djfrosty

Kelly Clarkson Serves Up Doobie Brothers Vibes for ‘Kellyoke’

Kelly Clarkson took The Kelly Clarkson Show back to the ’70s with her cover of The Doobie Brothers‘ “What a Fool Believes” on Tuesday (Oct. 18).

Wearing her hair in a high pony with a blue and cheetah print jumpsuit, the talk show host belted out, “What a fool believes/ He sees, no wise man has the power/ To reason away/ Oh, what seems to be/ Is always better than nothing/ And nothing at all/ What a fool believes.”

Released as the lead single from The Doobie Brothers’ 1979 album Minute by Minute, the soft rock classic earned the band their second and final No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 following 1974’s “Black Water.”

During the show, Clarkson welcomed Jessica Chastain as her guest and chatted with the Oscar winner about her role as country legend Tammy Wynette in the upcoming biopic George and Tammy.

The actress even jokingly admitted during the interview that she was “nervous” to discuss the project with the American Idol winner considering the latter’s love for music. “It’s probably the most nervous thing that I… Even talking about it gives me, like, hives,” Chastain said of singing in the film. “But I drank a lot of bourbon and I got through it.

Other recent “Kellyoke” picks by Clarkson have included duets with Sam Smith (“Breakaway“) and Dwayne Johnson (Loretta Lynn’s “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’“) as well as solo takes on Whitney Houston (“Queen of the Night“), Olivia Rodrigo (“Traitor“), Alec Benjamin (“Let Me Down Slowly” featuring Alessia Cara) and more.

Watch Clarkson channel The Doobie Brothers for “What a Fool Believes” below.

Missy Elliott Blvd. Is Now On Google Maps: ‘God Is Good!’

Portsmouth, VA – Missy Elliott has been honored with a street named after her in her hometown of Portsmouth, Virginia, and she’s celebrating the fact it’s now been added to Google Maps.

The “Work It” hitmaker shared an Instagram post on Tuesday (October 18) featuring a photo of her smiling ear-to-ear in a golden Versace outfit while holding the Missy Elliott BLVD street sign.

“ATTENTION MISSY ELLIOTT BLVD is on the Google Map #VA baybeeeeee#757 P-TOWN WAIT a WHOLE BLVD! God is good,” Missy wrote.

“I am not perfect & I’ve had ups & downs when some doubted me & thought I would give up I PRAYED & got back up everytimeHopefully this will INSPIRE some1 else to KEEP PUSHING!”

Missy was showered with praise in the comment section of her post from the likes of Doechii, D-Nice, Torae and many more.

A fan added: “I just told Siri to take me to Missy Elliott Blvd. sacrificing my whole lunch break lol.”

She was also honored with a key to the city during Monday’s (October 17) ceremony officially renaming McLean Street to Missy Elliott Boulevard.

“I’ve rode down that boulevard so many times, so make sure y’all don’t get no misdemeanors on my street,” the Grammy-winner joked.

Missy Elliott Celebrates 24 Years Of Friendship With Janet Jackson: ‘I Love You Til Earth Is No More!’

“I have always been told to dream big. I couldn’t have dreamed this big. Though I have accomplished many things, I have won many awards, but this trumps all when you get the love from your home.”

Governor Glenn Youngkin even declared October 17 to be Missy Elliott Day in Virginia. Fellow Virginia-bred stars Pusha T, Trey Songz and Timbaland were also in attendance.

“As a native Virginian, she has inspired young women in the Commonwealth and beyond to pursue careers in the arts and music,” said Youngkin. “She is the American dream!”

The Portsmouth City Council voted unanimously in August to rename the local street in the entertainment sector to Missy Elliott Boulevard.

Benny The Butcher’s Baby Mama Escapes Nasty Fire At Rapper’s Home

Benny The Butcher‘s family has suffered a devastating loss after a massive fire tore through the Buffalo rapper’s home. Fortunately, his family was unharmed.

In a video posted to his social media, Benny can be seen wandering around his destroyed New York home, and said the whole ordeal went down while he was in Los Angeles.

“We good, I was in L.A. and India made it out that motherfucker ASAP,” Benny said in a video, referring to the mother of his daughter.

Check out the video below:

Benny The Butcher is unfortunately not the only rapper to experience a house fire this year. In September, Jedi Mind Trick’s own Jus Allah called on his fans to help support him and his mother via GoFundMe after his house burned down and said they’re currently living out of a hotel.

“I support my family through my music and my income has been limited despite the popularity of records I’ve been involved in,” he said in his GoFundMe bio.

“I’ve just finished recording an EP entitled Forces At Play that I will be releasing myself in October. I’ve also just begun a full length album entitled Fire & Blood that I intend to release very quickly. I’m launching this campaign to take pre-orders and as a way to get my mom and I out of our housing insecure situation.”

Benny The Butcher has been laying low these past few weeks as brewing tensions between him and Freddie Gibbs have begun to cool down. Earlier in October, Benny sat down for an interview with New Rory & Mal, and said he had no idea how relations with Gibbs got to this point.

Beyoncé & JAY-Z NOLA $3M Mansion Suffers Damaging One-Alarm Fire

“There’s nothing to talk about. He can co-exist, I don’t wanna talk,” Benny said. “I’m not talking to nobody – I don’t give a fuck if he a rapper – to nobody talk about me getting shot … you can co-exist it’s all good. That’s what I wanted.”

He concluded: “Ask that n-gga what Benny the Butcher did to him to have him be talking bout some shit on Twitter. He trying to sell some records.”

On the music side of things, Benny recently linked up with his fellow signees Rome Streetz and Armani Ceaser for their songs “Blow 4 Blow” and “Hunnit Dolla Hiccup,” and also just dropped off the visual to his Tana Talk 4 cut “Thowy’s Revenge” on October 6.

TikTok’s Head of Content Partnerships Leaves for Spotify

TikTok’s former U.S. head of content partnerships, Bryan Thoensen, has joined Spotify to oversee the company’s content strategy and partnerships with individual audio creators, known as the talk creator content and partnerships team.

Thoensen will report up to Max Cutler, who was promoted earlier this year to lead Spotify’s partnerships with creators and now holds the title of vp of talk creator content. In his new role at Spotify, Thoensen will also oversee the team’s business development and acquisitions as part of the audio giant’s larger exclusive podcast strategy.

“Bryan’s knowledge of the creator landscape will be critical as we build out our platform strategy with the goal of becoming a true platform beyond distribution, and reinforce our mission of building trust with creators,” Cutler wrote in a memo to staff.

Prior to joining Spotify, where the executive began meeting with the talk creator content and partnerships team in the past few weeks, Thoensen oversaw TikTok’s relationships with top public figures and managed relationships with brands like the NFL, NBA, Condé Nast and NBC. He was also formerly a svp for original entertainment at Fullscreen and a director of content for Hulu’s original programming following a roughly six-year career at WME.

Thoensen will remain based in Los Angeles.

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.

Nicki Minaj Gets Emotional As She Reconnects With Her Favorite Teacher

Nicki Minaj gave fans a peek into her pre-fame life when she invited her former elementary school teacher to a recent IG Live session.

In a clip of their chat, Nicki can be seen getting visibly emotional as the teacher, who only identified herself as Liz, recounts how she came to find out her former student was famous.

“I went to a JAY-Z and Eminem concert with my sisters, and you came out and performed,” the teacher says after explaining that she had not made the connection to her former student, Onika Maraj. “And I was like, ‘Oh my God, she’s really good!’ And we were dancing and singing — did not know it was you.

“A week later,” Liz continues, “my old school, P.S. 45, called and said: ‘Listen Liz, E! True Hollywood Story keeps calling, you were Nicki Minaj’s favorite teacher.’ And I literally dropped the phone.”

The school in question, also known as Clarence Whiterspoon, is the Queens elementary school from which Nicki graduated in 1993. The teacher went on to say that following that phone call, she immediately dove into a mission to find every photo and bit of video footage she had of a young Onika performing at school.

“I joke, and say ‘I taught her everything she knows,’ Liz adds after Nicki was able to contain her surprise at the story.

Nicki would eventually go on to attend renowned New York City Music and Performing Arts magnet school Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, whose long list of famous alumni also includes Azealia Banks, Kelis, Omar Epps, Eartha Kitt, and Saturday Night Live star Michael Che.

The Good Form” rapper spoke about her performing arts beginnings in her 2012 docuseries Nicki Minaj: My Truth, recounting how she landed her first Off-Broadway role in the play In Case You Forget just a week after graduation.

A Nicki Minaj Course Will Be Taught At University Of California Berkeley

While she’s best known for her music, Nicki has always incorporated her acting skills into her performances — both on stage and in the booth. She’s also amassed a few film and television credits over the years, lending her voice to a cartoon version of herself on The Cleveland Show and characters in Steven Universe, Ice Age: Continental Drift, and The Angry Birds Movie 2. She’s also starred in the films The Other Woman and Barbershop: The Next Cut.

This most recent IG Live moment comes after nearly a week of Nicki using social media to protest against the her latest single “Super Freaky Girl” being excluded from the rap categories at the 2023 Grammys. The Rick James-sampling song was instead put forward for Best Pop Solo Performance.

Demanding “fair” treatment, Nicki argued Latto’s “Big Energy,” which also features a prominent ’80s pop sample, should be bumped into the pop categories as well, sparking a very lengthy and very messy back-and-forth between the two rappers.

However, Variety has claimed Nicki Minaj hasn’t been completely ruled out of the rap categories at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. The publication has said she appears on the ballot in the rap division thanks to her “Do We Have a Problem?” collaboration with Lil Baby, which is up for Best Rap Performance.

Kanye West Hit With $250M Lawsuit From George Floyd’s Family Over ‘Drink Champs’ Comments

Kanye West has been hit with a lawsuit by George Floyd’s family following his controversial remarks about Floyd’s 2020 death during his recent Drink Champs appearance.

According to Click2Houston, Roxie Washington filed the suit on behalf of Floyd’s daughter, who is the only beneficiary of his estate, seeking $250 million in punitive damages.

“Kanye’s comments are a repugnant attempt to discount George Floyd’s life and to profit from his inhumane death,” attorney Pat D. Dixon III said. “[Kanye made] false statements about George Floyd’s death to promote his brands, and increase marketing value and revenue for himself, his business partners, and associates.”

Kanye West suggested that Floyd was killed by the Fentanyl in his system rather than at the hands of disgraced Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

“I watched the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens put up. One of the things that his two roommates said was, ‘They want a tall guy like me.’ And the day when he died, he said a prayer for eight minutes… They hit him with the fentanyl,” Ye said roughly 15 minutes into the scrubbed three-and-a-half-hour interview.

“If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that,” he added. “When he said ‘Mama,’ Mama is his girlfriend. They said he screamed for his ‘Mama’; Mama was his girlfriend — it’s in the documentary.”

Floyd’s estate previously won a lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis and was awarded $27 million.

N.O.R.E. Admits ‘Regret’ Over Kanye West’s ‘Drink Champs’ Interview

Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker claimed while Floyd’s heart disease and Fentanyl were factors in his death, they were not the direct cause.

Following George Floyd’s death, Kanye West participated in a Black Lives Matter march and set up a 529 education plan to pay the college tuition for Floyd’s eight-year-old daughter, Gianna.

Ye also donated $2 million to the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, which helped fund legal fees in their fights for justice.

Phoebe Bridgers to Play Sally in ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ London Show

This is halloween, this is halloween, and Phoebe Bridgers is putting her skeletal style to a new use.

The four-time Grammy nominee will be taking on the singing role of ragdoll Sally in a London live-to-film performance of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas alongside Danny Elfman, who will be reprising his role as the pumpkin king Jack Skellington. Ken Page will also return to sing as Oogie Boogie, which he also played in the beloved 1993 film.

The concerts will take place on December 9 and 10 at London’s OVO Arena Wembley. John Mauceri will conduct the BBC Concert Orchestra for the event, and will be joined by Greg Proops, Randy Crenshaw, Fletcher Sheridan and violinist Sandy Cameron. Last year, Elfman led a similar event along with Billie Eilish as Sally at LA’s Banc of California Stadium.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

The Nightmare Before Christmas follows the tale of Halloweentown’s Jack Skellington, who becomes tired of the annual routine of frightening people in the “real world” on Halloween. He later stumbles upon Christmastown accidentally and falls in love with the jolly holiday spirit. He then gets the motivation to take Christmas under his own control, and kidnaps Santa Claus in order to take over his role. However, things begin to go awry quickly.

Tickets for the Nightmare Before Christmas event are currently on sale via Ticketmaster.

Ice Cube Blasts Kanye West: ‘Please Leave My Name Out Of All The Antisemitic Talk’

Ice Cube has responded to comments Kanye West made about him during his recent inflammatory appearance on Drink Champs.

While Ye made a number of controversial remarks during his three-and-a-half-hour sitdown with N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN, he spoke about his recent antisemitic comments, and credited Ice Cube for putting him on his current “vibe.”

“Cube’s really set me up for this,” Ye said before addressing him directly: “You’ve really influenced me to get on this antisemite vibe. I’m here to finish the job.”

“I hate that my name was dragged into this Drunk Champs bullshit,” Cube replied on Twitter. “I don’t know what Ye meant by his statements, you’re gonna have to ask him. I didn’t put the batteries in his back. Please leave my name out of all the antisemitic talk. I’m not antisemitic and never have been.”

Ice Cube’s comments come as he’s been trailed by allegations of antisemitism for years. He’s previously been an outspoken supporter of Louis Farrakhan, a prominent anti-semitic religious leader, and in 2015 was accused of ordering his entourage to assault a rabbi.

At the peak of the pandemic in 2020, Cube again came under fire for sharing numerous memes that suggested Jews were responsible for disruption within the country. He responded by calling the memes “pro-Black.”

Elsewhere in Kanye’s problematic interview with Drink Champs, he referred to rap peers like Diddy and Meek Mill as “fake hard n-ggas,” and said even more scathing remarks about “the Jewish people.” He at one point even suggested George Floyd was killed by fentanyl, and not by ex-cop Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

In an interview with Hot 97 on Monday (October 17), N.O.R.E. called the fallout from his Kanye interview a “learning experience.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I can sit there and say, ‘That’s only Kanye West, it’s only what he said.’ But I have a responsibility when I have an audience … When I watched myself, I was embarrassed. I was like, ‘Wait a minute? You just let him say that?!’ I’m irresponsible for letting it go.”

He added, “I still believe people have a right to speak, whether it’s something you agree with or not, but you have a right to also check them — and check them immediately. That’s what I regret.”

Kanye West Buys Conservative Social Media Platform Parler In Bid For ‘Free Speech’

Kanye’s Drink Champs interview is just the latest in a string of controversial interviews the Yeezy mogul has given these past few weeks. He also sat down for an interview with Fox News earlier in October where he made more claims about Jewish people, and discussed the controversy surrounding his White Lives Matter t-shirt, which he debuted during the YZYSZN9 fashion show at Paris Fashion Week.

Funk Flex offered a call to action to other rappers on his Monday (October 17) show, and demanded artists do better in calling out Ye.

“I know the rappers [are like], ‘Well, we don’t wanna give it any fuel.’ You’re a liar,” Flex said. “You rappers are liars! All you have to do is really say your thoughts without mentioning Kanye’s name, but you don’t because you might do business with him down the line, you want a feature. I have not seen one person tied to his label, signed to his label, who has a feature, anybody that works in his office, say anything that what Kanye said was bananas.”

George Floyd’s Family Plans to Sue Kanye West Over Fentanyl Claim

Lawyers for George Floyd’s family say they’re getting ready to file a lawsuit against Ye, the artist and entrepreneur formally known as Kanye West, seeking $250 million in damages over his recent claims that Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose rather than at the hands of police.

Attorneys for Roxie Washington, the mother of Floyd’s daughter, said Tuesday (Oct. 18) that they plan to sue West for harassment, misappropriation, defamation and infliction of emotional distress over the rapper’s controversial statements, which he made during an appearance on the Drink Champs podcast.

“George Floyd’s daughter is being retraumatized by Kanye West’s comments and he’s creating an unsafe and unhealthy environment for her,” said Nuru Witherspoon, Washington’s attorney. “Kanye’s comments are a repugnant attempt to discount George Floyd’s life and to profit from his inhumane death. We will hold Mr. West accountable for his flagrant remarks against Mr. Floyd’s legacy.”

The case will be filed by Washington on behalf of her daughter with Floyd, the attorneys said. It’s unclear when or where the case will be filed. The attorneys said they would seek $250 million in damages, but such claims have little bearing on what is actually awarded at the end of a successful lawsuit.

Washington is represented by Witherspoon’s firm, as well as another firm called Dixon & Dixon.

West could not be reached for comment on the looming litigation.

Floyd, whose May 2020 death sparked national demonstrations against police brutality, was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on his neck for nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on the street, suffocating him to death. Chauvin was later convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

But in an interview released this weekend by Drink Champs, a popular podcast hosted on Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Revolt media channel, West said he saw things differently: “They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”

Drink Champs host N.O.R.E., who conducted the interview, has already apologized for the episode, and the episode has been pulled from both Revolt’s site and its YouTube channel.

Multiple cases against Kanye are now potentially in the works by Floyd’s family. On Sunday, civil rights attorney Lee Merritt posted to Twitter that he had been alerted to the comments Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, and was considering how to bring a case against West.

“While one cannot defame the dead, the family of #GeorgeFloyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death,” Merritt tweeted. “Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines & diminishes the Floyd family’s fight.”

West’s comments about Floyd came amid a storm of controversy for the once-beloved rapper. First he wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt to a show at Paris Fashion Week, then he was banned from both Instagram and Twitter over a string of anti-Semitic statements. Later in the same Drink Champs interview, he made more attacks on Jewish people, claiming they control the media and blaming “Jewish Zionists” for coverage about his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her former boyfriend Pete Davidson.

Funk Flex Blasts Kanye West Over ‘Drink Champs’ Interview, Urges Meek Mill To Respond

Funk Flex has shared his thoughts on the comments Kanye West made about George Floyd during a controversial interview on N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN’s Drink Champs.

The Yeezy mogul made a number of inflammatory remarks during the three-and-a-half-hour interview. He referred to rap peers like Diddy and Meek Mill as “fake hard n-ggas,” and said even more scathing remarks about “the Jewish people.”

He at one point even suggested George Floyd was killed by fentanyl, and not ex-cop Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes, which he was eventually found guilty of doing so by a grand jury.

N.O.R.E. faced backlash for not pushing back on Kanye’s factually inaccurate and antisemitic claims, for which the Drink Champs co-host apologized before taking the interview down.

“N.O.R.E., I don’t know how I feel about the content coming down,” Funk Flex said on his radio show around the 17-minute mark. “I don’t know how to weigh in on that yet. It does bother me that it came down, but N.O.R.E. I would really like to see that re-edited and up tomorrow. That I would like, because you know what, when Candace Owens goes on a platform, it stays up. When Donald Trump goes on a platform, it stays up.”

Funk Flex then offered a call to action to Meek Mill, who has often served as an activist for criminal justice reform.

“Meek, I wanna see you Meek,” Flex said. “Not just Meek, I’m just using Meek ’cause he called Meek out. I wanna see artists stand by George Floyd and get to that social media.

“You don’t even have to mention Kanye but you know why you don’t post that? Because you know that means you against Kanye without saying you’re against him, and you’re scared of him, or you wanna make money with him. And guess what, Kanye knows that.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Flex had called out rappers in particular for refusing to speak out.

“I know the rappers [are like], ‘Well, we don’t wanna give it any fuel.’ You’re a liar! You rappers are liars! All you have to do is really say your thoughts without mentioning Kanye’s name, but you don’t because you might do business with him down the line, you want a feature,” Flex said. “I have not seen one person tied to his label, signed to his label, who has a feature, anybody that works in his office say anything that what Kanye said was bananas.”

In an interview with Hot 97 on Monday (October 17), N.O.R.E. called the fallout from his Kanye interview a “learning experience.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I can sit there and say, ‘That’s only Kanye West, it’s only what he said.’ But I have a responsibility when I have an audience … When I watched myself, I was embarrassed. I was like, ‘Wait a minute? You just let him say that?!’ I’m irresponsible for letting it go.”

He added: “I still believe people have a right to speak, whether it’s something you agree with or not, but you have a right to also check them — and check them immediately. That’s what I regret.”

N.O.R.E. Explains Why AZ Hasn’t Been On ‘Drink Champs’ Yet

Kanye’s Drink Champs interview is just the latest in a string of controversial interviews the Chicago rapper has given these past few weeks. He most notably sat down for an interview with Fox News earlier in October where he made more claims about Jewish people, and spoke about the controversy behind his White Lives Matter t-shirt, which he debuted during the YZYSZN9 fashion show at Paris Fashion Week.

Reports have also emerged that Kanye allegedly professed his love for Hitler and the Nazis during his infamous rant at the TMZ offices in 2019, which spawned an invitation from the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles. They asked Ye to come down to the museum and educate himself on Jewish history.

“Words matter and words have consequences Ye,” the museum wrote in a statement on Instagram. “We urge you to come visit us at Holocaust Museum LA to understand just how words can incite horrific violence and genocides.”