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Sada Baby, one of the many buzzing rappers from the Detroit Hip-Hop scene, was pulled over in Michigan at the top of the year due to the tint on his windows. During that stop, officers found a curious substance suspected to be drugs in Sada Baby’s vehicle, and after testing, it was determined that it was narcotics, thus leading to his arrest.
Local outlet Detroit Free Press reports that Sada Baby, real name Casada Sorrell, was pulled over in his Dodge Ram with tinted windows on January 9. After his plates were run, it was discovered that Sada Baby had an outstanding warrant for driving without a license. From there, police discovered the substance after arresting him on the warrant.
It appears that Sorrell was arrested again after tests determined that the substance they found in the vehicle was indeed drugs. A mugshot from the arrest has emerged and showcases Sada Baby displaying a zany look in the photo.
The rapper faces a charge of possessing less than 25 grams of a controlled substance (narcotic/cocaine), which is a felony in Michigan.
Sada Baby released his latest project, Bridge Kard Blessings, at the end of March.
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Photo: Sterling Heights Police Department/Getty
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Allen Berezovsky
Despite being left off Thierry Frémaux’s list of Official Selection titles Thursday morning, Spike Lee’s latest film, Highest 2 Lowest, will debut Out of Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Taking to Instagram, Lee announced the good news, writing in the caption of a photo featuring production merch from the upcoming film “Bon Jour. Good Morning. Whaddup❓Da New SPIKE LEE JOINT-HIGHEST 2 LOWEST Starring My Brother DENZEL WASHINGTON Has Been Invited To Da 2025 CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (In The Out Of Competition Category). AND DAT’S DA BOTTLES OF 🍾 🥂TRUTH, RUTH. YA-DIG❓SHO-NUFF.”
Following Spike’s announcement, the film festival confirmed the film’s addition and also revealed why it was left off the list.
“The film was not announced this morning due to one final piece of information we were awaiting — the confirmation of Denzel Washington’s presence at Cannes. Highest 2 Lowest, directed by Spike Lee, will indeed be presented as part of the Official Selection, Out of Competition, and will be screened, in the presence of Denzel Washington, on Monday, May 19, 2025,” the statement read.
Spike Lee Kurosawa’s 2 Lowest Is A Reimiganing of The Original Film
As for the film, Lee confirmed while speaking at the Red Sea Film Festival that his film is not a remake of AkiraKurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller High and Low but a “reinterpretation.”
The film will reunite longtime collaborators Lee and Washington for a fifth time. The duo previously worked on Malcolm X, Mo’Better Blues, He Got Game, and Inside Man.
While Kurosawa’s film followed an executive at a Yokohama shoe company who gets extorted after his chauffeur’s son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom.
In Lee’s reimagining of the original, Washington plays a music mogul who runs a music label.
Per Deadline:
“In Kurosawa’s film, Toshiro Mifune is a shoemaker,” said Lee. “In our film, Denzel Washington is a music mogul with his own label and his reputation as the best ears in the business. So, this is the fifth film with the dynamic duo.”
Apple Original Films and A24 will partner on Lee’s nexrt joint. A24 will handle the film’s theatrical release before its launch on launch on AppleTV+.
Buju Banton, Jagged Edge, The Roots and Lil Kim are among the first wave of artists announced as performers for its BET Experience 2025 concert series. The BET Media Group’s multiday celebration, which also includes the free BETX FanFest, will take place on June 5-8 in Los Angeles followed by this year’s BET Awards (June […]
Record Store Day usually falls around the 20th of April each year, normally without fail. But in 2025, Easter takes over that weekend, leading organizers of RSD to move it up to Saturday the 12th, which is right around the corner. This year’s festivities are nonetheless highly anticipated, with more than 300 titles available for […]
Here’s what you missed on Glee: Lea Michele and Dianna Agron had a mini cast reunion to support Darren Criss amid his Broadway stint in the musical Maybe Happy Ending, with both actresses sharing adorable pictures and gushing about the experience on Instagram afterward. After catching one of the former Warbler’s performances at Bellasco Theater […]
Brooklyn rapper Sleepy Hallow has announced “The Hallow Heist,” an immersive concert event in Fortnite, developed in partnership with Sony Music and his label, RCA Records. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Premiering on April 18, the event will take place on a custom island tailored to […]
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Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty
Ray J has once again found himself in the spotlight after a viral moment on streamer Kai Cenat’s livestream raised eyebrows across the internet.
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During a candid conversation, Ray J enthusiastically expressed his desire to have a sleepover with Kai, an offbeat comment that left both the streamer and viewers visibly confused. The moment quickly made the rounds online, with many questioning Ray J’s intentions and state of mind. Among those taken aback was his sister, Grammy-winning R&B icon Brandy. In a private text message that Ray J later shared publicly, Brandy expressed her disappointment: “Come on Ray? What’s going on with you? You’re so much better than this!!”
Ray J didn’t hold back in his emotional response. “My sister hates who I am! And all I’m doing is being myself,” he wrote. “I don’t know how to be better than who I am. I tried. But I get depressed trying to change when I don’t have my wife anymore and I have NO STABILITY!”. Brandy’s brother proceeded to crash out, “I don’t give a F about nobody else’s feelings, but when it’s my family, it makes me feel alone. SO I TURN UP MORE!!” he continued. He also addressed his children, Melody and Epik, declaring that they are his reason for staying alive. “IF IT WASN’T FOR YOU… I WOULD’VE BEEN LOCKED UP OR DEAD!!”
The moment has sparked concern, with many fans hoping Ray J finds healing and support soon.
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The vinyl revival symbolized by Record Store Day has been great for vinyl — but it hasn’t done much for audio. When LPs were the most popular way to listen to music, serious fans played them on record players hooked up to stereos. These days, to judge by the popularity of inexpensive, self-contained record players with built-in speakers, many people listen to vinyl that cost up to $50 on turntables that cost less than $100 — and sound like it.
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That’s a fine way to discover vinyl. But if you want to get the best sound out of your records, you’ll need a proper stereo system — separate components such as a turntable and a CD player (if you’re into that), plus an amplifier they connect to and speakers that it can drive. A quality system gets expensive — a truly great turntable costs $1,000 or more, as do speakers and amps. And that’s not even at the high end.
A proper stereo doesn’t need to be expensive, though. For $1,000, you can buy one that will blow away a self-contained turntable. It’s also possible to build one for $1,000. About $1,500 to $2,000 is where things get interesting though. For that amount of money, you can choose among some quality turntables, and add nice amplifiers and great speakers that suit the kind of music you like. Add a little more, to get to about $2,000, and you can upgrade to add a better turntable cartridge or pre-amp, or add even a CD player or digital-to-analog converter.
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Even the most basic components system will represent a serious improvement over self-contained turntables, which generally don’t perform well even as turntables — the cheaper needles can cause distortion and sometimes even wear on records, let alone as amplifiers and speakers. A proper turntable will better reproduce the sound in the grooves of records, and quality amplifiers and speakers will present it more accurately. Some of this is a matter of taste — different combinations of amps and speakers sound better with different music, and to different ears. But serious sound starts with a system that might look like this.
If you love vinyl, start with a solid turntable. There are two main kinds of models: direct drive, where a motor turns the platter directly, and belt drive, where — you guessed it — the motor moves a belt that in turn moves the platter. The first can start and stop faster — which is why DJs use them — and they are often more durable. But the latter sound better because the platter is isolated from the motor’s vibrations. (Much of home audio performance essentially comes down to reducing vibrations and electrical interference — admittedly rather nerdy obsessions, but they dramatically affect the music you hear.)
The Best Turntables
If you want a direct drive turntable, try the $500 Audio-Technica AT-LP5X. It sounds great, it looks great and it comes with a counterweight to prevent the needle from wearing out your record too fast. As far as direct drive models go, it handles vibrations pretty well, too. It should last as well.
Audio-Technica AT-LP5X Turntable
If you want the best sound, though, go for a belt drive turntable like the $600 Rega Planar 1. Rega Planar turntables are reliably great, even this entry-level baby of the bunch. (I had a Rega Planar 3 for years, and I moved up from there to a Rega Planar 8.) Rega’s turntables are studies in vibration reduction, and this one comes with a mounted MM cartridge, which saves time and hassle. (There are two main kinds of cartridges for turntables — Moving Magnet and Moving Coil. The latter offers better sound and more flexibility with setup, but it’s not worth thinking about until you start looking at turntables that cost more than $2,000 – and maybe not even then.) You also have the option of upgrading it with a better cartridge.
Rega Planar 1 Turntable
The Best Amplifiers
A proper turntable needs a phono pre-amp, to bring its signal up to “line level,” equal to the output of a CD player or any other component. At this level, you don’t need a separate one. When you do, start with the NAD PP 2e Phono Preamplifier.
NAD PP 2e Phono Preamplifier
Until then, I’d sooner trust a phono preamp that’s built into an integrated amplifier than one that’s in a turntable itself. Partly for that reason, the amp I’d recommend at this level is the $500 NAD C 316BEE, which includes one. It’s one of the best entry-level integrated amplifiers available. It has dedicated inputs for a turntable, a CD player, a tuner and video, plus an extra. (If you want to use a phono preamp, plug the turntable into that and that into another input — not the phono input.) Its clean design looks great, too.
NAD C 316BEE Integrated Amplifier with Phono
The Best Speakers
Speakers — amps, too — are a matter of personal taste. It’s easier to evaluate turntable motors or CD player digital-to-analog conversion systems, but various combinations of amplifiers and speakers differ in how they present sound in ways that are much harder to describe, let alone judge. If you can, test them. Listen for soundstage (a sense of dimensionality), presence, clarity of detail, and clear bass, treble and midrange. Think of what kind of music you listen to most: A system that booms with the heavy bass of EDM might not have the detail demanded by jazz, which is a fancy way of saying your mileage may vary.
I can recommend two sets of speakers, though. The $500 Klipsch Reference Premiere RP-600M II have big horns, and thus crisp sound. As reference speakers, they are optimized for accuracy, not sweetness. For the same price, the KEF Q350 speakers also offer impressive accuracy and bass for the size and price. (At this level, you don’t need tower speakers; it may make more sense to invest in stands to stabilize these. For $700, you can get KEF Q550 floor-standing speakers, which have more bass and presence, but at that point you might want to upgrade other parts of the system as well.)
klipsch Reference Premiere RP-600M II Ebony Bookshelf Speakers
KEF Q350 Bookshelf Speakers
KEF Q550 Floorstanding Speaker
The Best CD Player
That’s $1,600 spent so far. Depending on what your music collection looks like, you may want a CD player. I know what you’re thinking — dad! — but CDs often offer higher fidelity than streaming services and most downloads. Any CD player will sound OK — they just differ less than turntables — but for a relatively low amount of money, this $400 NAD C 538 CD Player, which includes the high-quality Wolfson digital-to-analog converter, will sound great and look nice with the NAD receiver. I’ve had this myself for more than a decade, and it’s dependable, and it sounds and looks great. That brings the total to an even $2,000.
NAD C 538 CD Player
The Best Accessories
At this level, most components come with wires that connect to an amplifier, so the only other thing you’ll need to buy is speaker wire. The basic kind is fine. (Specifically, Amazon Basics is fine.) At some point, you may want to buy better wire — or even try to understand the dizzying debate on how much it matters — but give that some time. This is a good way to start. But be warned: You may enjoy better sound so much that you want to upgrade.
Amazon Basics 14 gauge Audio Speaker Wire Cable
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Prada has agreed to buy the smaller Italian fashion house, and competitor, Versace. The deal is reportedly worth almost $1.4 billion.
On Thursday (April 10), Prada it purchased the brand for $1.375 billion (€1.25 bn) from its owner, Capri Holdings. Part of the deal was acquiring Versace’s debt and the union creates one of the biggest conglomerates in Italian fashion.
Hip-Hop fans have long held both Prada and Versace in high regard. While the Prada “America’s Cup” sneaker has been a staple in the wardrobe of affluent (or at least “faking it til they make I”t rappers), the late, great Notorious B.I.G. was known for his Versace “Medusa” sunglasses. And you have to mention the Migos making a hit called “Versace,” that Drake promptly hopped on, back in 2013.
“We are delighted to welcome Versace to the Prada Group and to build a new chapter for a brand with which we share a strong commitment to creativity, craftmanship and heritage,” said Patrizio Bertelli, Prada Group Chairman and Executive Director, in a statement. “We aim to continue Versace’s legacy celebrating and re-interpreting its bold and timeless aesthetic; at the same time, we will provide it with a strong platform, reinforced by years of ongoing investments and rooted in longstanding relationships. Our organisation is ready and well positioned to write a new page in Versace’s history, drawing on the Group’s values while continuing to execute with confidence and rigorous focus.”
Back in March, Donatella Versace announced that she was vacating her longtime post as Chief Creative Officer of Versace (she is now its Chief Brand Ambassador), which was founded by her late brother, Gianni.
“Versace is an iconic Italian fashion luxury house founded 46 years ago by Gianni Versace and further developed under the creative vision of Donatella Versace,” said John D. Idol, the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in a statement. “Over the last six years, we have made tremendous progress in repositioning the brand to place greater emphasis on its luxury heritage and exceptional craftsmanship. Through elevated product, marketing and store enhancements, the brand is now well positioned for sustainable long-term growth. We are confident that Prada Group is the perfect company to further guide Versace into its next era of growth and success.”
See reactions to Prada’s power move in the gallery.
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Prada has agreed to buy the smaller Italian fashion house, and competitor, Versace. The deal is reportedly worth almost $1.4 billion.
On Thursday (April 10), Prada it purchased the brand for $1.375 billion (€1.25 bn) from its owner, Capri Holdings. Part of the deal was acquiring Versace’s debt and the union creates one of the biggest conglomerates in Italian fashion.
Hip-Hop fans have long held both Prada and Versace in high regard. While the Prada “America’s Cup” sneaker has been a staple in the wardrobe of affluent (or at least “faking it til they make I”t rappers), the late, great Notorious B.I.G. was known for his Versace “Medusa” sunglasses. And you have to mention the Migos making a hit called “Versace,” that Drake promptly hopped on, back in 2013.
“We are delighted to welcome Versace to the Prada Group and to build a new chapter for a brand with which we share a strong commitment to creativity, craftmanship and heritage,” said Patrizio Bertelli, Prada Group Chairman and Executive Director, in a statement. “We aim to continue Versace’s legacy celebrating and re-interpreting its bold and timeless aesthetic; at the same time, we will provide it with a strong platform, reinforced by years of ongoing investments and rooted in longstanding relationships. Our organisation is ready and well positioned to write a new page in Versace’s history, drawing on the Group’s values while continuing to execute with confidence and rigorous focus.”
Back in March, Donatella Versace announced that she was vacating her longtime post as Chief Creative Officer of Versace (she is now its Chief Brand Ambassador), which was founded by her late brother, Gianni.
“Versace is an iconic Italian fashion luxury house founded 46 years ago by Gianni Versace and further developed under the creative vision of Donatella Versace,” said John D. Idol, the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in a statement. “Over the last six years, we have made tremendous progress in repositioning the brand to place greater emphasis on its luxury heritage and exceptional craftsmanship. Through elevated product, marketing and store enhancements, the brand is now well positioned for sustainable long-term growth. We are confident that Prada Group is the perfect company to further guide Versace into its next era of growth and success.”
See reactions to Prada’s power move in the gallery.
