State Champ Radio Author: djfrosty
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Hip-Hop fans are gathered in mourning the loss of a pioneering rapper from Los Angeles’ sprawling underground Hip-Hop scene. P.E.A.C.E., a member of Freestyle Fellowship, passed away over the weekend, and social media has been flooded with moving tributes.
Details are scant regarding the passing of P.E.A.C.E., but the official Instagram account for Freestyle Fellowship shouted out the rapper in a post sharing condolences.
“Rest well brother P.E.A.C.E [flying angels emojis]. You had a great heart and you were authentic. One of West coast Hiphop royal treasures. You will be surely missed my friend,” read the caption of the post with a photo of the rapper.
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Leon Bennett / Ari Fletcher
Ari Fletcher found herself fending off folks on social media after hitting send on another ridiculous thought that should have stayed inside her head.
Saturday, Fletcher hopped on X (formerly Twitter) to express her confusion about “grown folks” going to homecoming, since she thought it was only for the kids who attended the school.
“Why are grown adults at college homecoming? Is that normal? I’m genuinely asking because I didn’t go to a big college that did stuff like that. But it seems so off. I thought that was for the kids in school event,” she wrote.
It didn’t take long for the schooling to begin, with people explaining to her that homecoming was an event where alumni came back to the school to celebrate their alma mater.
“noooo it’s for alumni to come back too and show love, cook, and some alumni even give scholarships during this week to students and give back to the school in general,” one person wrote in response to Fletcher’s post.
Another person hit her with a strong “this you?” moment, reminding Fletcher that her “grown a**” went to FAMU’s homecoming a few years ago.
Instead of just accepting she was wrong about what she asked, Fletcher tried to tweet through the moment and clap back at folks who corrected her.
“Yall offended cause I made y’all feel old. I was just asking. Big and mad, literally,” she wrote.
Oh sis.
Ignorance is definitely bliss.
You can see more reactions below.
The pop star was at the top of her game, performing tracks from all three of her studio albums.
10/26/2025
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George Clooney is looking back at one of the more surreal moments from his early Hollywood days — getting personally scolded by the legendary Frank Sinatra.
While attending the Los Angeles premiere of his new film Jay Kelly on Thursday (Oct. 23), the actor recalled his brushes with legendary artists like Sinatra and Tony Bennett during a time when he was trying to get a foothold in the industry.
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“I remember being on the road […] I was my Aunt Rosemary’s driver when she was singing,” Clooney told People. “And I hadn’t known her much when I was young because I lived in Kentucky. She was the Hollywood aunt. So I came out to make a living and I was her driver.”
At the time, Clooney found himself in close proximity to giants of American music, including Bennett, Sinatra and more.
“I got to drive [her] and Tony Bennett, and all of these really wonderful singers around for a year,” he said. “I got a really good life lesson in success and failure, and handling it.”
One of the more unexpected encounters came courtesy of Sinatra himself, who wasn’t thrilled with a press boycott Clooney was involved in. “I remember he was mad at me once because I led this boycott about […] some press freedoms, and he called me because people thought he was sick and there were helicopters flying over his [home],” Clooney recalled. “And he called me going, ‘It’s not working what you’re doing!’”
Still, Clooney took the confrontation in stride. “He was great,” he added. “I got yelled at by Frank Sinatra!”
Clooney, who would go on to win Oscars for both acting and producing, said those formative experiences helped shape his approach to success — especially the importance of staying grounded.
“Most of my friends, we’ve been friends for 40 years. I slept on their couch when I was broke. And they’re always around when people are giving you too much credit,” he said. “They’re the first people to remind you that they’re full of crap.”
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Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has opened up about the band’s extended break from touring, revealing that personal loss and emotional burnout contributed to the group’s seven-year absence from the stage.
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In a new interview with The Times, Yorke reflected on the final days of the band’s A Moon Shaped Pool tour in 2018, which ended with a show in Philadelphia in August that year.
“I guess the wheels came off a bit, so we had to stop,” Yorke said. “The shows felt great but it was, like, let’s halt now before we walk off this cliff.”
The band recently announced their return to live performance with a limited run of 20 shows across five European cities — Madrid, Bologna, London, Copenhagen and Berlin — kicking off Nov. 4. All dates sold out shortly after going on sale.
Yorke also addressed his personal grief following the death of his first wife, Dr. Rachel Owen, in late 2016. “I needed to stop anyway, because I hadn’t really given myself time to grieve,” he said. “My grief was coming out in ways that made me think, I need to take this away.”
He added that while music was a source of healing, it also became a painful reminder. “There have been points in my life where I’ve looked for solace in music and played the piano, but it literally hurts. Physically. The music hurts, because you’re going through trauma.”
Guitarist Ed O’Brien also spoke candidly about the toll the band’s last tour took on him, admitting that by the end of it, “I was effectively over Radiohead.” He continued, “I enjoyed the gigs but hated the rest. We felt disconnected, f—ing spent.”
That distance eventually gave way to reflection and reconnection. “I hit the bottom in 2021. And one of the things that was lovely coming out of it was realising how much I love these guys. I met them when I was 17 and I’ve gone from thinking I can’t see myself doing it again to realising that, you know, we do have some stellar songs.”
While the band is preparing for its return to the spotlight, past controversies continue to follow them. In the interview, members addressed criticism over their 2017 performance in Tel Aviv, Yorke’s confrontation with a protester during a 2024 solo show in Melbourne, and Jonny Greenwood’s collaboration with Israeli artist Dudu Tassa.
Yorke said the “low-level Arthur Miller witch-hunt” surrounding their stance on Israel and Palestine “wakes me up at night,” though Greenwood said he “politely disagreed” with boycotts of Israeli artists.
Radiohead’s upcoming European tour will be their first run of shows since 2018. Their return begins Nov. 4 in Madrid, with additional stops in London, Berlin, Bologna and Copenhagen through December.
Trending on Billboard Our Billboard chart experts break down whether Olivia Dean’s “So Easy (To Fall In Love),” Kid Cudi’s “Maui Wowie” or Tame Impala’s “Dracula” make moves on the Billboard charts. Jerah Milligan ‘The Life of a Show Girl,’ “Golden” and “Ordinary” still may be dominating our top 10, but who’s in the mix […]
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Hailey Bieber is opening up about whether she and her husband, Justin Bieber, are ready to expand their family.
During an appearance on the In Your Dreams With Owen Thiele podcast, posted Friday (Oct. 24), the 28-year-old Rhode Beauty founder shared that she’s definitely open to having more children following the birth of her first son, Jack Blues Bieber, in August 2024.
After host Thiele joked that she and Justin could soon have “five Biebers running around,” Hailey didn’t rule out the idea.
“I know I want more than one, but I’m not in a rush,” the model said. “I always knew I wanted to be a mom, though. Since I was a little kid, I always envisioned myself having kids. You know what’s funny? The older I’ve gotten and now that I have a kid, I think any decision anyone makes about having them or not having them is totally amazing.”
She admitted that motherhood has come with its challenges, adding that having her first child at 27 “felt a little daunting.”
“I do think there were fears around it,” Bieber said. “I didn’t know what to expect. Once they’re here, you just figure it out day by day. And it’s like every single day I’m learning about how to be a mom and what’s best for my son and what’s best for me as a mom.”
While she describes herself as “super, super, super hands-on” with 14-month-old Jack Blues, Hailey also acknowledged that she has help with childcare.
“I do have help, I have full-time help and I’m super not ashamed to say that,” she said. “And I would never shy away from talking about that because I wouldn’t be able to have my career and do the things that I do without the help, and I’m really grateful for that.”
She added, “If he’s not with me, he’s with his dad. He’s always with his family and he’s always with one of us, or with his godparents.”
Hailey also shared that she and Justin plan to take Jack along on their travels so he can experience the world alongside them.
“I think I want him to grow up in multiple places,” Bieber said. “I think we’re such travelers as a family and we were that way before we had him. So, I think I just want him to grow up traveling, which is honestly how I grew up and I love that. I learned so much.”
Hailey and Justin Bieber married in a New York City courthouse in 2018 before celebrating with a larger wedding ceremony in Bluffton, South Carolina, the following year.
Watch Hailey’s full conversation on the In Your Dreams With Owen Thiele podcast here.
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Carly Rae Jepsen and Cole M.G.N. have officially tied the knot.
The pop star, 39, and music producer, 40, exchanged vows on Oct. 4 at New York City’s Chelsea Hotel in an intimate ceremony attended by about 100 guests in the iconic building’s Bard Room, according to Vogue.
“We knew we wanted a location that meant something to us, and the Chelsea Hotel had become a home away from home every time we were in New York,” Jepsen told the publication. “As artists, its iconic history and lore made it that much more appealing. For planning, we had weekly dates to talk out all the details of the wedding. This way it was only ever fun and not too much at once.”
On Saturday (Oct. 25), the “Call Me Maybe” singer confirmed the nuptials on social media, sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses from the celebration. Her posts included black-and-white snapshots from inside the Chelsea Hotel and photos in front of NYC’s Broni & Belle Pizzeria.
“Thank you for this magic,” she captioned the Instagram gallery.
Jepsen wore two wedding looks: a strapless corseted gown by Australian designer Toni Maticevski for the ceremony and a tiered dress by Danielle Frankel for the reception. “We knew we were trying to get pregnant, so I also wanted an alternative dress that was much more flowy that I could sub in for the ceremony or just change into for dancing,” she said.
The intimate celebration reportedly featured a surprise performance by Rufus Wainwright, who delivered an a cappella rendition of Leonard Cohen’s 1974 song “Chelsea Hotel #2.”
Jepsen announced her engagement to Cole M.G.N. in September 2024 through Instagram, sharing photos of the couple embracing outdoors and showing off her sparkling engagement ring. “Very engaged over here,” she captioned the post.
Alongside her personal milestone, Jepsen is celebrating the release of the special edition of her 2010 album, Emotion. The 10th anniversary deluxe project, released on Oct. 17, features four brand-new songs and two remixes of her 2015 single “Run Away With Me” by Kyle Shearer and Rostam.
Check out Jepsen’s wedding posts on Instagram here and here.
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Three decades ago, Bette Midler eyed trash-filled parks in New York City with a mixture of dismay and anger. But unlike most people who complain about things in NYC, she did something about it—and inspired countless others to follow in her footsteps. In 1995, the actress-singer-comedian tapped her connections and resources to form the New York Restoration Project (NYRP), which over the course of the last 30 years has cleaned up, transformed and created green spaces for New Yorkers across the five boroughs, with a focus on helping underserved communities get the green space they deserve as much as the loaded locales living across from Central Park.
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Part of the NYRP’s fundraising arm is its annual Hulaween gala, an explosion of costumed creativity that took over Manhattan’s Cipriani South Street on Friday (Oct. 24) night to mark 30 years of the Tony-, Grammy-, Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning icon’s nonprofit. And what better way to salute the tart-tongued talent than publicly insult her. “We’re here for the late Bette Midler,” joked surprise performer Buddy Young Jr., aka Billy Crystal resurrecting the character from his 1992 dramedy Mr. Saturday Night. “Talk about a restoration project!”
Backed by a band led by the indefatigable Will Lee, Crystal performed a bawdy tune and cracked a few Borscht Belt-styled jokes (“My wife told me to come upstairs and make love to her; I told her, ‘Make up your mind, I can’t do both!’”), clearly relishing the opportunity to dust off the deliciously kitschy character from his directorial debut and surprise an old friend. By the time Midler took the stage to accept the catalyst award to mark her environmental efforts, she was genuinely in tears, having had no idea Crystal and Marc Shaiman, another longtime friend, would be onstage paying tribute to her.
Midler herself got off a few zingers during her heartfelt speech, which saw her generously praise dozens of people who helped her nonprofit help New Yorkers over the decades. “Credit where credit is due,” she said as she thanked Rudy Giuliani (who was not present) for helping NYRP back when he was the city’s mayor—“back when he was sane,” she added, casting an eye up to the heavens: “God help that young man.”
The 2025 Hulaween theme was “New York, New York, A Helluva Town!”, which inspired dozens of knockout costumes, from a group who did Sesame Street characters to a woman who walked around in a bloody daze with a fallen AC unit smashed around her body. That theme also inspired the musical selections for the evening’s performers: Christopher Cross trotted out his Oscar-winning tune “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)”; Ben Platt knocked a funky cover of the Drifters’ “On Broadway” out of the park; Sandra Bernhard belted a killer take on St. Vincent’s “New York” (any song with “motherf–ker” in the lyrics is gonna be a natural fit for Bernhard); Shoshana Bean sang a delightful version of the Ad Libs’ girl-group classic “The Boy From New York City”; and Marisha Wallace dazzled with a powerhouse “New York, New York” in the vein of the original Liza Minnelli version.
The event raised $2.9 million, thanks in large part to a $1 million donation from designer Mica Ertegun (the wife of late music industry titan Ahmet Ertegun) prior to her death. Generous bids from the 500-strong crowd—which included Michael Kors, Darren Criss, Andy Cohen (as Andy Warhol), host Busy Philipps (as Cher in Moonstruck), Jann Wenner, Graydon Carter and Midler’s daughter Sophie von Haselberg—also helped bring in that whopping total for the nonprofit’s 30th birthday.
“That’s what we were put on earth to do,” Midler said at one point during the night. “To share. Not to hoard.”
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Ariana Grande is opening up about nearly quitting music.
During an appearance on the Shut Up Evan podcast, posted Friday (Oct. 24), the 32-year-old pop star and actress spoke with host Evan Ross Katz about her plans to step away from music after taking on her role in Wicked.
The “We Can’t Be Friends” singer revealed she had considered leaving music altogether after being cast as Glinda in the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. Her last album before the movie, 2020’s Positions, was initially intended to be her final release.
“I didn’t think I was gonna make an album ever again,” Grande told Katz. “When I left for London, that was kind of my secret, but I didn’t think I was going to.”
She added that playing Glinda in the Wicked films “totally rearranged everything about [her] relationship to creating,” inspiring her to record her 2024 album, Eternal Sunshine, which spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
“I felt like just a genuine spark, like a reconnection and inspiration and something, I mean, maybe I missed it,” Grande said. “Maybe it’s as simple as I missed it. But I do feel like you have to miss things in order to learn to become better for them. I think I learned so much, and then also I genuinely wanted to do it. I just felt like I couldn’t not. It was an inspired moment and I had to write an album and I had to do it.”
Grande is now gearing up for a limited run of tour dates in 2026 to support the album. Launching June 6 in Oakland, California, she will perform in cities including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago and Montreal, before wrapping up with five shows at London’s O2 Arena in August. Her last tour was in 2019, and she hasn’t embarked on a full-scale tour since the Sweetener World Tour concluded that December.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Grande discussed getting advice from Madonna and Beyoncé early in her career, “cringe” culture, and more. Watch her full conversation with Katz here.
