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04 Jan 2023

Even Cardi B Hates the Rising Grocery Prices

Cardi B expressed her frustration over United States inflation, which has led to a surge in prices when it comes to eggs, poultry, produce and more.

“Naaaaaa grocery shopping prices are ridiculous right now,” the “I Like It” rapper tweeted on Tuesday (Jan. 3). “You might as well eat outside !!”

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She followed up by noting that lettuce costs six dollars in her area, along with a clip of Remy Ma saying, “This is where I’m starting to get aggravated.”

Cardi is no stranger to giving her opinions on economic, social and political issues online. In her sit-down with David Letterman on the fourth season of the chat legend’s Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, Cardi explained her reasoning behind voicing her opinions.

“I think people in your position have a strength in terms of political activism and changing the world and changing the way people feel and think, not only about themselves, but the problems of the world at large is wonderful,” Letterman tells the rapper.

“I don’t really put a lot of political things in my music, but I used the f–k out of my platform,” she responded. “And I have used my platform even when I was a dancer. Because you might think that people are not looking, but they are.”

She continued, “I mean, I’m a hood chick, and I’m from the Bronx. A lot of people relate to me and follow me because they want to see how I’m dressed, they want to see my lifestyle. I feel like I have a responsibility to also share to them like, ‘Hey, while you here and you’re checking my outfit and checking my music, check out what’s going on over here in this part of the world.’”

04 Jan 2023

Westside Gunn “Super Kick Party,” Hit-Boy ft. Avelino “2 Certified” & More | Daily Visuals 1.4.23

HipHopWired Featured Video
Armani Caesar In Concert - New York, NY

Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty

It’s been a few months since Westside Gunn dropped his latest project,10, and looking to carry some of that buzz over into the new year, the Buffalo bully dropped a new visual for one of the album’s standout cuts.

Though he doesn’t make an appearance in his latest visual to “Super Kick Party,” Westside Gunn enlists the talents of the album’s cover model, Eastside Flip, who rocks and bops to the track from the comfort of his wheelchair before he goes on to drop some bars of his own. The video was lowkey entrancing.

Meanwhile producer extraordinaire Hit-Boy gets back in the booth to lay it down and in his clip to “2 Certified” links up with Avelino and shows he’s got as many bars as he does beats to prove he ain’t a one trick pony.

Check out the rest of today’s drops including work from DDG, Tyla Yaweh and more.

WESTSIDE GUNN – “SUPER KICK PARTY”



HIT-BOY FT. AVELINO – “2 CERTIFIED”



DDG – “HANDS UP!”



TYLA YAWEH – “MILE HIGH”



BLOCBOY JB – “YEAR OF 23”



SADA BABY – “SKUWOP”



BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE – “ATONEMENT”



04 Jan 2023

Keke Palmer’s Boyfriend Darius Daulton Reveals Sweet Ultrasound Photo of Couple’s Baby

Following her beyond iconic baby reveal on SNL, loads of fans excitedly became unofficial aunties to Keke Palmer’s incoming bundle of joy. Now, we can collectively swoon over the carousel post Palmer’s boyfriend Darius Daulton Jackson posted to Instagram, featuring a sweet ultrasound photo of their baby.

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“To 2022, thank you for giving me a family,” Daulton captioned the Instagram post, which also included photos of the happy couple sharing a smooch on the beach. Palmer even shared a celebratory year-end Instagram post of her own, showing the very pregnant 29-year-old resting surrounded by nature. “This baby moving thing is weirdddddd,” she said in the caption, referencing a selfie showing an uncomfortable look on her face. “Everything that’s going to come is already in motion. all i have to do is enjoy. be grateful and reap the benefits of those that came before me, all the sacrifices, all the prayers and all the power to be intentional and at EASE.”

Back in December, Palmer made her hosting debut on SNL–the perfect opportunity to make her big announcement. “There’s some rumors going around, people have been in my comments saying, ‘Keke’s having a baby, Keke’s pregnant,’ and I wanna set the record straight — I am!” she joyfully proclaimed, before flashing her growing bump. “I was trying so hard to keep it on the down-low ’cause I got a lot of stuff going on,” she went on. “You know, people kept coming up to me, ‘Congratulations,’ and I’m like, ‘Shh, can y’all stop? I got a liquor sponsorship on the line.’”

While no due date has been announced, we can safely bet on baby Palmer (or Jackson) arriving in 2023.

04 Jan 2023

From Bad Bunny to Rihanna, Who Should Headline Coachella 2023? Vote!

We’re only three and a half months away from the 2023 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, which means this year’s headliners should be announced any day now.

However, before that big reveal comes, we want to know who you think should take the main stage in Indio, Calif. this April.

Frank Ocean is, obviously, the best bet for this year’s festival in the desert, considering he was originally supposed to headline the 2020 iteration along with Rage Against the Machine and Travis Scott before it was canceled by the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic. He’s also previously been announced as one of the main acts this April, so if that holds true, two other headliners will be joining him on the lineup.

Both Bad Bunny and Rihanna are also strong contenders among Billboard‘s predictions. The former capped off 2022 as the top touring act of the year, with his combined El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo & World’s Hottest Tour grossing a total of $373.5 million and selling 1.8 million tickets across 65 shows while the latter will make her triumphant return to performing just two months ahead of Coachella by headlining the Super Bowl LVII halftime show. Could Bad Bunny walk back his plan for a quiet 2023 to bring Un Verano Sin Ti to the desert? Will Rihanna double down on her hotly anticipated Super Bowl show by turning Coachella into RiRichella?

Other possibilities for headliners include Dua Lipa, SZA and Drake — the latter of whom last headlined back in 2015 before he ever had a single Hot 100 No. 1 under his belt. BLACKPINK could also make a victorious return to the Empire Polo Club in between the Asia dates of the Born Pink World Tour after making history at the festival four years ago. Even still, less likely candidates such as Olivia Rodrigo, Kate Bush or someone else entirely could serve as this year’s biggest surprise.

Vote for who you want to see headline Coachella 2023 in Billboard‘s poll below.

04 Jan 2023

Vic Mensa is Bringing Clean Water to Over 200,000 Ghanaians

Vic Mensa (and his dad) are bringing clear water to their homeland.

Born Victor Kwesi Mensah, the Chicago-made rapper and creative remembers his roots, capitalizing on his success and resources to bring a better quality of life for his fellow Ghanaians through access to clean water. Mensa visited his ancestral village alongside his father who was born in Ghana and heads a non-profit called Let Them Drink Water, and bore witness to the community’s severe water contamination issue. The pair decided to develop a solution, by building a new Borehole — a manual pump which provide clean water, but are unfortunately rare across Africa. After one successful borehole that brought access to water for hundreds of thousands, Mensa decided to build two more in nearby villages.

“We’re building 3 Boreholes in different communities in Ghana to provide clean drinking water; the first being the Asokore Zongo in Koforidua where my family lives, which is already built. The other locations are a nearby community called Efiduase and then our ancestral village in the Volta Region Amedzope,” Mensa said in a statement. “Most people in communities like this in Ghana experience constant water borne diseases.”

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To help fund the boreholes that can cost up to $15,000 each to build, Mensa partnered with the Black Star Line Festival taking place in Accra Ghana on Jan. 6. The festival will feature performances from Mensa, Chance the Rapper, Erykah Badu, T-Pain, Jeremih, Sarkodie, Tobe Nwigwe, Asakaa Boys and M.anifest. “This festival is about connecting Black people of the globe,” he told TMZ in an interview. “Beyond all of those colonial boundaries. It’s something that has been on my mind for a long time.”

04 Jan 2023

At the 2023 Grammys, Viola Davis Could Become the 18th EGOT Winner

At the 65th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 5, Viola Davis could become the 18th person to achieve the EGOT. The Oscar, Tony and Emmy winner is nominated for a Grammy for the first time for best audio book, narration, and storytelling recording.

The other four nominees in the category are all past Grammy winners. Questlove, nominated for Music Is History, is a six-time Grammy winner. Mel Brooks, nominated for All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks, is a three-time Grammy winner – as is Lin-Manuel Miranda, nominated for Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World. Jamie Foxx, who rounds out the category with Act Like You Got Some Sense, has won one Grammy.

In 2001, Brooks became the eighth individual to become an EGOT winner.

Davis has won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a dramatic series for How to Get Away With Murder (2015), an Oscar for best supporting actress for Fences (2016) and two Tonys – featured actress in a play for King Hedley II (2001) and lead actress in a play for Fences (2010).

If Davis wins the Grammy – and it’s by no means certain, given that strong field – she would become the third Black woman to complete the EGOT, following Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Hudson.

At 57, Davis would be the seventh-youngest EGOT recipient. Robert Lopez was just 39 when he completed the awards sweep, followed by John Legend (also 39, but closer to 40), Hudson (40), Rita Moreno (45), Goldberg (46) and producer Scott Rudin (53).

04 Jan 2023

A Timeline of Abuse Allegations Against Marilyn Manson

In February 2021, Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood named Marilyn Manson as her alleged abuser.

“I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent,” she shared via Instagram on Feb 1. Wood and Manson had a relationship when the actress was 18 and Manson was 36, and the pair were briefly engaged in 2010.

Manson denied the allegations in his own Instagram statement. “Obviously, my art and my life have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality,” he wrote. “My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how – and why – others are now choosing to misinterpret the past, that is the truth.”

Billboard made earlier attempts to reach Manson for comment through his now former management, but has not received any responses.

Following Wood’s statement, a number of other women went public with their own claims against Manson, but his history with abuse allegations stems back nearly 25 years. See below for a full timeline.

04 Jan 2023

Judge Dismisses One of Marilyn Manson’s Sexual Abuse Lawsuits

A federal judge has tossed out a sexual abuse lawsuit filed against Marilyn Manson by model Ashley Morgan Smithline, citing the fact that she failed to retain a new lawyer after splitting with her old legal team last fall.

Smithline’s lawsuit, one of many claims of sexual abuse filed against Manson (real name Brian Warner) over the past two years, alleged that the rocker raped and abused her multiple times between 2010 and 2013. But in an order issued Tuesday (Jan. 3), Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha dismissed the case.

The reason? After Smithline split with her attorney Jay D. Ellwanger in October, the judge gave her until Dec. 5 to find a new lawyer — or to explain how she’d handle the case on her own as a so-called pro se litigant. She never did either, leading to Tuesday’s decision.

“Plaintiff has not filed a response as of the date of this order,” the judge wrote. “The court, therefore, dismisses this action … for plaintiffs failure to prosecute the action.”

The case was dismissed “without prejudice” — meaning Smithline could still refile the same claims at some point in the future. She could not immediately be located for comment; Ellwanger did not return a request for comment.

In a statement to Billboard, Manson’s attorney Howard King praised the outcome: “We thank and commend Ashley Smithline for dismissing her claims against Brian Warner without seeking or receiving anything in return. Ms. Smithline has refused to be manipulated by others who are trying to pursue their own agendas against Mr. Warner. We wish her well and will continue to work to assure  that a significant price will be paid by those who have tried to abuse our legal system.”

Manson has faced multiple accusations of wrongdoing over the past two years.

Evan Rachel Wood, who began publicly dating Manson in 2007 when she was 19 and he was 39, accused him in a February 2021 Instagram post of “grooming me when I was a teenager” before he “horrifically abused me for years.” Those allegations were followed by separate lawsuits from Smithline, former assistant Ashley Walters, Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco and a Jane Doe accuser.

In her lawsuit, Smithline made graphic and disturbing allegations of sexual assault against Manson. She alleged that she and Manson began a consensual relationship in 2010, but that it “quickly became apparent that consensual sex was not enough for Mr. Warner.”

“Ms. Smithline awoke from unconsciousness with her ankles and wrists tied together behind her back and Mr. Warner sexually penetrating her,” Smithline’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. “Ms. Smithline told Mr. Warner to stop and said no multiple times, and Mr. Warner told her to ‘shut the fuck up’ and ‘be quiet.’”

Manson has denied all of the allegations against him and even filed his own defamation lawsuit accusing Wood and another woman of orchestrating the many legal attacks against him. In the March 2022 complaint, he said Wood’s own “malicious falsehood” was part of an “organized attack” aimed at derailing his career, in which she had “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured prospective accusers to emerge simultaneously.” Wood denies those allegations.

04 Jan 2023

YSL Rapper Lil Keed Cause of Death Revealed

Following his death in May at age 24, YSL rapper Lil Keed’s cause of death was revealed to have stemmed from eosinophilia, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner.

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Eosinophilia is a rare condition in which the number of eosinophils — a type of white blood cell — is greatly increased, according to cancer.gov. TMZ reported that Lil Keed complained to friends about stomach pains in the days preceding his death. He was eventually hospitalized one evening due to the severe pain, with reports that his liver and kidney began to fail, suffering a seizure on his way to the hospital. Hours later, the budding rapper died.

“He had been sick in bed for 4 days with complaints of stomach and back pains,” the coroner’s report reads, per People. “His brother noted that the decedent’s eyes were jaundiced and drove him to the hospital in a private vehicle.”

The Atlanta-born rapper was one of seven children and brother to fellow rapper LilGotit, who took to Instagram following Keed’s death in the spring. “Can’t believe I seened u die today bro I did all my cries I know what u want me to do and that’s go hard for Mama Daddy Our Brothers Naychur and Whiteboy,” Gotit wrote in a post alongside a photo of the siblings.

Keed’s family has yet to comment publicly on the reported cause of death.

Keed signed to Young Thug’s YSL, an imprint of 300 Entertainment, in 2018. The rapper released two projects on the label, including his song “Nameless,” which peaked at No. 42 on Billboard‘s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. Keed’s critically acclaimed 2019 debut album Long Live Mexico peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard 200. He was also featured on Young Thug’s Slime Language 2 album, which topped the Billboard 200 in 2021.

May 2022 was a tragic month for the YSL crew, with the arrests of Young Thug and rapper Gunna coming just days before Keed’s death. Keed himself was not among those named in the indictment.