera footage released Friday.
“So what they got you for, man?” an officer asks Duane “Keffe D” Davis.
“Biggest case in Las Vegas history,” Davis says, recounting the date that Shakur was gunned down — “September 7th, 1996.”
Police and prosecutors allege Davis was the mastermind behind the drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip that killed Shakur at the age of 25.
Now, more than 27 years later, Davis was handcuffed around the wrists and in ankle shackles in the backseat of Las Vegas police car headed toward a county jail, where he remains held without bond.
“I ain’t worried,” Davis told the officer. “I ain’t did (expletive).”
The police videos, totaling more than an hour of footage, show Davis arrested around sunrise on Sept. 29 while walking in his otherwise quiet neighborhood.
“Hey, Keffe. Metro Police,” an officer said. “Come over here.”
Davis, holding a water bottle, cooperated as he was patted down and handcuffed next to an unmarked police vehicle.
The 60-year-old had been a long-known suspect in the case. He publicly admitted his role in the killing in interviews ahead of his 2019 tell-all memoir, “Compton Street Legend.” His arrest came two months after police raided his home, renewing interest in one of hip-hop’s most enduring mysteries.
In the videos, Davis recalled the July 17 raid and peeking over a gate at the same time as a SWAT officer. He said his arrest that morning was much more low-key.
As they drove on the freeway en route to police headquarters to interview Davis, he asks if he was followed the previous night. The officer says no.
“So why you all didn’t bring the media?” Davis said.
The officer asked why police would bring the media.
“That’s what you all do,” Davis said.
The self-described gangster from Compton, California, hasn’t yet entered a plea in the case, and he denied a request from The Associated Press for an interview at the jail. His longtime lawyer in Los Angeles, Edi Faal, told AP he has no comment on Davis’ behalf.
Davis told police that he had moved to the Las Vegas area in January because of his wife’s job. But the audio is redacted when police later ask him what he has been doing since the move.
In an indictment unsealed last Friday in Clark County District Court, Davis is accused of orchestrating the killing of Shakur and providing his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, with the gun to do it. Anderson, who denied involvement in Shakur’s killing, died in 1998.
Grand jurors also voted to add sentencing enhancements for the use of a deadly weapon and alleged gang activity. If Davis is convicted, that could add decades to his sentence.
In Nevada, a person can be convicted of murder for helping another person commit the crime.
Davis’ first court appearance this week was cut short when he asked the judge for a postponement while he retains counsel in Las Vegas. He’s due in court again Oct. 19.
Authorities say Shakur’s killing stemmed from a rivalry and competition for dominance in a musical genre that, at the time, was dubbed “gangsta rap.” It pitted West Coast members of a Crips sect that Davis has said he led in Compton against East Coast members of a Bloods gang sect associated with rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight, founder of Death Row Records, the music label representing Shakur at the time of his death.
Antczak reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed.
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Nearly three decades after Tupac Shakur died as a result of a drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas Strip, local authorities have arrested and charged Duane “Keffe D” Davis in connection with the case. Two officials told the AP that Davis, a former member of the Southside Compton Crips, was taken into custody early Friday, and his indictment on a murder charge was announced a few hours later.
Shakur’s 1996 death came at the height of his fame, when he was 25 years old and embroiled in the East Coast–West Coast hip-hop feud that captivated the music press in the ’90s. The shooting immediately attracted the fascination of rap fans and has remained a subject of considerable intrigue. Davis has spoken about and documented his role in the shooting over the years, writing in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, that he was in the Cadillac from which the bullets were fired at Shakur.
“I don’t understand why people act like Tupac was an angel,” Davis wrote in the book.
In 2011, LA Weekly reported that Davis told investigators that Diddy had offered him $1 million to kill Shakur and record label cofounder Suge Knight, who was driving the BMW in which the rapper was shot. (At the time, Diddy told the publication that Davis’s story was ”pure fiction and completely ridiculous.” A representative declined to comment Friday.) Las Vegas police raided a home belonging to Davis’s wife in July and reportedly collected electronic devices, an issue of Vibe featuring Shakur, several bullets, a large number of photographs, and a copy of Davis’s memoir.
Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles detective who investigated the killing, told the AP that Davis’s public accounts of his role spurred the investigation that led to his arrest. “It’s those events that have given Las Vegas the ammunition and the leverage to move forward,” he said. “Prior to Keffe D’s public declarations, the cases were unprosecutable as they stood.”
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Dan Adler
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In the beginning, there was Ms. Lauryn Hill.
In 1992, she emerged as a phenom as the first lady of The Fugees. Composed of Hill, Wyclef Jean, and Pras Michel, the group solidified themselves as a hip-hop powerhouse before their controversial split in 1997. Instead of crumbling, though, Hill rose even higher with her debut solo album, 1998’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” The album — which she’s primarily credited with writing, producing, and arranging — quickly cemented Hill’s lasting impact in hip-hop.
“Miseducation” not only provided a distinct onset of timeless lessons taken from the informal school of Ms. Hill, but it also was her audible love letter to hip-hop, Black women, and the communal Black experience.
“Yo hip-hop, started out in the heart / Now everybody tryin’ to chart,” Hill rapped on “Superstar.” As she spoke to the need of maintaining one’s self amid fame to govern true artistic integrity, Hill cleverly used her past experience in the industry to discuss issues she’s faced as a Black woman in hip-hop, both as a praised superstar and a potential target.
Now, as the album marks its 25th anniversary alongside hip-hop turning 50, we’re revisiting what makes it such a fundamental part of hip-hop history — and its enduring life lessons straight from Hill herself. In spite of the backlash she’s received for her crowning glory over the years (including accusations of musical theft and improper accreditation), the New Jersey native persevered nonetheless — declaring in her 2018 Medium essay that she is “the [sole] architect of [her] creative expression.”
“With ‘The Miseducation,’ there was no precedent. I was, for the most part, free to explore, experiment and express,” Hill, now 48 and a mother of six, explained to Rolling Stone in January 2021. “After ‘The Miseducation,’ there were scores of tentacled obstructionists, politics, repressing agendas, unrealistic expectations, and saboteurs EVERYWHERE. People had included me in their own narratives of THEIR successes as it pertained to my album, and if this contradicted my experience, I was considered an enemy.” In the age of cancel culture, it’s something that she and fellow women rappers continue to deal with.
Then and now, “Miseducation” was about addressing community as a testament of relatability. On “Doo Wop (That Thing),” she states, “Don’t be a hard rock when you really are a gem / Baby girl, respect is just a minimum / N****s f*cked up and you still defending ’em / Now, Lauryn is only human / Don’t think I haven’t been through the same predicament.” The breakout single garnered commercial success with two Grammy wins for best R&B song and best female R&B vocal performance as Hill sermonized why we need to be cautious about how we approach internal and external relationships with the famous proverb, “How you gon’ win when you ain’t right within?”
One walked so the other could run.
Meanwhile, Hill’s revered ballad “To Zion” offered a conscious ode to impending motherhood. “Unsure of what the balance held / I touched my belly overwhelmed / By what I had been chosen to perform . . . But everybody told me to be smart / ‘Look at your career,’ they said / ‘Lauryn, baby use your head’ / But instead I chose to use my heart,” she sang to her then-unborn son Zion.
Cardi B faced similar condemnation in 2018 when she revealed she was pregnant with her daughter, Kulture. But instead of folding under pressure, the Bronx-bred emcee tweeted, “I started winning when the whole world was doubting on me! think imma lose with my little baby counting on me?” It seemed to piggyback off Hill’s explanation of “To Zion.”
As Hill put it in her own Medium essay: “The song To Zion gave encouragement to women during challenging pregnancies. There are children who were given a chance at life because their Mothers experienced moral and emotional support through this song.”
It’s no coincidence that after Hill first won best rap album with The Fugees at the 1997 Grammys and swept at the 1999 ceremony — taking home five of 10 nominations, which included album of the year, best R&B album, and best new artist — Cardi became the first woman emcee to win best rap album as a solo artist in 2019 with her debut LP, “Invasion of Privacy.” One walked so the other could run.
Hill not only paved a way for women rappers to be all-encompassing, but she also created what is controversially one of the best diss tracks in hip-hop history. With “Lost Ones,” she apparently addressed the affair and severed personal relationship she had with Fugees band member Jean. She chose violence straight out of the gate, rapping on her LP’s second track, “It’s funny how money change a situation / Miscommunication lead to complication / My emancipation don’t fit your equation . . . Some wan’ play young Lauryn like she dumb / But remember not a game new under the sun / Everything you did has already been done.”
Danyel Smith, former editor in chief of Vibe and host of the podcast “Black Girl Songbook,” noted on her “The Diss-Education of Lauryn Hill” episode from March 2021, “While there’s so much going on on ‘Lost Ones,’ it’s exquisitely focused and refined. Diss records are called diss records because one rapper is being disrespectful of another. ‘Lost Ones’ wins because Lauryn is being respectfully disrespectful.” Smith also broke down the track bar for bar, unpacking everything from Hill’s subtle confrontation of her ex’s insecurities, manipulation, and hypocrisy to gaslighting, the self-awareness of her infancy in the game, and the threat of karma.
After the hostile outpouring of emotions on “Lost Ones,” the track “I Used to Love Him” featuring Mary J. Blige welcomed that communal embrace of sisterhood and pain. On the track, Hill and Blige both analyze their transgressions from the toxic aftermath of relationships as they seek and accept spiritual repentance. “But my heart is gold, see, I took back my soul / And totally let my creator control / The life which was his, the life which was his to begin with,” they conjointly sing. The collaboration remains underrated in the grander conversation of hip-hop and R&B duets, even though this is one of the more R&B-leaning records on the album. But in true Hill fashion, she has no problem being an outlier among the crowd.
Hill truly offered Black women a belief in self.
During a time when the “sexualization of the Black female body was the standard,” as Hill wrote for Medium, she stood for something different. As a dark-skinned, innately talented, beautiful, cognizant woman with swag who could masterfully articulate the complexities of being such, Hill combated the boys’ club rhetoric by being “a breath of fresh air, a hope and — unrealistically — a solution to what was wrong with hip-hop and its representation of women at the time,” author Joan Morgan wrote in “She Begat This: 20 Years of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” Hill truly offered Black women a belief in self and intimate sensuality without the ascendant hypersexualization.
And she allowed that complexity to shine through in a combination of sound and lyricism. My favorite aspect about “Miseducation” is that it’s a perfect marriage of hip-hop and R&B. It makes sense for fans of either genre to be torn about how to categorize the album. Hill’s bars are poetic and intentional, but she also showcases her softer side with romantic hymns.
“Tell Him,” a song of yearning, finds Hill reprising biblical references to express the depths of her love — “Let me be patient, let me be kind . . . ‘Cause love is not boastful / Oooh and love is not loud.” Then you have “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” one of those covers that feels so much like a precursor as Hill puts her artistic twang on the Frankie Valli original. Of course, there’s “Ex-Factor,” which taught the masses the word “reciprocity” and gave a succinct definition in the opening line: “It could all be so simple / But you’d rather make it hard.” “Miseducation” does an immediate 180 as a gentle Hill analyzes shattering heartbreak and questions shortcomings on the track: “Is this just a silly game / That forces you to act this way? / Forces you to scream my name / Then pretend that you can’t stay.” Despite Jean being the unnamed muse of a solid portion of the LP, the song emotes a much-needed catharsis on Hill’s part.
And finally, the D’Angelo-assisted offering “Nothing Even Matters” is arguably one of the few perfect love songs to ever exist, alongside modern-day records like H.E.R. and Daniel Caesar’s “Best Part.” Sandwiched in between the raw storytelling on “Every Ghetto, Every City” and the blaring speaking-in-tongues philosophy on “Everything Is Everything,” this ballad put every other narrative on pause and transported listeners into another dimension. It was as though Hill needed a reminder of what healthy love was — personified, concrete, and tangible.
When Hill recorded her unofficial live sophomore album, “MTV Unplugged No. 2.0,” she shared, “I’m just retired from the fantasy part,” referring to the “public illusion” that “held [her] hostage” during the marvel of “Miseducation.” While the debut may be her freedom cry, we’re thankful the masterpiece exists.
In February 2021, “Miseducation” earned its well-deserved diamond certification from the RIAA, and it remains a staple among music lovers. This goes to show that if you’re going to have one studio album quantify your entire musical legacy, let it be something like Hill’s debut.
“Miseducation” is her alpha and omega — a body of work so impactful that it continues to inspire generations. Where would we be as a culture without the genius, vulnerability, and passion displayed on “Miseducation”? It’s a sonic work of innovation; a heartfelt tale of womanhood; a detailed, earnest journey of adulthood; and a clever outpouring so majestic that one album was just enough. And when it’s all said and done, it’ll forever stand the test of time. Amen.
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Mya Abraham
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Harry Tsang moved to Los Angeles about eight years ago. He was ready to make the switch from his previous base of Orlando to operate on a bigger stage. At 32 years old, he prides himself on his experience in the social media business—“I’m among the oldest, basically,” he said. Within a couple years of his move, he began managing Woah Vicky, a blonde 17-year-old social media personality who made sport of defending her claim that she was Black. The maneuver brought Vicky a short run of 2017-vintage celebrity, and it brought Tsang in touch with Lil Tay, a 10-year-old from Vancouver who called herself “the youngest flexer” and covered herself online in hundred-dollar bills and designer clothes.
“Danielle Bregoli Brawls With Woah Vicky and Lil Tay!!!” a TMZ headline read in 2018. Vicky had been in a feud, she said, with Bregoli (another social media personality better known as Bhad Bhabie) and they met up outside the Americana mall in Glendale, California, to escalate the dispute. Lil Tay came along, and her star began to rise; she associated online with rappers Lil Pump, Chief Keef, and XXXTentacion, and met up with storied hip-hop producer Rick Rubin. In September 2018, Tsang said, he flew to Vancouver to work out an arrangement with Lil Tay’s father to become her manager, joining the gaggle of adults jousting for a hand in her future.
For a numbing, amusing, concerning few months, Lil Tay was a persistent social media phenomenon. She said she grew up broke in Atlanta and dropped out of Harvard. She recorded rap music and sent brash provocations at other online personalities to form absorbing, if obvious, contrasts of stature, age, and race. She was also the central figure in a series of battles among relatives, hangers-on, and manager types. “There’s a lot of, quote, unquote, former managers,” one of the latter recently told me, “but no one really represented her to the fullest, like I did.”
After Lil Tay and her half-brother Jason Tian moved to Los Angeles to build her career, Jason developed some notoriety of his own. In May 2018, a video circulated of him feeding his sister lines to recite for her persona, and New York reported in 2019 that he operated her Instagram account. Jason was at the time a 16-year old rapper and YouTuber, but appeared to find a new lane as Lil Tay’s Svengali as she became known for a series of staged stunts and controversies. In 2021, allegations that Lil Tay’s father, Chris Hope, abused her appeared on her Instagram. Hope denied the claims and sent Instagram a cease-and-desist letter; there’s no mention of abuse allegations in the available Vancouver court records for a long-running custody battle between Hope and Lil Tay’s mother, Angela Tian. Jason raised more than $17,000 on GoFundMe on the basis of his claim that Hope abused Lil Tay. (Jason and Lil Tay have different fathers. Angela and Hope’s relationship ended in 2008, according to court records, the year after Lil Tay was born.)
“Her brother was the creator behind the character,” the former manager told me. “I do believe that he has some narcissistic traits. I think he was very egotistical and obviously consumed by fame, popularity, and a position of power.”
All of this has largely been forgotten in the years since. Lil Tay’s particular strain of celebrity had been fleeting to begin with, and by now an uncountable number of other microfame eras have passed. Then, earlier this month, a post on Lil Tay’s Instagram account announced that she and Jason had both died. A frenzy ensued, harking back to the siblings’ heyday.
Lil Tay’s father sounded confused when asked by the New York Post whether someone could confirm his daughter’s death, telling the tabloid, “Um, no, not that I’m aware of.” Tsang muddled matters further when he told The Sun, “Given the complexities of the current circumstances, I am at a point where I cannot definitively confirm or dismiss the legitimacy of the statement issued by the family.”
“That Harry Tsang guy gave that dumbass statement,” the former manager told me, “which was a bunch of words saying nothing at all.” Tsang told me that soon after the purported death announcement, he called Duane Laventure, whom he described as the family’s “handler.” “When I was on the phone with him, he refused to comment,” Tsang said. “And then from that point on I knew something was up.” (Laventure didn’t return a request for comment.) Reports that a Lil Tay cryptocurrency was released shortly after the announcement compounded the sense that something had been staged.
“I pray its not real kid,” Alex “Loyalty” Gelbard, another former Lil Tay manager, wrote on Instagram alongside a picture of himself and her.
A full day passed before Lil Tay told TMZ that she and her brother were, in fact, alive and that she had merely been hacked. A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Instagram, later told the outlet that she was being truthful about not being able to access her account and that the company helped her get it back. (Meta didn’t return a request for further comment.)
This did not settle the matter for those who have been in Lil Tay’s orbit. “I believe the reported hacking incident may not have occurred,” Tsang told The Daily Beast, adding, “the actions of Lil Tay’s brother, renowned for his propensity for extreme measures, lead me to hypothesize an alternative motive behind this occurrence.” He guessed that it was a publicity stunt designed to “illicitly extract funds from devoted supporters and unwitting bystanders.”
“Based on my experience of working with her brother,” the former manager told me, “he will do anything and everything to gain attention. And that’s exactly what I believe he did.”
“Crazy 48 hours,” Gelbard wrote on Instagram. “I’ve seen a lot of things done irresponsibly to leverage things, but this went too far. A hustle is a hustle but EVERYONE has to have a limit.” (When reached for further comment, Gelbard said, “I’m just cautious because of everything happening right now. I lost my own IG during all this.”)
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Dan Adler
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“We’re Magna Carda with a ‘D’ not a ‘T’” spills matter-of-factly from Megz Kelli lips as she finishes up another song at Rockwood Music Hall. The live band holds and waits for Dougie Do’s signal before launching into a miniature jam session replete with guitar and drum solos, Megz dancing and clapping on stage, enjoying the moment and never rushing. This is Magna Carda.
Born in Austin, Magna Carda’s style floats somewhere between Rapsody and Esperanza Spalding. Their arrangements are complex, drawing influence from all over the musical landscape. The main difference between them and other hip-hop groups however, is live instrumentation. There are no trap snares or hi-hats, just a drum kit and a bunch of dudes with instruments. That said, the undisputed star of the show is Megz Kelli, a performer and artist who’s completely comfortable in her own skin, tackling a wide range of subjects from interpersonal dramas to the current political climate.
Magna Carda has shared the stage with rap stars like Raekwon and Joey Bada$, and is at the forefront of Austin’s bourgeoning hip-hop scene. With the last show of their first headlining tour wrapping up last night, we figured we give Megz and Dougie (aka Chris Beale offstage) a call to talk hip-hop, brands, and Kanye West in this PopDust extended interview.
How was it performing with Raekwon? That must have been incredible.
Megz: Performing for him and opening for him because we obviously came up listening to that music was amazing. Some of my favorite joints come from the Clan. He was just really nice and a really cool guy, so I wasn’t disappointed either by meeting one of my idols.
Chris: Meeting someone you look up to and who’s been around the game for such a long time and to have him be like ‘hey you want some food, you want a drink?’ was incredible. The Clan doesn’t give you that vibe, but his whole team was cool. He watched the set. It was a surreal night.
So who’s making most of the beats?
C: I make most of the beats and then Megz will get on them. If we’re doing stuff with the rest of the band, we’ll give the beats to the rest of the band and see what we can do live and what we still need in the track.
You guys sound very Austin, if that makes sense. Your blending of styles made it pretty easy to pinpoint where your group does most of its writing. How is the Austin music scene and is it different from where you started out?
M: None of us are originally from Austin. I’m from New Orleans and Chris is from Houston. The guys are from Dallas and Houston and Brownsville. We’re all still from the South and we’re all still carrying that around. We have a lot of the same influences but we also have a lot of different influences, from jazz to cumbia or blues. We bring all of that to the table, but what’s interesting about Austin, because it’s such a live music setting, is that when first moved out there it wasn’t that easy to put on a hip-hop act with a DJ. That wasn’t gonna impress anyone from a city where [audiences] come in and they see instruments and hear difficult arrangements. It kind of pushed us to think about how we can fit into that scene and that’s how we ended up fusing so many things together.
Yeah, you don’t often hear a guitar solo in a rap song.
M: There’s really not that much guitar in rap at all. It just ended up being this thing we do, but it’s a blessing because we tapped into something no one else is doing. It led us to exactly where we needed to be.
You guys don’t do a lot of bragging. You’re not making brag rap. It feels like your stuff is more politically and socially conscious. What are your thoughts on our current political climate? How are you dealing with that in your music? Do you feel like you have a responsibility to talk about this stuff?
M: You just can’t avoid the truth. We’ll make all these records, and it’ll be like ‘man this is political, maybe we should try something laid back’ but you can’t avoid it. It’s everything you see. You walk outside and everyone’s talking about Trump or everybody’s talking about Black Lives Matter. You can’t avoid it and if you are avoiding it, it’s a disservice to the art-form itself because [that’s] what hip-hop is all about. It was a way for us to express our grievances or express the things that we weren’t comfortable with or needed to be changed. It’s almost like returning to the roots of where hip-hop was for us, or what poetry was for the black community. Realistically, I don’t have millions of dollars and Balenciaga sneakers and stuff like that. It almost feels fake or phony when I try to ride that lane.
Do you ever catch any flak for the stuff you say?
M: I haven’t. You’re at shows sometimes where you look around and you spit this really political line and you can see some people who come from different backgrounds acting a little uncomfortable, but that’s also part of the movement, making people address these things or making them uncomfortable so they can finally hear or finally see it. These tough conversations are just not comfortable.
Cardi B and Nicki are both really successful, but I have trouble thinking of a female rapper who’s not doing party music. You seem like one of the first female rappers to embrace conscious rap. Are there other people doing this? Do you feel like you’re at the forefront of a movement?
M: There are artists like Rapsody, who’ve always been on that kick. Her stuff has always been well thought out and intentional. Those are the artists I grew up listening to. They’re [still] out there, but we’re in a climate with hip-hop right now where a lot of it is just partying or what I have on or how much money I have. Again, with me, if I don’t have it, it’s really hard to talk about it. I’m really speaking from experience, so it’s important for me to stay true to that.
Do you think that talking about brands in music corrupts the message?
M: Not necessarily. I believe that form of expression is really important for people of color. Talking about Cardi B specifically, she comes from the Bronx where she never had those things. It’s a new freedom to be able to enjoy something you never had before. I think that’s part of a very specific experience. I do think there’s a place for it and I think it’s just as important as spitting the conscious stuff because we do have to take the time to reflect and celebrate how far we’ve come. It’s not always about the hard part, but the parts we enjoy as well.
What do you guys think about Kanye? Is he okay? Does he need help?
C: Oh man. I’ve supported Kanye since College Dropout and I’ve defended to people that Late Registration and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy are masterpieces. But, [this past week] has been a wakeup call to everybody. On the stage, he’s Kanye, but when he gets off, yeah he’s an asshole. How far will you go to defend that?
M: Exactly, and you even see that in Chance the Rapper’s response. He had to retract what he said. He wanted to defend his friend and one of his favorite artists, but when you realize defending that kind of behavior is being complicit, you have to start separating from it. If that means not running the Kanye record because I don’t support anything he’s been talking about lately, so be it. I feel like everybody has opportunities to become enlightened and turn it around, so we still have a little hope that Kanye comes around.
Did you hear the new song?
M: I heard that 30-second trash he put out. I don’t know what that was about.
So, you’re not listening to Kanye, who are you guys listening to now?
M: I’ve been listening to the more conscious records. Saba. The new J Cole. I’ve been jamming to Cardi B. I’m mostly an old head though, so a lot of my music taste is about rediscovering things from the past. Right now I’m listening to a lot of Alice Coltrane and getting deeper into a lot of 70s music.
C: For me, rap-wise, it’s been J Cole. Even though I don’t like the record as much as 4 Your Eyez Only, the beats in general are [great]. At night, I’ll be bumping Bill Evans, who is the greatest white pianist of all time to me.
Talk to me about Coffee Table Talk, what were you trying to do with that record?
M: We started the project with the goal of getting back to where we started. Back when we first started making music together, we were using a lot of samples and we were crate digging. That old music triggers something different in me. A lot of the lyrics I created for the project were meant to be conversational, casually mentioning some of the issues we’re going through, casually mentioning some of the issues we’ve been through. I’ve also been reading a lot, and [the record] was just a way for me to process what I’d been reading and a lot of the literature I was looking into at the time. For us, it was a project about the past. We wanted to go back to our roots.
What have you been reading?
M: I’ve been reading a lot of Bell Hooks and Toni Morrison. Right now I’m into an Angela Davis book that goes through blues legacies of Billy Holiday and Bessie Smith and how their era of blues was a form of feminist liberation. It’s really been interesting. Every time I learn something new I want to go out and write it in my own way.
Matt Clibanoff is a writer and editor based in New York City who covers music, politics, sports and pop culture. His editorial work can be found in Inked Magazine, Pop Dust, The Liberty Project, and All Things Go. His fiction has been published in Forth Magazine. — Find Matt at his website and on Twitter: @mattclibanoff
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Once upon a time, Lil’ Kim gathered Missy Elliott, Da Brat, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and Angie Martinez to record a sequel to her “Hardcore” offering “Not Tonight.” Together, at the height of their careers, the seasoned rap stars and a “rookie on this all-star team” (Martinez) released their 1997 hit “Ladies Night Remix,” one of the greatest female collaborations in hip-hop history. Not only did the iconic, femme-forward track dominate on radio, sweep up a 1998 Grammy nomination, and become an official girls-night-out staple, but its massive success set the tone for what future female rap collaborations would aspire to be, even to this day.
Kim’s original “Not Tonight” is raunchier than its remixed anthem, as it sounds more like a sultry after-hours track where the rap star doesn’t mince words about her demands for lip service — “I don’t want d*ck tonight / Eat my p*ssy right.” But the “Ladies Night Remix,” which contains a sample of Kool & the Gang’s “Ladies Night,” made room for a new subject: the sisterhood of hip-hop.
“We loved the whole idea of lady empowerment. I just wanted all my favorite artists on it.”
According to a 2016 XXL interview, Kim said that the idea for the song spawned from the former CEO and president of Undeas Recordings, Lance “Un” Rivera. “He always loved the ‘Ladies’ Night’ thing,” she said. “. . . We loved the whole idea of lady empowerment. I just wanted all my favorite artists on it. TLC, Missy, Da Brat. That song landed us MTV nominations and Grammy nominations. So we did something right.” Per Clover Hope’s “The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop,” Rivera once recalled, “[Lil’ Kim’s idea] ‘Ladies Night,’ was to unite women. Missy came in and took charge of the formatting of the record, and it became history.”
Back in the ’90s, the golden age of hip-hop birthed women empowerment records like Elliott’s “She’s a B*tch,” Queen Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.,” Yo-Yo’s “You Can’t Play With My Yo-Yo,” and many more. All of these tracks boasted a fearless attitude for the women ushering in a wave of hip-hop feminism, a phrase coined by “When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost” author and pioneering hip-hop journalist Joan Morgan. However, “Not Tonight (Ladies Night Remix)” had something many of those tracks didn’t: unity. Pairing verses from multiple mainstream female MCs was unheard of at the time. Not to mention, the song’s star-studded music video — which famously featured cameos from Mary J. Blige, Queen Latifah, SWV, Xscape, and more — proved that women across the industry could show each other genuine love.
So in a world that sought to pit women rappers against each other, “Ladies Night Remix” demonstrated that they could unselfishly give each other a chance to shine together on a single track.
As Martinez recalled in her 2016 memoir “My Voice,” “all the women on the song were like a team,” and each one brought their own standout lyrics to the table. From Martinez’s memorable opener — “It’s ladies’ night, what? / It must be Angie on the mic / The Butter P honey got the sugar, got the spice / Roll the L’s tight, keep the rhymes right / Yo, I just made this motherf*cker up last night” — and Left Eye’s fiery closer (a nod to the fire she set to her boyfriend Andre Rison’s mansion in 1994) — “I be the one to blame as the flames keep risin’ / To the top and it don’t stop.” Even Da Brat, unsurprisingly, impressed with her quick delivery and candid bars — “Y’all see how these bogus n***as try not to notice the dopest b*tches / Approachin’ with good intentions but focusin’ on they riches / If it’s too hot, then get the f*ck up out the kitchen! / N***as’ dicks stay lifted when they thinkin’ of me.”
Employing a pass-the-mic technique, the group of five didn’t have to fight for their individual moments. And with their historic collaboration, they put to bed the myth that only one woman in hip-hop could have the spotlight at a time — a theory they’d keep dispelling with future performances of their song.
The first time Kim, Elliott, Martinez, Da Brat, and Left Eye all united onstage to perform their collab was at the 1997 MTV VMAs. It’d be nearly another two decades before a “Ladies Night” reunion with the original players (sans Martinez and the late Left Eye) came to pass at the 2014 Soul Train Awards, where they were joined by Total, MC Lyte, The Lady of Rage, and Yo-Yo. Once again, the song proved to be a uniting force for women in hip-hop, and it didn’t stop there.
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“Calling all the female rappers to front. [Hear] me out. ladies night. Hip hop. Unity.”
Beyond its pedestal in hip-hop history, “Ladies Night Remix” also represents the tight bond its collaborators hold near and dear. In December 2014, Da Brat told Ebony Magazine of their Soul Train performance, “I hadn’t performed that song with them since the [1997] MTV Awards. It was just a great feeling. It was great to be reunited with them. . . . It was everything.” Meanwhile, Elliott shared what it meant to create such a legendary record with her fellow femcees, explaining: “True friendship is very important to me and I cherish these women because I’m a fan of both [Da Brat and Kim] . . . It means so much for us to have a classic record that has been around for over 16 years and very strong women coming together on one track is epic. Even all these years later, we can perform it with just as much energy as we had when we first recorded over a decade ago.”
To this day, “Ladies Night Remix” is considered a certified hip-hop classic. Vibe Magazine declared it “one of hip-hop’s most impactful female rap collaborations,” while Noisey called it “one of the most important posse cuts in rap history.” And in more recent years, calls for a modern-day rendition of “Ladies Night Remix” haven’t let up, either.
In 2017, Kim suggested redoing the record with artists like Cardi B and Remy Ma, per UPROXX. And in June, Coi Leray tweeted, “Ain’t been a #1 rap song at all this year. Calling all the female rappers to front. [Hear] me out. ladies night. Hip hop. Unity. #splash🎏🌊 let’s make history with a number 1 … together .. with love. #justanidea.” Martinez, meanwhile, responded to requests for a new female rap anthem that same month during a “Good Morning America” interview. She said, “We talk about where we are now in the culture, where we’ve come from, and one of the things that we’re talking about is how many amazing women are in the culture right now. There are so many [female] artists. There were times in hip-hop where that was not the case, so it’s really great to see that now.” And yes, she agrees hip-hop listeners are due for another all-women collaboration: “There are a lot of women collaborating with each other but, yeah, a big anthem like that would be fun to see.”
Only time will tell if a new group of women in rap will muster up the same magic for their own “Ladies Night Remix.” But over 25 years later, the collaboration continues to age like fine wine, and its pioneering efforts in nurturing hip-hop’s sisterhood remain undisputed.
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Njera Perkins
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When Ramaswamy was a student at Harvard, he established himself as a libertarian-minded rap artist who went by the stage name Da Vek, Politico recently reported.
Obviously, that was too rich for co-host Steve Doocy to ignore. He quizzed Ramaswamy about it at the end of an interview.
“Some of these opposition research stories are false, but I will confirm that one is true,” Ramaswamy said. “I was a little bit of a libertarian freestyler in college and had some fun with it.”
Ramaswamy then took Doocy’s questioning as an opportunity to explain his rapping style with a verse or two.
“I open up by saying, ’My name is Vivek, It rhymes with cake,” before spitting some more verses:
It ain’t not about me/ It is about thee/ The United States is about liberty/ So “Fox and Friends,” join us on the trail/ We’ll have some fun. I’ll see you at the trail.
Yes, we’re fully aware: Pictures or it didn’t happen. Check out Ramaswamy’s brief rapping in the tweet below.
Based on the reaction, it’s possible Ramaswamy was right not to pursue a music career.
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Nearly a year after his birth, the name of Rihanna and A$AP Rocky’s first child has finally been revealed. RZA Athelston Mayers will celebrate his first birthday on May 13 and has definitely had a cooler life in these first 363 days than most of us ever will.
The Daily Mail obtained a copy of little RZA’s birth certificate, which not only shows that the world’s coolest baby is named after Wu-Tang Clan member RZA and his dad, who also has the middle name Athelston, but that he’s a Taurus with Leo rising. It seems only fitting that cosmically speaking, this kid is destined to be ambitious and hardworking, but the magnetic center of attention in any room that he’s in.
Little RZA’s name appears to be following a paternal family tradition: Rocky’s legal first name is Rakim, in honor of the rapper Rakim. In 2019, Rakim told Hot 97 about signing a baby Rocky’s diaper in Harlem after his mom spotted Rakim and told him the baby’s name. “I remember that day because that’s the first time I remember hearing somebody naming their son after me,” he said.
Fans had previously speculated that Rihanna and Rocky’s son, last spotted hanging out with his parents before their fashionably (very) late entrance to the Met Gala in New York City earlier this month, was named Noah. Not quite!
RZA’s birth name is Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, and his legacy is impressive: Beyond producing most of the Wu-Tang Clan’s records, he’s director of the martial arts movie The Man with the Iron Fists, deliverer of a legendary diss on pharma bro Martin Shkreli, composer of ice cream truck jingles for the modern era, and patron saint of Staten Island, with a boozy movie theater as his temple, among other accomplishments.
While Rih and Rocky haven’t revealed when their second child (who, as a reminder, has already been to the Oscars, Super Bowl, and Met Gala in utero, with the Super Bowl serving as the pregnancy reveal) is due, we’ll have to wait and see if they continue the namesake trend. Check back in, oh, two to three years for Kid 2’s name.
Vanity Fair reached out to representatives for Rihanna and RZA (the elder, not the baby) for comment.
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Dr. Dre — reportedly worth an estimated $820 million — might soon inch closer to becoming a bonafide billionaire.
The pioneering N.W.A. rapper and self-made entertainment mogul is selling an assortment of music income streams and other assets to Shamrock Holdings and Universal Music Group (UMG) in deals totaling between $200 and $250 million, sources told Variety.
Billboard first reported the news as rumors have swirled about the deals for several weeks. The assets being sold include royalties from two of Dre’s solo albums, his share of N.W.A. royalties, the writer’s share of his song catalog and his producer royalties.
Sources told Billboard that 75% to 90% of that collection — which produces about $10 million per year — consists of songs that Dre doesn’t own any publishing. Those same sources believe that a large chunk of the assets will be acquired by Shamrock, with UMG procuring the rest.
Additionally, UMG is set to acquire the master recording of Dre’s seminal 1992 album “The Chronic,” which will revert to the Death Row Records label that originally released it. Dre’s protege Snoop Dogg, who featured on that record, coincidentally bought Death Row last year.
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Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, has made serious business strides over the last decade. While he previously declared himself “the first billionaire in hip hop” after selling his line of Beats Electronics to Apple in 2014, this latest move will likely solidify his status.
Dre formed N.W.A. in the 1980s and produced the hip-hop group’s autobiographical film “Straight Outta Compton” in 2015. He headlined last year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show and recently sent Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) a cease-and-desist letter for using his music online.
Dre’s decision to sell some of his music assets arrived about one year after he reached a $100 million property settlement agreement with his ex-wife, Page Six reported. However, his deals do not include ownership rights to his Aftermath label, which released his masterful “Chronic” follow-up titled “2001.”
These once-rumored transactions seem to confirm why “The Chronic” vanished from streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music in the spring of 2022. While the album’s rights will revert to Death Row in August, it’s unclear whether Snoop will make it readily available.
The newfound Death Row CEO has fostered a penchant for turning his work into NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and released the “Death Row Session Vol. 2” album as an exclusive NFT last year. As for Dre, the world-class producer is reportedly working on a new 50 Cent album.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rapper Theophilus London has been found safe after disappearing for months, a relative announced Wednesday night.
“We have found Theo. He is safe and well,” the rapper’s cousin, Mikhail Noel, posted on Instagram. “At this time the family would love prayers and privacy. Thank you all!!!”
The post didn’t provide details of where London had been found, where he had been or why he hadn’t contacted his family, which filed a missing persons report with Los Angeles police last week and asked for the public’s help in finding him.
London’s family and friends had said they believed someone last spoke to the musician in July in Los Angeles.
London, 35, posted prolifically on Instagram, but his last posts also came in July.
An LAPD news release on Dec. 28 said London was last seen in the Skid Row area in October and his family had completely lost contact with him.
The rapper was born in Trinidad and Tobago and later raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York. He was nominated for a 2016 Grammy for best rap performance for a featured spot alongside Paul McCartney on Kanye West’s “All Day.”
London has frequently collaborated with the artist now known as Ye, who produced and guested on 2014′s “Vibes.” London would often post updates on Ye’s “Donda” and “Donda 2” on Instagram, even saying he was “promoted to tackle media duties” on Ye’s behalf for the month of February.
London has released three studio albums: 2011′s “Timez Are Weird These Days,” “Vibes” and 2020′s “Bebey.” He recently was a featured artist on Young Franco’s “Get Your Money,” released in September, the month before he was last seen.
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On Friday, a Los Angeles jury found the rapper Tory Lanez guilty of shooting Megan Thee Stallion. Megan accused Lanez of shooting her in the feet in July 2020 following an argument between them that took place in an SUV, and prosecutors brought gun and assault charges against the Canadian rapper. During eight days of testimony, Megan offered an emotional account of the night of the fight and said that Lanez offered her and her former friend and assistant Kelsey Harris, who was also in the car, $1 million not to speak out. Lanez’s attorneys tried to position Harris as the shooter, and Lanez declined to testify. Lanez faces up to 22 years and 8 months in prison after being convicted on all three counts in the case.
In a statement, Los Angeles district attorney George Gascón pointed to the backlash Megan has received since going public with her accusation. “You showed incredible courage and vulnerability with your testimony despite repeated and grotesque attacks that you did not deserve,” he said. “You faced unjust and despicable scrutiny that no woman should ever face and you have been an inspiration to others across La County and the nation.”
“The jury got it right,” Megan’s attorney Alex Spiro said. “I am thankful there is justice for Meg.”
In her testimony last week, Megan largely repeated what she’s said in interviews and on social media about what happened on the night of the shooting. In her telling, an ongoing conflict over the course of an evening–the group had been coming from a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s home–escalated after Lanez said in the car that he had had sexual relationships with both Megan and Harris. She said the argument turned towards the state of the two rappers’ careers. “Tory was basically telling me I wasn’t shit,” she testified, “and I said, ‘Actually, You ain’t shit. This is where you at in your career. This is where you at with your music.’ And I feel like that really rubbed him the wrong way.” Then, according to Megan, she exited the vehicle, and Lanez yelled, “Dance, bitch!” and began shooting at her.
During his cross-examination of Megan, Lanez’s attorney George Mgdesyan tried to discredit her account by eliciting an admission that she lied in an interview with Gayle King when she said that she hadn’t had a sexual relationship with Lanez. Mgdesyan also asked why Megan had initially said she had stepped on glass, which Megan addressed in her testimony. “This was the height of police brutality and George Floyd, and if I said this man just shot me, I didn’t know if they might shoot first and ask questions later,” she told the jury. “In the Black community, in my community,” she continued, “it’s not really acceptable to be cooperating with police officers.” Megan also testified that as a woman in her industry, “people have a hard time believing you anyway.”
The defense effort was not enough to sway a jury against Megan’s account of the night. As prosecutor Alexander Bott said during his closing remarks on Wednesday: “If you believe Megan, that’s enough.”
Mgdesyan said Friday evening that Lanez may file an appeal. “We are shocked by the verdict. There was not sufficient evidence to convict Mr. Peterson,” the attorney said in a statement, Page Six reported. “We believe this case was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt. We will be exploring all options including an appeal.”
The jury’s decision marked the end of a trial surrounded by online contention and, in some cases, the proliferation of false rumors about the case. On Thursday, just after the jury began deliberating, several prominent hip-hop outlets and bloggers sent out tweets claiming that a verdict had been reached finding Lanez not guilty on two charges, only to retract them after it quickly emerged that the jury was on lunch break. An NBC News report this week explored how a crop of gossip bloggers had shaped the tenor of social media discussion around the trial. “It’s been very clear, as I’ve seen entertainment and gossip spaces commenting on the case, that she has been set up as someone who is out for herself, lying, and problematic in all these ways,” Catherine Knight Steele, a University of Maryland communications professor, told the outlet. “This points to the way that mis- and disinformation, and misogynoir, is trafficked because of its profitability, even in the Black community. It’s profitable for these sites to traffic in the most vile stereotypes about Black women.”
The dynamic in some ways echoed Megan’s description of the attacks she said she has faced since accusing Lanez. “If I would have known that coming out and speaking my truth would come with people agreeing with me being shot,” she testified last week, “if I would have known, I would have started to lose my confidence.”
Lanez is scheduled to be sentenced on January 27. He could also be deported following his conviction.
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Dan Adler
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Over eight days of testimony, the details of a fight between rappers Megan Thee Stallion and Tory Lanez have unfurled in a Los Angeles courtroom. In 2020, Lanez allegedly shot Megan in the feet as an argument between the two escalated. At the time, Megan’s star was already on the rise, and the tabloid-ready circumstances—the altercation took place in Hollywood Hills after a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s home—helped fuel more than two years of combative discussion on social media. Megan’s career has scaled further heights in the years since the incident, and when she appeared at the trial last week to testify on behalf of the prosecution, supporters stood outside the courthouse with signs reading “I Stand With Megan.” Lanez has pleaded not guilty on the gun and assault charges he faces over the alleged shooting. On Wednesday, he declined to testify as his defense team rested its case.
Delivering his closing remarks on Wednesday, prosecutor Alexander Bott sought to refocus some of the chaos. “If you believe Megan and what she said last Tuesday, this case is over,” he told the jury, as Law & Crime reported. “We’re done. If you believe Megan, that’s enough.” Megan’s testimony last week largely echoed the account of the alleged shooting she has given on social media and in interviews. “Tory was basically telling me I wasn’t shit,” she told jurors, “and I said, ‘Actually, You ain’t shit. This is where you at in your career.” Megan claimed that as she exited the SUV they were in, Lanez said, “Dance, bitch!” and began shooting at her.
The trial proceedings have sometimes been scattered and contradictory. Prosecutors said Megan’s former bodyguard Justin Edison would testify, but he never appeared, and authorities couldn’t track him down in time for the case’s conclusion. Megan’s former friend and assistant Kelsey Harris, who was present in the SUV on the night of the alleged shooting, testified that she never saw Lanez with a gun, but prosecutors played a recording of a statement she had previously made to them in which she said Lanez was the shooter. Lanez’s lawyer George Mgdesyan said in his opening statement that a romantic quarrel between Megan and Harris over Lanez ran parallel to arguments they had had over the rapper DaBaby and the Brooklyn Nets player Ben Simmons, but these purported conflicts didn’t come up in testimony.
In news reports, Megan’s own testimony rang the loudest, especially as it related to the backlash she said she received after going public with the alleged shooting. In his closing statement on Wednesday, Bott quoted from Megan’s testimony: “If I would have known that coming out and speaking my truth would come with people agreeing with me being shot, if I would have known, I would have started to lose my confidence.”
“Megan Pete is a liar,” Mgdesyan said during his closing statement on Wednesday, using the rapper’s birth name, according to Law & Crime. “She lied about everything in this case.” Mgdesyan asked why Megan hadn’t publicly shared that she’d had sex with Lanez. Citing the rapper’s Grammys and Billboard chart achievements, he said that Lanez had in fact gotten the worst of the backlash. “You know who it’s been bad for?” Mgdesyan said, pointing at Lanez. “That man right there.”
Mgdesyan acknowledged that Megan had been shot on the night in question, so he tried to sway jurors toward the theory that Harris was the shooter. He repeatedly pointed to Harris’s invocations of her Fifth Amendment rights, according to Law & Crime, as a way of arguing that she was covering for herself. Bott addressed Harris’s contradictory statements in his remarks on Wednesday: “Something happened to Kelsey.”
“Maybe she took one of those bribes,” he reportedly went on—a reference to Megan’s testimony last week that Lanez offered her and Harris $1 million not to say anything about the alleged shooting. (In her testimony, Harris denied taking a bribe.)
A jury began deliberating after the closing statements. Lanez faces 22 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
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Dan Adler
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All I want for Christmas is…a mohawk? In “Brooklyn Christmas Eve” — Brent Butler’s punky/power-pop tribute to the holiday season — a mohawk could actually be on someone’s wish list. Butler and his pals – judging by the lyrics – aren’t expecting much in the line of presents this year, and they’re okay with that:
Unemployed, so we got no shopping bags
But we’re happy with the little things we have
Radio says this is the best time of the year
But my wish is for summer to appear
Influenced by the Pogues and Green Day, Butler brings his own millennial-infused, charmingly off-beat sensibility to this chanson pour Noël.
If Butler got you pogo-ing around the Christmas tree, lend an ear to his 2018 debut EP Lilac. It’s a genre-bending blend of new wave and hip-hop and is available on any number of platforms.
Find Butler’s latest music on Apple Music or Spotify.
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ATLANTA (AP) — Rapper Gunna, who was arrested earlier this year along with fellow rapper Young Thug and more than two dozen other people, on Wednesday pleaded guilty in Atlanta to a racketeering conspiracy charge, according to a statement released by his attorneys.
Fulton County prosecutors in May obtained the sprawling 88-page indictment that said members of the Young Slime Life criminal street gang committed violent crimes to collect money for the gang, promote its reputation and grow its power and territory.
Gunna, whose given name is Sergio Kitchens, appeared in court Wednesday and entered what is called an Alford plea, which allows a person to maintain his innocence while acknowledging that it is in his best interest to plead guilty.
“While I have agreed to always be truthful, I want to make it perfectly clear that I have NOT made any statements, have NOT been interviewed, have NOT cooperated, have NOT agreed to testify or be a witness for or against any party in the case and have absolutely NO intention of being involved in the trial process in any way,” the rapper said in the statement.
Kitchens was sentenced to five years, with credit for time served and the balance suspended, said Steve Sadow, one of his attorneys. He also must do 500 hours of community service, including 350 hours speaking “to young men and women about the hazards and immorality of gangs and gang violence, and the decay that it causes in our communities,” Sadow wrote in an email. He also isn’t allowed to have any guns or to have contact with others charged except through his attorneys or music label.
The trial for others charged in the indictment is set to begin next month.
Young Thug, whose given name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, co-wrote the hit “This is America” with Childish Gambino, making history when it became the first hip-hop track to win the song of the year Grammy in 2019. Fulton County prosecutors say that in late 2012, he and two others founded Young Slime Life, a violent criminal street gang that’s commonly known as YSL and is affiliated with the national Bloods gang. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
Separately, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Walter Murphy, another person charged in the indictment, entered a guilty plea Tuesday. Prosecutors have said he cofounded the Young Slime Life gang with Williams. Murphy was sentenced to 10 years, with one year commuted to time served and nine years of probation, the newspaper reported.
Kitchens said in his statement that when he became affiliated with YSL in 2016, he didn’t consider it a gang but rather “a group of people from metro Atlanta who had common interests and artistic aspirations.” His focus was entertainment, he said, “rap artists who wrote and performed music that exaggerated and ‘glorified’ urban life in the Black community.”
Kitchens is signed to Williams’ Young Stoner Life record label. He scored his second No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart with “DS4Ever” this year.
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On Tuesday morning in Los Angeles, Megan Thee Stallion took the witness stand in Tory Lanez’s shooting trial. In the two-plus years since the altercation that took place after a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s Los Angeles home in July 2020, the rapper has given her account of the night on multiple occasions in interviews and on social media, claiming that Lanez shot at her feet outside of an SUV. Now, with Lanez pleading not guilty on three assault and gun charges related to the alleged shooting, she said she was disturbed to be telling the story again.
“I just don’t feel good,” Megan said as she began her testimony, according to Rolling Stone. A prosecutor had asked if she was nervous. “I can’t believe I have to come up here and do this.”
Megan arrived at the courthouse in a purple Sergio Hudson suit and was greeted by a small group of supporters holding a sign reading, “I Stand With Megan,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
In her testimony, she went on to recount the details of how the fight between her and Lanez began. Megan said that while she, Lanez, and her former friend and assistant Kelsey Harris were in the car, Lanez revealed that he and Megan had had a sexual relationship. “Because I knew Kelsey had a crush on Tory, I didn’t want to hurt her feelings,” she reportedly testified, “and I didn’t want her to know that I had dealt with him in any kind of way.”
As the fight escalated, Megan said, they began arguing about the state of their rap careers. “Tory was basically telling me I wasn’t shit,” she testified, according to Rolling Stone, “and I said, ‘Actually, You ain’t shit. This is where you at in your career. This is where you at with your music.’ And I feel like that really rubbed him the wrong way.”
Megan said she began walking away from the car and that Lanez said, “Dance, bitch!” before shooting her in the feet. She testified that Lanez immediately tried to cover his tracks: “He’s saying, ‘Please don’t say anything. I’ll give y’all a million dollars. I can’t go to jail. I already got caught with a gun before.’”
The rapper testified that she initially told police she stepped on glass. “This was the height of police brutality and George Floyd, and if I said this man just shot me, I didn’t know if they might shoot first and ask questions later,” she said, according to Rolling Stone. “In the Black community, in my community,” she went on, “it’s not really acceptable to be cooperating with police officers.” Megan also testified that as a woman in her industry, “people have a hard time believing you anyway.”
The trial is expected to last until the beginning of next week. Lanez faces more than 22 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
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Dan Adler
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In August 2020, Megan Thee Stallion addressed a story that had been circulating for the last month. Tabloids and gossip sites were stringing together details of an alleged shooting that took place after a party at Kylie Jenner’s Los Angeles home. The rapper Tory Lanez was arrested on a concealed-weapons charge, and Page Six reported the most explosive account: that Lanez had shot Megan in the foot amid an altercation that took place around an SUV. On Instagram, Megan claimed that the substance of it was true, and in the coming months, prosecutors brought assault and gun charges against Lanez.
The legal matter dragged on for the next two years after Lanez pleaded not guilty to all the charges, but Megan’s ascent to Grammy awards and Billboard hits amplified the aftermath, and the case continued to attract periodic waves of public attention. Each rapper released music making reference to it, as social media pages and YouTube channels debated the available evidence. Megan offered further details in an interview with Gayle King, and wrote an essay for The New York Times focusing on how her experience fit into the broader context of violence against Black women.
On Monday morning, the alleged shooting arrived in front of a Los Angeles jury. As Rolling Stone reported, the prosecution began its case by establishing in opening arguments that Kelsey Harris, a former best friend and assistant of Megan who was at the scene of the alleged shooting, would offer testimony that confirms Megan’s account. “Kelsey will tell you that she just saw her close friend get shot by the defendant,” assistant district attorney Alexander Bott reportedly told jurors. Bott went on to say that Megan will testify that Lanez shouted “Dance, bitch!” before shooting at her.
Lanez’s legal battles deepened in September after the R&B singer August Alsina claimed on Instagram that the rapper assaulted him in Chicago. No charges over the allegation have been filed, but prosecutors argued in a pretrial hearing that Lanez violated his bail conditions, as TMZ reported, and Judge David Herriford placed him on house arrest before releasing him last week in anticipation of the trial proceedings.
In his opening remarks on Monday, Lanez’s attorney George Mgdesyan said that Megan was the only person at the scene who heard Lanez say “Dance, bitch,” according to Rolling Stone. The lawyer reportedly said that on the night of the alleged shooting, Megan resented the time Lanez was spending with Jenner, and that Corey Gamble, the boyfriend of Jenner’s mother Kris, would testify about seeing an argument begin at Jenner’s home. Continuing his statement, Mgdesyan claimed that Harris had been the one to discharge the gun after Lanez revealed in the car that he had a sexual relationship with Megan in addition to the one he had with Harris. (According to Mgdesyan, Harris claimed that this meant Megan had crossed her for the third time in this way, after parallel romantic conflicts broke out over the rapper DaBaby and the NBA player Ben Simmons.)
While Lanez has never assembled the kind of mainstream profile that Megan has occupied over the past few years, he’s built a steady following, and to some degree retained it amid the aftermath of the alleged shooting. In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, his Quarantine Radio series on Instagram Live turned him into a breakout star of the social-media-centered entertainment ecosystem that sprung out of the moment. Lanez no longer has a major label deal—he and Interscope Records parted ways in February 2020—and in his post alleging that Lanez beat him up, Alsina wrote, “Dude has no real friends, and is on a crash out mission.” But he continues to release music independently, and appeared on The Breakfast Club in September to discuss a new album. In his public comments about the alleged shooting, Lanez has described Megan as a jealous ex who framed him. (Megan told Gayle King that she and Lanez haven’t had a sexual relationship.) In February, amid a spate of reports and legal developments in the case, Megan posted a screenshot of a death threat she had received on social media.
“I want him to go to jail. I want him to go under the jail,” Megan told Rolling Stone in June. “I feel like you’ve already tried to break me enough. You’ve already shot me. So, why are you dragging it out like this? Like, what else? Have you hated me this much the whole time and I didn’t see it?”
If convicted on all counts, Lanez faces up to 22 years and eight months in prison. The trial is expected to last between five and seven days.
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The label sells out 5,555 passes in 7 minutes. First drop from Diddy & JasonMartin exclusively to pass holders.
Press Release
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Oct 26, 2022
LOS ANGELES, October 26, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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Jeremy Fall, former celebrity restaurateur turned Web3 creator of Probably Nothing, announces the launch of Probably A Label, a Web3 major record label in collaboration with Warner Records.
Probably A Label believes music best comes alive when there’s context people can connect to emotionally. They are creators that help artists rewrite those stories using the power of NFTs and believe Web3 allows artists to create with more freedom and connect with fans on a much deeper level — their mission is to live at the intersection of that culture.
This new type of record label is aimed at redefining IP ownership in the music industry, utilizing Web3 technology. It is the first time that a major label joins forces with a leading NFT culture brand to build an ecosystem that enables artists to create freely using new technologies. Their mission is not to redefine how people listen to music but to elevate the experience in which people consume it, as well as collaborate directly with artists in a manner that helps develop their creative language.
The label launched 5,555 passes that exemplify its vision of what the future of music looks like, which sold out in seven minutes. These debuted on OpenSea, following last week’s announcement of the partnership with Warner Music Group. Their first music drop will be from Grammy Award-winner Diddy and JasonMartin, claimable for Probably A Label holders. While artists will use the Web3 label as a new platform to release music for holders, the community will capitalize on “Studio A,” an incubator that will help community IP come to life. Studio A shines as a key feature where the label partners with select members, accepting pitches for any ideas specific to that project’s IP. If someone owns IP from an approved project and has an idea for a concept around it, Probably A Label can help bring it to life utilizing their resources.
Studio A will begin by accepting pitches using NFTs from approved partner projects, including Azuki, BAYC, Clone X, Cryptopunks, Degen Toonz, Doodles, Photosynthesis, Project Gojira, Pudgy Penguins, Stickmen Toys, Women & Weapons and World of Women, with more partners to be announced soon. Projects accepted into this incubator program will have access to resources from Probably A Label, Probably Nothing, and Warner Records’ ecosystems, including financing, marketing, creative development, partnerships, branding, and PR. Probably A Label sees itself as the bridge between music in Web2 and Web3, which simultaneously evolves the connection between the traditional record label model and music fans.
Other features include the ability to own a community-created NFT project that will serve as the label’s initial virtual musician. This project will be built in conjunction with the community of holders through a voting system on design, storyline, and other creative. More features include exclusive access to the label’s future drops, a community-driven music library for holders’ use, educational content highlighting best IP execution practices, access to in-person and virtual events, merchandise, and more.
“I grew up in the ’90s listening to so many artists on Warner Records. It’s surreal to have it come full circle and help them redefine how people experience music in today’s Web3 era,” said Jeremy Fall, creator of Probably Nothing. “There are a lot of conversations to be had around IP ownership and how to best utilize that IP. What attracted me the most about Warner Records is that they wanted to enter the NFT space the right way by offering full IP rights for Stickmen Toys, which we ended up partnering on.”
The collaboration with Probably Nothing and Warner Records started with Stickmen Toys. Probably Nothing helped Warner Records enter the Web3 space by providing the bridge from Web2 to Web3. Stickmen Toys is a collection of 5,000 unique, audio-visual avatars, giving collectors creative and commercial freedom to push boundaries with their ownership of the copyright.
Sebastian Simone, Vice President of Audience & Strategy at Warner Records, said, “Jeremy and the Probably Nothing team share our vision of evolving the connection between labels, their artists, and fan communities. We’re excited to be partnering with Probably A Label on developing what the future of music ownership looks like, collaborating with our communities on bringing IP to life, and working with artists to enter the Web3 space in a meaningful, authentic way.”
For more information about Probably A Label, watch/visit:
ABOUT WARNER RECORDS:
Warner Records has stood as a beacon of artistic freedom and creative expression for the past six decades, releasing some of the most culturally influential and innovative music of our time and home to an impressive generation of artists, including Dua Lipa, Madonna, Saweetie, Liam Gallagher, Michael Bublé, Deftones, Neil Young, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aespa, Bella Poarch, Muse, Linkin Park, Royal Blood, Gorillaz, Rüfüs Du Sol and many more.
ABOUT PROBABLY NOTHING:
Probably Nothing’s goal is to educate the world about NFTs and Web3 by onboarding as many people into the space as possible — by guiding them on safety and showing them how beautiful the community is. They help shine the light on projects that are paving the way creatively in a respectful manner to the Web3 industry. Probably Nothing is a community for the Web3 curious, the lovers of culture, creatives, and jpeg enthusiasts. It’s a hangout where the outliers run the show, a gathering place for everyone who wants to help push this new world forward and be part of the family.
Probably Nothing Official Links
Jeremy Fall’s Social Handles:
Sebastian Simone’s Social Handle:
Source: Probably Nothing
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Press Release
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Jul 29, 2022
NEW YORK, July 29, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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Reigning out of the city that never sleeps, New York City is the lyrically inclined and talented Victoria Dennis. Singing and dancing her way into hearts, dance floors, and stages with songs like “Miles Away” “Rooms” and “Out of Your Mind ” she released her new single titled “Booty Pop”. The nineteen-year-old singer, songwriter, drummer, and dancer has always had her eyes and heart set on one thing, performing and connecting with people on social media platforms liik Tik Tok. When writing “Booty Pop”, Victoria stated she wanted to “push the envelope and create something FUN.”. When this record comes on it gives you this feeling that makes you just want to dance wherever you’re standing. Whether you are at the grocery store, subway station, at work, or driving.
Victoria aims to not only entertain her fans but also is big on girl power, confidence, and sexiness while still remaining poise, which are values Victoria gets from her modeling career she started at age 5. When writing this song with her co-writer Shatic Mitchell, the beat gave Victoria this old-school vibe which helped curate these melodies and chorus breakdowns that embodies a classic “Brittney Spears” like aura. Victoria states, “We talk about women, and how sexy it is for a female to be dominant! Women are beautiful, and using our charm and power can lead to desirable things.”.
Victoria, an advocate for anti-bullying, has always gone by the motto “Take your negative and make it positive” using her music as an escape where she can express herself and her feelings with unlimited creativity. Her writing style oozes vulnerability and gives her listeners something to relate to in all of her songs throughout many phases of their lives; this is what made “Booty Pop” special for the young star. Dennis wants to leave a legacy behind that will always encourage her fans to walk in their destiny and always have fun.
“Hours and hours of work went into this record across the board with everyone who had hands on it, and I feel so relieved that it’s finally out because it was something out of my comfort zone, but I tried it and believe I might’ve just created one of my favorite songs to date!” Victoria says. Be sure to check out “Booty Pop” on all streaming platforms, and catch this fun, energetic music video. To stay updated on Victoria, you can follow her on Instagram @VictoriaDennisMusic
For all media/press related inquiries contact:
Kameran Bryant
kameranbryantpr@gmail.com
Source: Victoria Dennis
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