celebrity news
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Next month, Napa Valley, Calif. will play host to the Blue Note Jazz Festival’s Black Radio Experience helmed by artist in residence, famed pianist Robert Glasper. The festival recently unveiled its official sponsors list, featuring Tracee Ellis Ross’ PATTERN Beauty, Black Vines, and other notable brands.
The Blue Note Jazz Festival’s Black Radio Experience will feature the aforementioned Glasper along with his fellow headliners John Legend, Jill Scott, and André 3000. Longtime music journalist Sway Calloway will be the MC of the festivities. The event will be held at the Meritage Resort & Spa in Napa Valley, with plenty of activations on-site for fans to engage with beyond the entertainers in tow.
The Blue Note Jazz Festival’s Black Radio Experience proudly announced PATTERN Beauty, Volcan de mi Tierra Tequila,
Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Monster Energy, Lexus, and Black Vines® as this year’s sponsors.
As Napa Valley is a premier travel destination for wine lovers, the inclusion of the Black Vines® Wine Garden will showcase several Black-owned wineries, including LVE Wines by John Legend, Pur Noire Urban Wineries, Love Cork Screw, J Moss Winery, Mom Juice, and P. Harrell Wines.
PATTERN Beauty will also host a hairstyling and gifting suite, a must for the stylish and camera-ready attendees of the Black Radio Experience. Further, there will be specialty cocktails from Volcan de mi Tierra Tequila and Tito’s Handmade Vodka, a stop for folks to get their vibe elevated with Monster Energy drinks, and an up-close look at the Lexus GX, a luxury SUV from the fine automaker.
In a recent chat with Robert Glasper that we’ll share in full later this week, the award-winning talent expressed that the Black Radio Experience is more than music but instead is a convergence of Black culture that includes music, food, wine, and style.
Aiding that objective, Black Vines® is a burgeoning community of Black-owned wineries and vintners and hosts frequent events across the Bay Area, Napa Valley, and beyond. Learn more at the Black Vines® website here. The community is also hosting a points-based contest for a chance to win a backstage meet & greet with Robert Glasper for attendees and their friends.
The Blue Note Jazz Festival’s Black Radio Experience takes place from August 30 through September 1. Joining the headliners will be Musiq Soulchild and Marsha Ambrosius, who will both join Glasper for a special vocal performance. Andra Day, Ledisi, Common and Pete Rock, Madlib, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and more are also slated to perform.
The Aldea Mental Health Fund is a partner for the event and a portion of the ticket sales will go towards the Aldea Children and Family Services division.
Hotel and ticket packages are available now with three-day general admission passes beginning at $499 and single-day GA passes starting at $175.
Visit the website for more information, including ticket sales and hotel information.
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Photo: Mathieu Bitton / @candytman
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Jack Black canceled the world tour dates for Tenacious D after his bandmate’s comment on the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Actor and musician Jack Black announced on Monday (July 15) that he was canceling the rest of Tenacious D’s world tour after his bandmate, Kyle Gass made a joke about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. The incident took place at the duo’s show in Sydney, Australia on Sunday. Gass was presented with a cake honoring his 64th birthday onstage, and when asked what his wish was, he reportedly said: “Don’t miss Trump next time.”
“I was blindsided by what was said at the show on Sunday. I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form,” Black wrote in a post that was shared on his Instagram account. “After much reflection, I no l longer feel it appropriate to continue the Tenacious D tour,” he continued, also saying that the group’s “creative plans are on hold.”
United Party Australia senator Ralph Babet had called for the band to be expelled from the country. “I call on the prime minister Anthony Albanese to join me in denouncing Tenacious D, Jack Black and band member Kyle Gass, and I call on the immigration minister Andrew Giles to revoke their visas and deport them immediately,” Babet said on Tuesday. (July 16) “Anything less than a deportation is an endorsement of the shooting and the attempted assassination of Donald J Trump.”
Gass would offer his apology through Instagram on Monday. “The line I improvised onstage Sunday night in Sydney was highly inappropriate, dangerous and a terrible mistake,” he wrote. “I don’t condone violence of any kind, in any form, against anyone. What happened was a tragedy, and I’m incredibly sorry for my severe lack of judgement. I profoundly apologise to those I’ve let down and truly regret any pain I’ve caused.”
The situation occurred a day after a would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, aimed and shot at the former president as he was holding a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday evening (July 13), reportedly grazing his ear. After firing six to eight rounds with an AR-15 which killed one bystander and critically wounded two others, the 20-year-old was killed by snipers from the Secret Service.
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Joe Bryant, the father of the late Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant, has died according to reports. Joe Bryant, nicknamed Jellybean, was a Philadelphia native who played basketball and coached in the city reportedly suffered a stroke.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Joe Bryant suffered a stroke based on comments made by La Salle University Men’s Basketball Head Coach Fran Dunphy. Bryant’s passing happened well over four years after the death of Kobe Bryant and his granddaughter Gigi Bryant on January 26, 2020.
According to the Inquirer, Bryant earned the nickname Jellybean due to his love of sweet treats and was a star player at Bartram High School and La Salle University ahead of being drafted in the first round of the 1975 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors. After eight seasons in the league, including four with the Philadelphia 76ers, Bryant established himself as a player in Italy and Europe, where a young Kobe picked up the Italian language
The outlet adds that a distance became apparent between Kobe Bryant and his father after being drafted right out of Lower Merion High School by the Los Angeles Lakers. After the death of his son and granddaughter, the elder Bryant never spoke about the loss, signaling just how far the rift between them was.
Joe Bryant was 69.
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Just one year after Shannon Sharpe suddenly bolted from FS1’s popular sports talk show Undisputed, his former co-host, Skip Bayless, is said to be calling it quits as well as the show has struggled to rediscover its appeal since Sharpe’s exit.
The New York Post is reporting that the often hated and sometimes insufferable Skip Bayless has decided to pack it up after eight years of going back and forth with Shannon Sharpe and his replacements, Richard Sherman and Michael Irvin.
Unfortunately for Bayless, audiences began to tune out after Sharpe took his talents to ESPN. In an attempt to shake things up, Bayless recruited the talents of Paul Pierce, Keyshawn Johnson, Rachel Nichols, and even Lil Wayne to stir things up, but to no avail.
With ESPN’s First Take continuing to overshadow whatever was going on on Undisputed — thanks to the big personalities of Sharpe, Stephen A. Smith, and Molly Qerim — it was only a matter of time before Skip Bayless had to accept that inevitable “L.”
Per the New York Post:
“Undisputed” ratings numbers were also hurt on the margins as Craig Carton’s lead-in show has not yet reached the metrics that “First Things First” had in the early mornings before it got moved to mid-afternoon, following “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd.
While Cowherd and Bayless were warned by colleagues that they would get “lost” leaving ESPN for FS1 in 2015 and 2016, both were successful in making the shift, as digital platforms like YouTube, X and Instagram made their audiences portable beyond linear TV.
It is expected that “Undisputed” will continue without Bayless.
For years it was rumored that Skip Bayless would eventually find his way back to ESPN where he and Stephen A. Smith had some undeniable chemistry brewing on First Take for years before Skip went to FS1 and kicked off Undisputed with Shannon Sharpe, helping launch his star into another stratosphere.
Would Skip entertain a return to First Take? Would Stephen A. and Shannon Sharpe even want to bring him into their circle given the way things have soured between Skip and his former co-hosts over the past few years? We doubt it, but hey, you never know.
Skip’s final show is said to be going down later this summer.
Would you want to see Skip Bayless back on ESPN, or are y’all good on him at this point? Let us know in the comments section below.
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It seems like whenever Lil Reese begins to trend on social media it’s almost never for anything positive and unfortunately that once again happens to be the case.
According to TMZ, the Chicago rapper was just arrested and booked in Los Angeles for allegedly raping a woman he went on a date with.
Reese and the woman in question went out on a dinner date this past Saturday night (July 13) before he took her to a hotel in Downtown Los Angeles where the sexual assault allegedly occurred. Once in the hotel room, the woman rejected Reese’s sexual advances before she said he forced himself on top of her and sexually assaulted her.
TMZ reports:
We’re told the woman then went straight down to the hotel lobby, and called the police around 3:30 AM Sunday.
We’re told officers promptly arrived on the scene and arrested Reese on suspicion of sexual assault and rape.
Boosie Badazz was an apparent witness to the arrest and put out an APB on Reese’s friends to bail him out.
Lil Boosie being there at the same time and seeing Reese hauled off to jail was hella random.
Lil Reese was eventually released on a $100K bond.
What do y’all think of the situation that Lil Reese finds himself in? Let us know in the comments section below.
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At this point in his career, Wiz Khalifa will light up anywhere and everywhere. He was recently arrested for weed in Romania and has since apologized.
As spotted on HipHopDX, the Pittsburgh, Pa., native has been touring throughout Europe this month. On Saturday, July 13, he performed a set at the Beach Please! Festival. During the performance, he smoked and apparently smoked some more afterward and was promptly arrested on drug possession charges.
“During a recital held during a music festival held in the Costinești resort, Constanța county, [Khalifa] possessed over 18 grams of cannabis (risk drug) and consumed (onstage) another amount of cannabis under the shape of a craft cigarette,” a translated Romanian press release read.
Video captured from the scene shows the “See You Again” performer being walked out of the festival by local authorities. It has been confirmed he was released soon after. Wiz Khalifa took to social media to apologize for the situation. |
“Last night’s show was amazing,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “I didn’t mean any disrespect to the country of Romania by lighting up on stage. They were very respectful and let me go. I’ll be back soon. But without a big ass joint next time.”
Individuals convicted of drug possession in Romania can face up to 10 years in prison.
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Irv Gotti, the Murder Inc. Records co-founder and longtime music executive, faces a lawsuit from a woman who claims she was raped by the New York native. The lawsuit was filed in Miami-Dade County and accuses Irv Gotti of sexually assaulting the woman over two years across several locales.
The Miami New Times reports that the lawsuit against Irv Gotti, 54, was filed on July 11 in Florida’s Miami-Dade County courts. The alleged victim, using the name Jane Doe, claims that Gotti, real name Irving Lorenzo, sexually assaulted her between 2020 and 2022 across Atlanta, Miami, and the island of Saint Martin.
More from Miami New Times:
“As a result of this sexually abusive relationship, Plaintiff has suffered severe emotional and psychological harm for which she had to be committed to a psychiatric ward,” the lawsuit (attached at the bottom of this story) reads. “These injuries continue and affect Plaintiff to this day.”
The woman alleges that she and Gotti met through a mutual friend at a poker tournament in the summer of 2020, and Gotti invited her on a vacation to Saint Martin afterward. But upon arriving on the Caribbean island, Gotti allegedly coerced her into having sex with him, threatening to send her home if she didn’t.
The lawsuit states that Gotti and Jane Doe entered into a romantic relationship but claims that she was forced to perform sex acts against her will and verbally abused her. According to the filing, Jane Doe claims that Gotti would demand she perform sexual favors under the pressures of coercion.
Irv Gotti has yet to respond to the lawsuit and explosive allegations within.
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While the legend of Bun B’s Trill Burgers continues to grow and people who live outside of Texas can only daydream about getting a bite out of what Good Morning America dubbed the best burger in the U.S., the rapper and educator is out here doing more good with his food franchise as the people of Houston recover from the damage left behind by Hurricane Beryl.
Uproxx is reporting that over the weekend, Bun B’s Trill Burgers collaborated with Kroger’s grocery chain to help give away 500 meals to residents of Houston as they deal with the fallout of the monstrous hurricane that left tons of damage in its wake. With the help of Bun B and dozens of volunteers, hundreds of people were able to get themselves some good grub for free after making their way down to Bethel’s Family Church.
Not one to shy away from helping his fellow Houstonians in need of a hand, Bun B rubbed on some elbow grease and took part in the handing out of meals himself while at the church.
But the grind didn’t stop there. Bun B and his team continued their mission the very next day (July 13) and with the help of Levis, Lone Star Tents & Events, and Kroger, they handed out 713 burgers and bottled waters at Houston Galleria.
In a video promoting the giveaway, Bun B explained how to get your burger if you happen to be in the area.
Put some respeck on that man’s name if you haven’t already.
What do y’all think of Bun B’s initiative to help those affected by Hurricane Beryl? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Tekashi 6ix9ine may be one of the most hated men in the United States, but the rapper-turned-snitch still has a very healthy fanbase overseas and is looking to cash in on his popularity by releasing branded cryptocurrency.
According to HipHopDX, the “Fefe” rapper traveled to Romania to take the stage at the annual Beach Please! music festival. While visiting the European country Tekashi 6ix9ine took to Instagram to announce he was releasing a new “Dummy Coin” for his fans to invest in.
In the now-deleted post (that disappeared quickly), Tekashi explained that there were some open slots for investors, and for those who were willing to buy into his new venture, there would be a chance to link up with the rapper-turned states evidence.
Per HipHopDX:
“We just got to Romania,” he began. “I’m super grateful for the ability to travel. Romania, we’re live tomorrow at Beach, Please! I want to apologize to all my fans for being very disconnected with you guys, but I got some great news — I just released a Dummy Coin.
“For the first 2,000 holders who buy into the Dummy Coin, you will be selected to do a meet and greet here in Romania […] Also, we’ll pick three select few to join us on stage for the last song, which is ‘GUMMO.’”
Sounds like Tekashi might be in dire need of money if he’s resorting to such tactics to drum up some cash. As to whether anyone invested in his “Dummy Coin” and met and chilled with him, that’s anyone’s guess.
Tekashi’s latest “business venture” comes months after the IRS raided his home and relieved him of some very expensive automobiles to satisfy his debt to Uncle Sam. If Tekashi is out here making bank on cryptocurrency, don’t be surprised if the IRS finds a way to come for those dollars too. They can be ruthless when they want to.
What do you think about Tekashi 6ix9ine’s “Dummy Coin”? Is he out here swindling his fans? Check out his performance clip in Romania, and sound off in the comments section below.
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Source: @asapferg / Instgram
Some heartwarming news coming out of Harlem for all the dog lovers out there as A$AP Ferg has been reunited with his K-9 comrade, Krash, four years after his furry little homie ran away while being looked after by a dog sitter.
On Thursday (July 12), the “Plain Jane” rapper took to Instagram to announce the great news and explained how the entire incident unfolded beginning in 2020. “So basically, my dog Krash was lost for four years. We left him with dog watchers and he ran away from them. I guess somebody picked him up. They might have took him to Connecticut because that’s where the cops found him,” Ferg said.
“But I don’t know how long he was in the wilderness or on the streets before he got to Connecticut. Someone must have picked him up because it was a cute dog to take home, ‘Ah, he’s cute.’ They took him home, he ran away from them. I guess he was trying to make his way back home. The cops called, ‘We have a dog, [an] Australian Shepherd. Is this your dog, Krash?’ We went to go get him, and he’s back.”
Giving him a proper welcome home party, Ferg and his peoples set up a cute little soiree in honor of Krash complete with balloons and other furry little friends to join in on the festivities. They even let him get behind the wheel of one of Ferg’s expensive cars! That dog gonna be living the good life from here on out.
We’re glad to see Ferg celebrating the return of his long-lost dog who miraculously survived out in the wilderness and even made it through the COVID pandemic in one piece.
Congrats, homie!