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Young Thug and his ongoing RICO trial in Georgia has undergone several twists and turns and the latest instance stands out as one of the most explosive. Earlier this week, attorney Brian Steel, who represents Young Thug in the YSL RICO trial, was held in contempt of court and ordered held for 10 weekends behind bars.
Local outlet 11 Alive reports that Judge Ural Glanville told Brian Steel that Steel’s failure to share the name of his source regarding a private meeting between Glanville, the State, and key witness Kenneth Copeland is why he charged Steel with the action.
The outlet adds that Judge Glanville gave Steel several warnings about being in contempt which Steel bypassed. Instead, the attorney stated that the court was in violation because his client didn’t have any representation at the private meeting.
“I’m going to give you five minutes. If you don’t tell me who it is, I’m going to put you in contempt,” Glanville said. Steel responded with, “I don’t need five minutes.”
After a recess, the judge once more demanded details and Steel refused.
“Mr. Steel, I’m going to ask you again. I need you to tell me how you got this information. This is so sacrosanct to have a conversation in my chambers parroted to you,” Glanville said.
Steel then motioned for a mistrial which the judge denied, and he was taken into custody right after. From there the judge read the terms of Steel’s jail time.
“Those 20 days consisting of every weekend for the next 10 weekends,” Glanville added. “And you’ll be reporting to 901 Rice Street NW, Atlanta, Georgia, 30318. At 7 p.m. on Fridays, you’ll be released on 7 p.m. on Sundays. And it’s to commence this Friday, June the 14th at 7 p.m. and not to end until Sunday, August the 18th, 2024, at 7 p.m.”
A video of the exchange captured by 11 Alive is posted below.
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Photo: CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA / Getty
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Fans of Roc-A-Fella Records should be familiar with the name Oschino, who spent time on the label as part of the State Property collective. Via a new interview, Oschino shared that he felt Jay-Z betrayed Beanie Sigel during a tough time for the Philadelphia star.
Oschino sat down with the SAY CHEESE! YouTube show to discuss his rise as a rapper, signing with Roc-A-Fella, auditioning for Jay-Z, and more. During the portion when he discussed his time under the Brooklyn mogul’s label, Oschino expressed disappointment in the honcho for not stepping up during Beanie Sigel’s attempted murder trial.
“I came to court for Beanie when he allegedly shot somebody,” Oschino Vasquez said. “JAY-Z got on the stand and they said, ‘Are you gonna be responsible for him if we let him go?’ Jay-Z said, ‘No.’ I was there. This ain’t hearsay; this was me in the courtroom.”
Vasquez went on to say that he was shocked that Jay-Z wouldn’t tell the court that he would step up and assist Beanie Sigel in his return to public life, stating that his time in jail raised him to view such matters differently.
He continued, “And nobody didn’t say nothing, nobody flinched. Mind you, I’m a jail n*gga so I’m looking around like, ‘Nobody not saying nothing?!’ Like it was normal.”
Check out Oschino’s interview speaking about the matter below.
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Martin Lawrence is back in theaters alongside his Bad Boys co-star Will Smith, but a recent appearance of the actors had fans worried about the state of the comedian’s health. Martin Lawrence spoke about the moment in a recent interview and assured those concerned fans that he’s in optimal health.
Martin Lawrence and Will Smith were on the set for Hot 97’s Ebro In The Morning as part of the press run for their newest film, Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, which Smith and Lawrence both declared as the best of the four films to emerge from the franchise. Early on in the interview, host Ebro Darden mentioned the pair’s press stop in Mexico City and Los Angeles in where fans thought Lawrence didn’t look the best.
Martin Lawrence, taking the question about the fans’ concern for his health from Ebro, said, “I’m fine, I’m in God’s hands. I’m blessed. I’m glad to be waking up every day. I’m all good. No need for people to be concerned.”
Other topics covered was Smith’s return to the scene after the Oscars incident and, of course, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Martin. Both men gave one another praise for being Black sitcom stars on television during a time where that wasn’t always a thing.
There was also a fun segment where Peter Rosenberg asked about The Fresh Prince of Bel Air‘s theme song and how Quincy Jones conceded to Smith’s suggestion after some early struggles.
Check out the full chat with Martin Lawrence and Will Smith below.
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Photo: Angel Delgado / Getty
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The-Dream is the latest entertainer to be slammed with a lawsuit alleging several serious crimes from a former understudy who claims she was subjected to sexual abuse, battery, and more. Chanaaz Mangroe claims in her lawsuit that The-Dream promised to guide her singing career but instead used his position and power to abuse and torture her.
TMZ was able to obtain the court documents filed by Chanaaz Mangroe, which detail some of the heinous acts she was allegedly subjected to. Mangroe, who hails from the Netherlands, says in her lawsuit that The-Dream, real name Terius Nash, took it upon himself to extend her work visa in 2014 in order to help grow her career in the States.
What transpired instead, according to Mangroe, was a yearlong abusive relationship with Nash using his age and influence to control her actions.
More from TMZ:
She alleges she was locked in a dark room where The-Dream “violently” had sex with her, leaving her naked and alone “for hours on end” before returning for another encounter.
The aspiring singer goes on to claim she was “frequently strangled” by Dream during their sexual encounters … almost losing consciousness on a number of occasions.
Further, Mangroe says that Nash would record their sexual encounters and allegedly used that as leverage to keep her silent as it was assumed he could leak the footage publicly.
So far, the legal team for The-Dream has yet to respond to the allegations.
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Brother Marquis of 2 Live Crew fame was not a founding member of the controversial Hip-Hop outfit but was integral to its success. While the cause of death has not been announced, the group’s official Instagram page announced the passing of Brother Marquis with fans expressing shock.
Brother Marquis was born Mark Ross on April 4, 1966, and was raised in Rochester, N.Y. before moving to Los Angeles, Calif. with his mother as a teenager. While in Los Angeles, Marquis immersed himself in the music scene and put out music with fellow rapper Rodney-O as The Cautious Crew.
The first version of the 2 Live Crew was founded in Riverside, Calif. with DJ Mr. Mixx, the late Fresh Kid Ice (Christopher Wong Won), and Amazing Vee. After Amazing Vee vacated the group, Marquis joined the group and they helped establish the early roots of the Miami Bass sound before moving to Florida and subsequently signing to Luke Skywalker Records with the label boss Uncle Luke joining the group as its hypeman and manager.
The group saw a string of successful releases in the 1980s through the early 1990s built on the back of the raunchy raps of Brother Marquis and Fresh Kid Ice while Uncle Luke served a prominent role on wax. The group disbanded and reunited several times over, and before Fresh Kid Ice’s passing in 2017, there were talks of new music.
Condolences are in order towards the family and friends of Mark “Brother Marquis” Ross.
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Sean Kingston and his mother, Janice Louis, are currently facing charges of committing over $1 million in fraud after the Jamaican-American artist’s home was raided. Sean Kingston has since agreed not to fight extradition to Florida after he was arrested last week at a California Army base.
Authorities in Florida recently raided the rented Fort Lauderdale home of Sean Kingston, 34, and arrested Kingston’s mother, Janice Louis, 61, without incident as reported by outlets TMZ and The Associated Press.
According to the AP, Kingston waived the right to fight extradition on Tuesday (May 28) while in court in California and will subsequently be handed over to Florida law enforcement officials. Both Kingston and Louis were charged in the alleged fraud scheme. The report adds that while Kingston did not appear in a San Bernardino court, he was still jailed as of Tuesday afternoon, and it was confirmed that officials from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office will handle his transfer to Florida to face charges.
Last week, Kingston was performing at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in the Mojave Desert. During his arrest, Louis was taken away in handcuffs in Florida after a SWAT team raided Kingston’s Florida mansion.
The charges faced by Kingston and Louis are conducting an organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, identity theft, and related crimes. Among the items that were said to be stolen included a Cadillac Escalade, furniture, jewelry, and money.
Sean Kingston recently took to Instagram to state that he and his mother are in good spirits and that his attorneys are handling the matter.
It isn’t known when the extradition will occur but we will update this story as it happens.
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Kelly Rowland was the subject of Internet chatter after she was observed getting into it with an usher at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The singer and actress has since made a public statement after the incident, stating that she was standing her ground.
The image of Kelly Rowland pointing and having what appeared to be a loud discussion with the Cannes Film Festival usher went viral this week and even sparked some meme fodder. It wasn’t understood at the time what happened but Rowland, speaking with the Associated Press, explained her side of events and even alleged that women [i.e. not Black] who didn’t look like her were not treated the same.
“The woman knows what happened. I know what happened. I have a boundary and I stand by those boundaries and that is it,” Kelly Rowland said to the AP at the Cannes Film Festival. “And there were other women that attended that carpet who did not quite look like me and they didn’t get scolded or pushed off or told to get off. I stood my ground and she felt like she had to stand hers. But I stood my ground.”
From what was seen on video footage, Rowland was instructed twice by an usher to vacate the red carpet section at the Palais des Festivals and motioned her to take the stairs into the theater. Then a group of ushers swarmed her and essentially guided her to the stairs. At that moment, Rowland gave one of the ushers a piece of her mind.
Rowland observed a difference in treatment but stopped short of calling it race-related but the suggestion rings clear in her statment.
The video of Kelly Rowland’s comments can be viewed below.
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Lil Baby was unharmed after a shooting broke out this past Tuesday (May 14) in a northwest Atlanta neighborhood ahead of a scheduled video shoot. According to reports, individuals who allegedly appeared to be shooting a video themselves opened fire
at the scene, injuring three people who were later hospitalized.
Local outlet 11 Alive reports that the shooting took place in the Dixie Hills neighborhood of Atlanta where Lil Baby and crew were set to record a music video. Police say that they arrived at the scene of the shooting just before 5 PM local time in response to three people who reported being shot.
One 24-year-old man was found with a gunshot wound to the arm, and a 27-year-old man was located with a gunshot wound to the back. A 23-year-old man was later found at a local hospital with a wound to the neck.
Lil Baby was said to be in the area but escaped injury.
Atlanta Police Department officials added that the people who were shot were not part of the team putting together the set for the video but instead said that people connected to the filming were involved yet it isn’t clear what that means as the shooting is still under investigation.
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Source: YouTube / Youtube
On Tuesday, May 14, social media erupted when it was reported that DJ Akademiks had been hit with a rape and defamation lawsuit by his ex-girlfriend, Fauziya Abashe, who accused the social media personality and two of his friends of drugging and raping her.
Though Akademiks remained mum throughout most of the day, he finally took to his channel and addressed the situation. “Whatever this is it will be handled in the court room.” Proclaiming his innocence while calling the lawsuit a “civil situation” and added, “It’s a shakedown. This is a money tree situation.” DJ Akademiks didn’t seem too worried about the outcome of this lawsuit as he’s basically addressed it in the past on his channel.
He also brought up the fact that when the alleged incident occurred, he gave the security footage to the police who then decided that there was no evidence of wrongdoing.
“I’m not even hiding and ducking from a situation or ducking from the narrative that happened. I pretty much told everything, and also I told the truth,” he said. “The police came, they looked, we gave them everything. Pretty much everything is documented, caught on videotape. They got to see it with their own two eyes. We’re officially clear, we could not bring any criminal charges. [I] are not criminally liable but also anybody else in the situation was also cleared.”
He also brought up the fact that Abashe hired Tyrone Blackburn, who Akademiks had been talking about since he brought a lawsuit against P. Diddy on behalf of Lil Rod. Feeling that Blackburn had it in for him, Akademiks feels this is just more proof that the entire lawsuit is just one big money grab as they’ve been sitting on this case for months before finally pulling the trigger.
Regardless of who y’all think is telling the truth here, one thing’s for sure, DJ Akademiks doesn’t seem fazed by the lawsuit and says he’d rather pay more to clear his name than to make the case go away as it would make him seem guilty.
Check out his response to the rape allegations, and let us know your thoughts on it in the comments section below.
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Source: handout / Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund
NBA legend Magic Johnson and his wife, Cookie Johnson, will be honored at a gala held by a charitable organization named for Nelson Mandela.
The NBA Hall-of-Famer and business mogul Earvin “Magic” Johnson has been feted for his charitable work and is set to receive another honor along with his wife, philanthropist Cookie Johnson, at an event to celebrate the life of the late South African president and freedom fighter Nelson Mandela. The couple will be honored for their charitable efforts at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund Gala to be held in Cannes, France, by the Nelson Mandela’s Children’s Fund. The event will take place May 24 during the Festival de Cannes and is held in collaboration with Trigo Networks.
The Johnsons were chosen as “icons who have embodied global humanitarianism through mission and deed,” according to the press statement released by Trigo Networks. The event will feature performances from musician and actor Benjamin Clementine who recently appeared in the Denis Villeneuve adaptation of Dune, along with the group Ghetto Kids from Uganda, with others to be announced at a later date. There will also be a presentation honoring the bond between Nelson Mandela and the late operatic star Luciano Pavarotti, with his wife Nicoletta Mantovani to be in attendance. The program will be directed by Manuel Alejandro Ruiz, also known as “Chosen Few.” All proceeds from the event will go towards the Fund.
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund was created in 1995 after the president decided to set aside a third of his salary towards its creation. As expressed by the Fund’s current CEO, Dr. Linda Nkube-Ncomo, “his vision was that it would serve as a catalyst for changing the way society treats its children and youth. He further believed that individuals including him would come and go, but the organization would continue to exist as long as there are good men and women looking after society’s voiceless children. The contributions of Magic and Cookie Johnson reflect the personal ethos of what led Nelson Mandela to start the Fund. This gala truly celebrates those who ‘Serve Like Mandela’.”