celebrity news
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PnB Rock was senselessly murdered in 2022 during a robbery in California and a jury has found the two of the three individuals involved guilty on all counts in the trial. Freddie Trone was found guilty of sending his teenage son to rob and subsequently gun down PnB Rock inside a popular soul food restaurant.
Rolling Stone reports that Freddie Trone, 46, ordered his son, 17 at the time, to enter the Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘N Waffles in South Los Angeles after being tipped off by Tremont Jones, 46, that PnB Rock and his fiancée Stephanie Sibounheuang entered the eatery.
Under Trone’s orders, the masked teenager confronted the Philadelphia artist demanding his jewelry while threatening Sibounheuang by saying, “If you don’t give me the jewelry, I’m going to blow her head off” as heard in court testimony.
After nine days of testimony, the jury decided that Trone was guilty of one count of felony murder, two counts of robbery, and one count of conspiracy. Jones was found guilty of two counts of robbery and one count of conspiracy. Trone’s son, now 19, was found incompetent to stand trial and is still being held in a juvenile facility.
Deana Allen, the mother of PnB Rock, real name Rakim Allen, offered a statement to Rolling Stone after the verdict was heard in a Compton, Calif. court.
“I’m elated. I wanted to jump up and scream, ‘Hallelujah.’ I’m so happy it was quick. We got justice for Rakim. I feel better knowing they’ll be in jail for a long time.”
PnB Rock was 30.
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Photo: Gilbert Carrasquillo / Getty
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Source: Steve Jennings / Getty
Just days before The Fugees were set to kick off their highly-anticipated 2024 tour, the comeback concerts have been canceled, and for the time being no one knows why.
According to Variety, Ticketmaster began to issue refunds and notices of cancellations to ticket holders Tuesday (Aug. 6), with no explanation. No word from Ticketmaster or Live Nation as to why the shows were suddenly canceled, but don’t be surprised if people begin pointing fingers sooner or later as rumors will at some point begin to hit the internet.
Variety reports:
Ticketholders posted screenshots of a message they received from Live Nation stating simply, “Your event has been canceled. A refund will be on its way to your account soon.”
The tour was set to begin on Friday in Tampa, with the American leg climaxing at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 17 and shows in New York and New Jersey on Sept. 20-21. Other cities that were scheduled for now-canceled shows included Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston and Milwaukee — 18 U.S. dates in all.
Although all the U.S. dates have disappeared, tickets remain on sale for an overseas leg of the tour that begins with a show in Manchester, England on Oct. 12 and ends in Amsterdam on Oct. 22, with gigs in London and Paris in-between. It’s unclear whether these shows will go the way of the American tour or whether the European shows will remain on the calendar.
This isn’t the first time that a Fugees tour has been derailed; this has been happening consecutively for the past few years. Their first announced tour in 2021, was postponed thanks to the COVID pandemic only for the group to do a handful of shows in 2022 before canceling the remaining dates. They were able to get some more shows done in 2023, which led to some excitement for their 2024 leg. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem like it’ll be happening in the U.S.
What do y’all think is going on with The Fugees? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Source: Paras Griffin / Getty
Lil Wayne’s penmanship is worth more than he probably ever imagined. His old rhyme book is going to be auctioned for $5 million dollars after a long legal battle.
As reported on Digital Music News, the New Orleans, Louisiana, native will see some of his earliest work go to the highest bidder. This week, memorabilia site Moments In Time announced that they will be moving forward with the selling of a notebook he used during the 1990s as a member of the Hot Boys. In it are lyrics he penned for several of the group’s classic songs including, “Grown Man” and “We On Fire.” Additionally, the company states that it also includes drawings of what appears to be Mannie Fresh, but this has yet to confirmed.
According to TMZ, the notebook was in a car owned by someone associated with Cash Money Records. Legend has it when the dealership took back the car an employee emptied the vehicle out and held onto the book. The man stored the collectible in his garage, but then Hurricane Katrina hit the city in 2005 causing severe water damage to the item. This is not the first time the memorabilia site has tried to sell off the notebook. Back in 2019, the personal item went on the block for $250,000, but Lil Wayne filed a cease and desist stopping Moments In Time from selling it. Almost five years later, a judge has granted the company the right to proceed with the sale.
You can read more about the Lil Wayne book of rhymes auction here.
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Snoop Dogg became quite the fixture at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, employing his affable charm and eternal smooth image at will. It should safely be assumed that Snoop Dogg isn’t doing the Summer Olympics gig at a pro bono rate, and it’s being reported that he stands to rake in millions for his contributions.
Snoop Dogg, as we’ve said in these pages previously, might be the most recognizable public figure in the United States, if not the world. The Doggfather brought his signature cool to the Paris Games starting on July 26 with an epic showing as a torchbearer for the opening of the Summer Olympics that won’t be soon forgotten.
Source: VICTORIA VALDIVIA / Getty
According to venture capitalist Henry L. McNamara, Snoop, 52, is making six figures daily for his time in Paris but we will continue to state that these reports remain unconfirmed.
Source: Carl Recine / Getty
“Sat next to an NBC exec at dinner, he said Snoop gets paid $500k a day plus expenses to be here promoting Olympics. From Gin and Juice to a few million to be a celebrity at the Olympics – what a world,” McNamara wrote on X on Sunday (August 4).
McNamara’s quip should be taken with a grain of salt as it isn’t expected that Snoop or NBC would want to reveal such detail to the public. That said, the expert job Snoop has done in getting involved with all aspects of Olympics coverage is commendable and he should be handsomely compensated. Further, there exists a relationship between the major broadcasting network and the rapper as Snoop worked as a judge on the hit series The Voice.
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From donning full equestrian gear to hopping in the pool with swimming legend Michael Phelps and exchanging words with Team USA’s women’s gymnastics team, NBC has gotten a lot of content and mileage out of the Long Beach, Calif. legend so perhaps the $8 million Snoop Dogg is slated to earn isn’t that much of a stretch once you tally up the 17 days of service.
The 2024 Summer Olympics will have its closing ceremonies on August 11.
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Photo: Getty
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Laila! is a young artist on the rise and has already gone viral with her vibey “Not My Problem” track and it appears that as the saying goes, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. During a recent interview, Laila! confirmed that Yasiin Bey, the former Mos Def, is her father but she isn’t hamstrung to compete in the spaces he’s occupied.
If you’ve been under a rock, Laila!’s “Not My Problem” is all over social media and a recent On The Radar freestyle session gave the song a wider bit of reach. Sitting with Complex, the “Like That!” artist shared with the outlet that the Black Star member is her father but her actual sound is more indicative of her generation.
“Yes, he is my dad, y’all. The rumors are true, no, I’m kidding. But yes, he’s my dad. He’s my dad,” she explained with a laugh.
Laila! added, “I don’t know, I guess, like, I kind of just always been my own, like, artist in a way. And like, that’s the cool thing, because I feel like as a kid, like whenever we would just jam sesh and like vibe out, me and him, I don’t know, I always had my own style, I always had my own thing going on. And he’s always just been like, ‘Okay kid, I see you.’”
From what we gathered from her social media pages, Laila! is an all-around talent with rapping, singing, and producing all appearing in her tool belt. The rising Brooklyn star’s latest release is the “Not My Problem” and “Flyer Than U” two-pack that dropped in June.
Check out the Complex chat below, along with her latest EP.
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Photo: Instagram
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Source: Courtesy Sotheby’s / Sotheby’s
At the end of July it was reported that Kobe Bryant’s personal locker from the Staples Center would be up for auction, with an estimated value hovering around $1.5 million.
Well, the auction has officially closed and according to Raw Story, the NBA legend’s personal locker sold for an impressive $2.9 million. Not a bad haul for a piece of history that was almost chucked away with the rest of the trash when the Staples Center underwent renovations in 2018. To be fair, Kobe Bryant (RIP) was still alive and well when his locker was about to get tossed, but still, someone saw the value in it and was smart enough to hold onto it knowing it would be priceless to the right person.
Per Raw Story:
A maintenance worker saved the locker from being discarded in 2018 during renovations of the Staples Center arena, according to Sotheby’s. An American collector later acquired the piece.
“Today’s price highlights not only Kobe’s enduring legacy but also the exceptional nature of this unique item,” said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of modern collectables of the sale price achieved after 19 bids.
The sale at Sotheby’s also featured memorabilia from sporting icons like Michael Jordan and Reggie Jackson, as well as items from contemporary stars such as Rafael Nadal and Stephen Curry.
No word on who ended up with the winning bid, but one has to wonder what they plan on doing with it. Will they build a Kobe shrine with it? Will they actually use it as their own personal home locker? Could the winner have been someone Kobe knew or even played in the NBA with? Was it Vanessa Bryant? We have questions that will probably never be answered.
Who do y’all think won Kobe Bryant’s locker? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson is mostly known these days for his work as a leading power player in the entertainment industry, but he hasn’t lost his sharp sense of humor. After a judge dismissed a lawsuit brought against him by a former drug lord alleging that his story was lifted, 50 Cent taunted the man in his typical sarcastic fashion.
As exclusively reported by AllHipHop, Cory “Ghost” Holland launched a lawsuit back in 2021 against 50 Cent, Courtney Kemp, Starz, and Lionsgate for allegedly stealing his life story for the Power series.
Holland asserted in his lawsuit that the character of Ghost on Power modeled his own life, and retold his time on the street on a 2007 musical release. Holland claims he sent a CD of the album, titled Blasphemy, to the father of Kemp in order to find his way out of the drug game. Holland accused 50 Cent and the show’s co-creators of stealing his life story for the show.
New York District Judge Hon. Analisa Torres dismissed Holland’s claims within the three-count lawsuit. Judge Torres ruled in the first matter that the character of Ghost in the Power series never directly referenced Holland so the defamation claim was tossed.
In a second lawsuit, Holland claimed that 50 Cent sent people to harass and threaten him while showing up in his neighborhood. On the third matter, Holland said that people connected to 50 played a song that suggested a threat near his home.
Holland left behind a paper trail towards 50 and his camp, clearly illustrated in a letter obtained by AllHipHop with Holland explicitly stating there would be violent consequences.
50 Cent, never one to let a moment pass, took to Instagram and shared an image of a report regarding the tossed lawsuit and wrote in the caption, “Fool thought he was GHOST [laughing emoji] da fvck wrong wit these [Ninja emoji]’s man LOL @bransoncognac @lecheminduroi.”
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Source: Super7 / Super7
Months after Super7 debuted their Salt-N-Pepa action figures, the pop culture collectibles company is once again giving Hip-Hoppers something to cop as they’ve announced the next rapper they plan on immortalizing is none other than MF DOOM.
According to Variety, Super7 will be releasing an action figure of the “Doomsday” rapper to help commemorate the 20th anniversary of his classic album Madvillain. And we can’t even front, the figure looks hella dope. While there have been other action figures created depicting the legendary Hip-Hop MC, Super7’s iteration of DOOM stands out as he’ll be quite huge and take up a lot of space on whatever mantle or display case he’s placed in.
Per Variety:
Inspired by the group’s comic-book-come-to-life music video for “All Caps,” Super7 created a poseable, 16” tall vinyl collectible of Doom in his signature fedora, trench coat and metal mask.
While this isn’t Super7’s first MF Doom action figure produced, it definitely stands taller than what they previously released not too long ago.
Though Super7 previously released (now sold out) 4” figures of Doom inspired by the cover for his 1999 debut “Operation: Doomsday” and a companion piece of collaborator Czarface, this release is the marquee collectible in their series, and could not come at a better time: just weeks after Marvel Studios announced that Robert Downey Jr. was cast as his namesake, Doctor Doom, in two upcoming “Avengers” films.
We can’t wait to cop this joint.
Along with the release of the action figure, Super7 will be also be releasing an exclusive capsule collection featuring merchandise and attire including shirts, sweaters, stickers and even a skate deck for them skateboarders who bump MF DOOM religiously. We might have to copp a few things off this collection.
The Super7 x MF DOOM collection will be dropping at 11:00 am EST on August 5th and will only available through 11:59 pm EST on August 7th.
Are you going to cop the new MF DOOM figure from Super7? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Former CNN host Don Lemon is suing Elon Musk and his social media platform X for a breach of contract after their content partnership deal was nixed by the tech mogul.
According to reports, the former CNN host Don Lemon has officially filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. The suit, filed in a San Francisco county court on Thursday (Aug. 1), alleges that Musk committed a breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, misappropriation of Lemon’s name and likeness, and fraud. It comes five months after his partnership deal with Musk to provide exclusive journalistic content was nixed when Musk backed out of the deal after an interview with Lemon in March via text message. Lemon is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages, claiming he wasn’t paid by Musk.
“This case is straightforward. X executives used Don to prop up their advertising sales pitch, then canceled their partnership and dragged Don’s name through the mud,” said Don Lemon’s attorney Carney R. Shergerian in a statement. The lawsuit alleges that Musk agreed to pay Lemon $1.5 million under the partnership, with $200,000 paid up-front and incentives including bonus payments for reaching performance thresholds and an option to renew the one-year deal twice with the same terms.
However, there was no signed agreement paperwork. In the filing, Lemon stated that he had reservations about entering into the partnership but “Musk represented to Lemon that he would have full authority and control over the work he produced even if disliked by Defendants, and that there would be no need for a formal written agreement or to ‘fill out paperwork.’” After the split, Lemon spoke out about the interview: “Throughout our conversation, I kept reiterating to him that although it was tense at times, I thought it was good for people to see and hear our exchange, and that they would learn from our conversation. … But apparently, free speech absolutism doesn’t apply when it comes to questions about him from people like me.”
Lemon also claims that Musk “tweeted negatively about Lemon repeatedly” after the deal’s cancellation to his more than 192 million followers on X. Musk said in a post in March that Lemon “is welcome to monetize on this platform, just like everyone else. What we aren’t going to do is guarantee minimum payments to him, as he was demanding, which would be going beyond everyone else!”
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The weight loss drug Ozempic has been all the rage in 2024 with everyday people and celebrities hopping on the medication to help them drop some unwanted pounds. Now, it seems like Ice Spice might’ve got in on the trend as fans are noticing the famously thick as molasses rapper is looking a bit more lean these days.
According to Page Six (so keep that top of mind), fans have begun to murmur that Ice Spice is disappearing before their very eyes and not because her popularity is waning, but because her waist line is, and that’s leaving some of her day-one fans a bit worried. Earlier this week, the bombshell from the Bronx posted a few pics of herself on her official Instagram page and fans were quick to notice a decline in her former thicker frame and immediately began to speculate that the “Deli” rapper was probably poppin’ Ozempic into her physical.
While the backside was still pretty much there in all it’s glory, her waistline seemingly vanished, and that led to many fans taking to the comments to let their feelings be known.
Per Page Six:
Fans took to her Instagram comments to share their opinions about her drastic weight loss — even attributing it to Hollywood’s favorite weight loss drug, Ozempic.
“Stop using ozempic,” wrote one user.
“girl … you are disappearing … where all your weight went,” asked a second person.
“Somebody said the ICE IS MELTING ,” quipped a third.
“Ok ozempic ,” commented a fourth user.
When another fan said Ice — born Isis Gaston — was “sooo skinny,” another user replied, “its ozempic.”
Page Six has reached out to Ice’s reps for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Truth be told, she’s still pretty thick from the waist down, and we think she still looks good. But hey, that’s just us. Check out Ice Spice’s pics below, and let us know your thoughts on the situation.