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It’s officially been 10 years since Chance the Rapper burst on the scene with his record-breaking, Billboard-charting mixtape Acid Rap. Over the next few months, Chance will honor the project through a series of can’t-miss live events, pop-ups, merch drops, and special music releases.
Chance will also headline an Acid Rap Ten Year Anniversary Show on August 19, produced by Live Nation Chicago’s United Center. Rapper and record producer Saba will be the show opener.
Tickets and VIP packages will be available starting with an Artist presale beginning today, Wednesday, April 26. Additional presales will run throughout the week ahead of the general onsale beginning Friday, April 28 at 10am local time at livenation.com.
Tickets for the show are selling fast.
In the first event to mark the occasion, Chance is returning his single, “Juice” to its original glory and format, available worldwide for the first time ever across streaming services this Sunday, April 30.
The Chicago native is also releasing new merch to celebrate the occasion available on his website starting this weekend.
When it dropped on April 30, 2013, Acid Rap was heralded as “Best New Music” by Pitchfork and Rolling Stone called it one of the “Best Mixtapes of 2013.” Across fourteen dynamic tracks, Chance’s lyrical prowess shines bright as he spits heavyweight bars over psychedelic, soulful, juke-filled beats, encapsulating the sound and feel of Chicago. Top Chicago-based and national artists including Vic Mensa, Childish Gambino, Twista, Action Bronson, BJ The Chicago Kid, Ab-Soul, and Noname lend their talents to the project. In 2019, Acid Rap hit DSPs and catapulted to #5 on the Billboard Hot 200, cementing Chance the Rapper’s role as a voice of a generation.
The anniversary is just part of an exciting year for Chance as he prepares to release his next body of work, Star Line Gallery. The project sees Chance intertwine the worlds of art, music, and cinematography through a series of interdisciplinary works in collaboration with fine artists from The Continent and The Diaspora. The resulting pieces redefine the notion of ‘album art’ and are compelling conversations and meditations on Black life.
Star Line Gallery works “Child of God” (collaboration with Gabonese artist and painter Naïla Opiangah), “A Bar About A Bar” (collaboration with Chicago-based painter Nikko Washington and filmmaker Troy Gueno), “The Highs & The Lows” feat. Joey Bada$$ (collaboration with Gabonese photographer Yannis Davy Guibinga), and “YAH Know” (collaboration with Chicago-based visual artist Mía Lee) have been showcased at art institutions around the world including Expo Chicago, Art Basel, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), The Art Institute of Chicago, and Los Angeles’ Museum Of Contemporary Art (MOCA).
Fans are also loving him on Season 23 of NBC’s The Voice, where he is the first rapper to serve as a coach.
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One thing Gen Z is gonna do…is tell more than they should. LSA women’s basketball star Angel Reese is sharing who slid in her social media DM’s after her historic NCAA Championship win earlier this month.
Reese and teammate Flau’jae Johnson stopped by the Breakfast Club to talk about their win as well as other ways their lives have changed since the win.
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According to Complex, Reese revealed that Drake and Future have slid into her DMs. “You said two that you need to stay far away from,” Charlamagne tha God joked.
The 20-year-old forward clarified that the multi-platinum rappers just offered congratulations. “They just congratulated me. It’s all congratulations,” she said with smile.
Still, the idea earned a few more jokes from The Breakfast Club hosts. “Then Drake gonna say, ‘Yo, you know I got a basketball court at the crib?’ Did he say that yet?” Envy asked. Reese and Johnson exchanged a knowing glance and broke out in laughter, while declining to answer the question.
Reese became a national sensation after leading her team to the NCAA championship beating Iowa. However, questions about her sportsmanship by mimicking the “You Can’t See Me,” dance led to vicious and racist attacks on social media. Rapper Tony Yayo, who first popularized the gesture, took to her defense.
“Any kind of sports, talking trash is a part of the game,” Yayo told TMZ Sports. “I mean, it was for the championship game. It’s competition. Even when I’m playing 2k — if you playin’ in the game, with video games, we get excited. You know?”
Yayo continued, “It’s just a dance. I don’t take nothin’ personal. It was a dance I created because I was trying to hide from the police. But shout out to all them people — John Cena, Angel Reese, Caitlin Clark — and definitely Flavor Flav. But Angel Reese? You know, she took the ‘U Can’t C Me’ dance to a whole ‘nother level.”
The gesture first popped up in the series when Iowa’s Caitlin Clark used it against players from South Carolina. She was praised as “passionate.”
Reese, also known as Bayou Barbie, is one of the NCAA’s highest-grossing NIL players with a value of over $1.5 million.
She also talked about getting praise from fellow LSU baller, Shaquille O’Neal saying that his support sometimes put “pressure” on her, an idea that the NBA legend brushed off.
On his podcast, O’Neal said of Reese:”She’s probably the greatest athlete to ever come out of LSU sports. You heard it here first. Man and female,” O’Neal said on the latest episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq.”
“Because, guess what? She delivered. She delivered that package. See, a lot of us got the package, and we still got the package in our truck. She delivered that package. So, you know, there’s a lot of names you could throw around — men and women — but she’s probably the greatest athlete.
“Some people are going to exclude it to women athletes. I’m not doing that. She’s the greatest athlete to ever come out of LSU.
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Charlamagne Tha God has made a request for a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit from a sexual assault case, claiming that there is a lack of evidence.
According to reports, The Breakfast Club host and his legal team filed a motion requesting the dismissal of a lawsuit against him by alleged victim Jessica Reid. The lawsuit, filed last year, accused Charlamagne of “willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously engage in penile/vaginal intercourse with a fifteen-year-old female child” when he was 22 in Charleston, South Carolina. Reid stated that the host spread “false, insulting” claims about her when he came forward about the 2001 incident, including calling her a “groupie.”
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“[Alleged victim Jessica Reid] has persisted in broadly disseminating her unsubstantiated claims, ignoring that the South Carolina Solicitor in 2018 declined her request to re-open the case due to a lack of evidence while confirming that no basis existed to bring sexual assault charges against Charlamagne,” the motion reads. “Witnesses had attested to the fact that Charlamagne had already left the party when the alleged assault occurred.”
The 37-year-old pointed to him telling his side of the story in his book, Black Privilege, calling his depiction of the incident “wrong, hurtful and defaming.” She is seeking unspecified damages and a full retraction of his statements. In the lawsuit, Reid alleged that she met the shock jock through a mutual friend, and attended a birthday party thrown for him at the Short Stay Naval Recreation Center on June 8th, 2001. She would allege that she imbibed a drink given to her by Charlamagne, which left her dizzy to the point of collapse. It was at that moment two other men had taken her upstairs, where she was assaulted. She alleges that Charlamagne also assaulted her afterward. Reid previously claimed that her mother actively blocked her from cooperating with law enforcement officials who were investigating the incident.
Charlamagne Tha God would be indicted on the charges of “contributing to the delinquency of a minor” and criminal sexual conduct with a minor in 2001 but would go on to accept a plea deal the next year that was offered by prosecutors due to lack of evidence. He would eventually be sentenced to three years probation.
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The rumor mill is swirling after Nelly and Ashanti were spotted holding hands following the boxing match between Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia, where the two were together ringside, according to Page Six.
While the duo have not confirmed that they are seeing each other again, fans are already celebrating on social media.
“Awww. Nelly and Ashanti are back together I’m here for it. They both aged beautifully,” one wrote.
Even fellow celebs got into the mix with fellow rapper Bow Wow writing in the comments section of an Instagram post from The Shade Room.“Yo mo! I know we not seeing eye to eye either really but from lil bro to big bro STOP PLAYING AND MARRY THIS WOMAN BRO!” fellow rapper Bow Wow wrote in the comments section of an Instagram post from The Shade Room. “You like 50 sit yo old ass down this your queen.”
The couple has been romantically linked on and off since the 2000s and this isn’t the first time that fans have hoped for a reunion. In December 2022, the pair performed their hit, “Body On Me,” in front of an audience where they were smiling and grinding on each other on stage. Later that month in an interview with Andy Cohen, Ashanti said she was surprised by the positive reaction from fans.
“My reaction was, ‘Wow.’ It was a lot of comments and a lot of people wanting that [us back together],” she said at the time, “What I will say is, we’re in a better place. You know, ’cause before, it was like [mimics fighting]. But we’re cool now. Yeah, we have some conversations, you know. So it’s cool.”
Cohen pushed the subject asking, “But you’re not getting back together?” The singer struggled to find words, simply responding, “I mean, I don’t…”
Fans on Twitter are celebrating the possible reunion with one making comparisons to the rekindled relationship between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez which finally resulted in their marriage more than a decade after they broke up.
One user said that there was one person who really deserves the credit for the reunion.
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The issues mount for Jonathan Majors as it’s been revealed that other victims alleging that he abused them have come forward with their claims.
According to reports, there are multiple victims who have come forward and contacted the Manhattan district attorney’s office, resulting in their cooperation with the investigation into the Creed III actor. Majors is set to appear in court on May 8th for a hearing related to his arrest on March 25th in the Chelsea neighborhood on multiple charges of assault, strangulation, and harassment. The D.A.’s office has refused requests for comment.
“Jonathan Majors is innocent and has not abused anyone. We have provided irrefutable evidence to the District Attorney that the charges are false. We are confident that he will be fully exonerated,” Majors’ attorney Priya Chaudhry said in a statement released to the press after the news broke. The news comes after the 33-year-old actor was dropped by his management firm, Management 360, and public relations group The Lede Company earlier this week leaving WME left representing him along with Andrew Bourke, his crisis publicist, and Chaudhry’s husband.
Another element to the March 25th incident ties in with Majors’ prominent role as the supervillain Kang the Conqueror in the recent Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, as the victim apparently also worked on the movie. Disney has not offered any comment up to this point. Majors has already filmed for the second season of the Disney Plus series Loki and is signed for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty slated to be released in 2025.
While his Disney roles seem safe for now, Majors has experienced some tough losses as the U.S. Army removed him as the face of their new campaign last month. The Dallas area native was also removed from being featured in a campaign by Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers set to launch on Friday (April 21st). In addition, the actor and fashion house Valentino “mutually agreed” that he would not attend the Met Gala, and he has also stepped down from the Sidney Poitier Initiative for emerging filmmakers and from the board of the Gotham Film and Media Institute. Executive director Jeffrey Sharp relayed the news to members of the latter group on Wednesday (April 19th).
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The Grammy-nominated album, All Hail the Queen, by Queen Latifah has been selected for preservation at the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.
The National Recording Registry aims to preserve music that “reflects our nation’s diverse culture.” Select recordings are added to the vast collection as audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical, or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.
This week, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden named 25 recordings as audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.
“The National Recording Registry preserves our history through recorded sound and reflects our nation’s diverse culture,” Hayden said in a statement. “The national library is proud to help ensure these recordings are preserved for generations to come, and we welcome the public’s input on what songs, speeches, podcasts or recorded sounds we should preserve next. We received more than 1,100 public nominations this year for recordings to add to the registry.”
In addition to the Queen’s debut album, this year’s list features selections by other powerful women as well. Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” and Mariah Carey’s seminal “All I Want for Christmas,” is also on the list. The Academy Award-winning song, “Flashdance…What a Feeling,” by the late Irene Cara was also selected in the 2023 class.
Queen Latifah was only 19 when she released her debut album, All Hail the Queen. The album was released on Tommy Boy Records and featured the hit singles, “Ladies First,” and “Come Into My House.” The album has been heralded for its woman-centric flow and positivity. In the statement, the Library of Congress noted that the album was celebrated for its ability to “cross genres including reggae, hip-hop, house and jazz — while also opening opportunities for other female rappers.” The album reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Recently, Latifah took to the stage at the Daisy Experience to honor the life and legacy of Dave Jolicoeur aka Trugoy The Dove of De La Soul.
Even more recently, the Queen was presented with a bouquet of roses at Usher’s Las Vegas residency show. Per the Huffington Post, the “Confessions” singer wrote in a now-deleted Instagram story, “Giving the queen her flowers.”
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Former B2K lead singer Omarion, who has his own successful solo career, is about to take on a new challenge. According to Deadline, the 38-year-old will soon star in “Involved” a dramedy based on his own life coming to the AMC Network-owned streaming service, Allblk (formerly the Urban Movie Channel).
The streaming site is also holding a national casting call for the series co-lead, which will be taking place at the 27th Annual American Black Film Festival, June 14-18 in Miami Beach.
According to the report, Omarion will play a singer named OB Sharp who has been a boyband superstar since childhood. Now on the verge of a worldwide tour, he secretly wants to leave the group to be a more present dad and have a better co-parenting relationship with his child’s mother, who lives in his guesthouse with her new boyfriend.
Actor Lance Gross (House of Payne) will serve as the celebrity reader for the casting call for the role of 31-year-old Shayla Williams who plays OB’s ex-girlfriend.
To further complicate matters, OB gets into a romantic entanglement with Maya—one of his best friends and still has to deal with Shayla, mother of his daughter as well as a myriad of business ventures and drama.
“Just like multi-hyphenated entertainers Jamie Foxx, Martin Lawrence and Will Smith who all have influenced and inspired me and a whole culture, Involved is intended to inspire, shift and impact the culture of American society’s thinking and understanding of special family dynamics. There is no better way for us to learn about and observe these cultural diversities than through the medium of entertainment,” Omarion told Deadline.
He will exec produce the series alongside co-creators Tommy Morgan Jr., Kevin G. Boyd and Deji LaRay. The pilot is being written by Kevin G. Boyd and directed by Bentley Kyle Evans, who will serve as co-showrunners. Michelle Le Fleur will also exec produce alongside AllBlk’s SVP of Development & Production Nikki Love and the company’s general manager, Brett Dismuke.
Dismuke told Deadline, “Omarion is an expert storyteller across multiple mediums, and we could not be more excited to further our partnership by helping him bring this story to life on AllBlk. As a leader in programming by and for Black voices, we know our audience will appreciate such an intriguing and compelling story.”
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Cam’ron’s comments about photos of Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors earned him some backlash online, particularly from members of the Hip-Hop community.
The Harlem rapper took to social media Saturday (April 8), to share pictures from a photo shoot that the two actors took part in as part of promoting their recent film Creed III. The first black-and-white image shows Jordan seated with Majors hugging him from behind while both face the camera. The second image shows both men looking ahead, resting their heads on each other. Cam’ron wrote in the caption: “The reason I didn’t go see creed.”
The “You Gotta Love It” artist didn’t offer any elaboration, but the post led to many suspecting that he was uncomfortable with the two actors in that setting, prompting a wave of criticism. In the comments, many pointed out the 47-year-old’s stance in light of his wearing of the color pink in the late 1990s and 2000s, which marked a shift in perspective in Hip-Hop.
Veteran rapper Skillz crafted his own Instagram post with the photo in question. “We are our own worst enemies smh. I tell all my homies I love ’em…Why? Cuz I do! Sometimes it throws ’em off but Ion care, Ima keep saying that ish. Tomorrow ain’t promised. We all getting older man & death is definitely certain. It’s already hard enough out here for black men as it is bro,” he wrote in the caption.
He continued: “Maaan the times we living in goofy af. Y’all got it. When you die and ya family don’t have one picture of you smiling you got it bruh. Hardest obituary pic ever. You won.” His post resonated with other artists like DJ Paul of Three Six Mafia. “My brother missing out cause it’s an amazing movie! I’ve watched it five times and I’m not just saying that because we had the theme song in the trailer,” he wrote with a laughing emoji. Jarobi White, a founding member of A Tribe Called Quest, also chimed in: “I think being afraid to show love to brothers because of being seen as gay is well…. Gay.”
Such observations haven’t stopped Creed III’s success. Its done mighty well at the box office, with Jordan stepping in as director of the film that made its debut on March 3. It earned $58.7 million in its opening weekend in North America, and so far further $41.8 million overseas.
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The legal representation for Donald Trump rang a familiar tone for Meek Mill, who pointed out that they share the same lawyer online.
As the former president was present in a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday afternoon (April 4), the Expensive Pain artist shared a photo from the arraignment on his Instagram Story featuring Trump seated with his lawyers in the courtroom. With a headline in bold letters across it, Meek Mill’s caption read, “Trump graduated from the streets…sharing criminal lawyers [with us]…Joe Tactical.”
“Joe Tactical” is the rapper’s moniker for Joe Tacopina, who is representing the former president in this case. Meek Mill would then post another photo, this time of himself standing next to Tacopina after a court hearing. The picture stems from the rapper’s 2017 case where he sought to overturn a prison sentence he received for violating probation on a decade-old gun and drug case.
Tacopina and the rest of the legal team would prove that Judge Genece Brinkley’s initial ruling was “unjust.” The ruling led to Meek Mill being released by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after serving five months. The case would go on to be a bellwether that highlighted the racial disparities seen in the probation process and the criminal justice system overall. Meek Mill has since become a strong advocate for criminal justice reform.
Tacopina has made a name for himself as a tough and steely litigator who was formerly a criminal prosecutor in Brooklyn. He’s been a fixture on television since being retained by Trump, insisting that the former president hasn’t broken any laws and calling the indictment “political persecution.” Tacopina has not shied away from representing high-profile figures. He represented A Bronx Tale actor Lillo Brancato on murder/weapons charges, actress Taryn Manning on assault charges, rapper YG on suspicion of robbery and former Yankees star Alex Rodriguez during his steroid scandal and suspension in 2014.
There are some who view Tacopina in a bad light, one of them being former New York Police Department Commissioner Bernard Kerik. A firm supporter of Trump, Kerik declined to comment when asked about Tacopina’s hiring. “I am not going to get into it,” he said. Records show that Kerik had requested the state disciplinary committee to disbar Tacopina, whom he accused of cooperating againstjoe tacopina him in secret during a federal investigation that would see the former cop serve a 48-month prison sentence.
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The father of Marlon Wayans and his other renowned celebrity siblings, Howell Wayans, passed away on March 30. He was 86 years old.
The comedian confirmed the news in a social media post on Saturday (April 1). Wayans shared a photo of himself and his father on Instagram, writing: “Thank you Pop for being an example of a Man to all your boys. I pray all young black boys can grow up to be a Man like you.” He continued: “Kiss Ma for me. Tell her her babies miss her. I got two angels. I feel y’all lifting me already.” Elvira Alethia, the family’s matriarch passed away at the age of 81 back in 2020.
According to reporting from TMZ, Marlon Wayans received word of his father’s passing after performing the first of two shows he was scheduled to do at the Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank, California. He’d go on to do the second set, imbuing the emotions of the moment into his act before letting the present crowd learn the news.
Howell Wayans raised his 10 children – Keenen Ivory, Damon, Shawn, Dwayne, Kim, Nadia, Elvira, Diedra and Devonne Chaunté Wayans in addition to Marlon – in New York City. He was well-regarded as a hard worker who guided them with discipline but always supported their creative dreams. Beginning with Keenan Ivory Wayans, the siblings have made their mark on the entertainment world through major television and film projects like In Living Color, The Wayans Bros. and White Chicks, continuing to do so today. He is also survived by many grandchildren.
Veteran actor and friend of the family Omar Epps also paid tribute to the senior Wayans through a post on his Instagram account, noting him as a second father figure. “Thank you for taking me under your wing as if I was one of your own. We’re all devastated, but yet somehow, you prepared us for this moment,” he wrote.