State Champ Radio celebrity news
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The Roots have always shown reverence to Hip-Hop en route to becoming stalwarts of the culture themselves, and a newly announced event solidifies that stance. The Roots announced on Monday (Dec. 9) the “A Roots Picnic Experience: Class of ’95” with Lil’ Kim, Method Man, and Redman among the stacked lineup for the concert that kicks off next year.
Hosted by Live Nation Urban and the LA Phil, “A Roots Picnic Experience: Class of ’95” will be a one-night-only event taking place at the Hollywood Bowl venue in Los Angeles, Calif.
Along with the aforementioned acts, Bay area legend E-40, Cleveland’s Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Staten Island Wu-Tang Clan swordsman Raekwon, Compton funkster DJ Quik, Atlanta quartet Goodie Mob, Queens rapper and producer Havoc of Mobb Deep, and more will all take to the stage. The Roots will provide the backing sounds for each of the acts, and will be similar in scope to last year’s “Roots Picnic: Hip-Hop is the Love of My Life” event at Hollywood Bowl which was sold out.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the drummer for The Roots, shared the following statement:
Well: 1995 was our true arrival. Nineteen eighty-seven was the Year of the Creative Adhesive, the year that tied together Tariq’s world and my world in high school, and 1991 was the Year of the Green Light, the year we gave ourselves permission to take our resources and passion and pursue our dream. But 1995? That was the Year It All Came Together, the year when our first major release, “Do You Want More?!!!??!” was sent into the world. Hip-hop was an entirely new ballgame back then, on an entirely new playing field. Those were the days when there were still things like mainstream terrestrial radio, bloated video budgets, and creativity at both the regional and the global levels. Those were the days that produced classic album after classic album, unleashing countless new ideas about art. Those were the days when the world was our oyster. This is the story of those days.”
The “Tariq” that Questlove mentions is no other than the legendary Black Thought, whose given name is Tariq Trotter.
Tickets for “A Roots Picnic Experience: Class of ’95” will go on sale Wednesday (Dec. 11) at 10 AM PST at www.hollywoodbowl.com. Get your tickets fast as this one is certain to sell out quickly.
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Photo: Live Nation/Getty
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Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz
Pusha T doesn’t speak much, but when he does the culture listens. In a recent interview, he gave his opinion on the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef.
As spotted on Rap-Up, the front man of Clipse was in Miami for Art Basel. The Virginia Beach, Va., MC was a guest on “Saint Sessions Live,” an in person Q&A hosted in front of a live audience. While he discussed a variety of topics regarding his illustrious career it was his take on this very high-profile moment that soon went viral. Journalist Ari Melber asked him his thoughts about Kendrick’s infamous “Yeah, f**k all that pushin’ P, let me see you push a T” line from “Euphoria.” Pusha T made it clear he got what K. Dot was hinting at.
“I guess he was just telling him, you know he needed to address me before it comes back and trying to go at him.” He went on to reveal that he took the reference as a gesture of respect. “I think it was a great time for me. That whole battle was an awesome time. I think that him being a fan of Hip Hop, he saw it as that.” When asked if he also agreed with the people that Kendrick Lamar won the battle against Drake he emphatically replied, “1,000%.” Pusha T added, “I think that Kendrick is a lyricist and a lyricist that talks to your soul.”
You can see King Push discuss the beef below.
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Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty
On Sunday (Dec. 8), the Hip-Hop culture was shocked when it was revealed that Jay-Z was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in a civil lawsuit against Sean “P. Diddy” Combs. While most lawyers advise their clients to keep quiet in such cases, Hova, allegedly, went on the offensive.
In a statement shared on Roc Nation’s X account, he suggested that attorney Tony Buzbee was “blackmailing” him with the lawsuit.
That in turn prompted Buzbee to respond in kind. The lawyer representing “Jane Doe” in the latest lawsuit against Diddy took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to push back against Jay-Z’s claim of blackmail by stating that Jay got himself in this pickle by suing Buzbee for trying to inquire about the situation in general. In his post Buzbee wrote, “Regarding the Jay Z case and his efforts to silence my clients: Mr. Carter previously denied being the one who sued me and my firm. He filed his frivolous case under a pseudonym.”
As for Jay saying that Buzbee was “blackmailing” him with this case, Buzbee added, “What he fails to say in his recent statement is my firm sent his lawyer a demand letter on behalf of an alleged victim and that victim never demanded a penny from him. Instead, she only sought a confidential mediation.”
Buzbee then went on to say Jay and his team tried to intimidate him and his client and wrote, “Since I sent the letter on her behalf, Mr. Carter has not only sued me, but he has tried to bully and harass me and this plaintiff. His conduct has had the opposite impact. She is emboldened. I’m very proud of her resolve. As far as the allegations in the complaint filed, we will let the filing speak for itself and will litigate the facts in court, not in the media.”
https://x.com/TonyBuzbee2/status/1865928354114814391
In the statement in which Jay-Z accused Buzbee of blackmailing him, Jay not only denied the allegations but went so far as to dare the lawyer to file a criminal complaint instead of a civil one and said, “Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree?” After calling Buzbee a “deplorable human” and “ambulance chaser in a cheap suit,” Jay ended the statement and said, “I look forward to showing you how different I am.”
https://x.com/RocNation/status/1865917852542247358
Jay-Z wants all this legal smoke to clear his name.
In the lawsuit, Jane Doe claims that both Jay-Z and Diddy raped her at a 2000 MTV VMAs afterparty when she was 13-years-old as another female celebrity watched.
Needless to say, Jay-Z haters celebrated the lawsuit on social media while Jay-Z fans also suggested this could be a shakedown and are awaiting all of the evidence to be presented before abandoning ship.
50 Cent for his part isn’t weighing in but wonders if this lawsuit will effect the Super Bowl.
Y’all knew 50 Cent wasn’t going to not say anything.
What do y’all think about this latest bombshell? Do y’all think Jay-Z is being blackmailed, or is karma catching up to the pop culture icon? Sound off in the comments section below.
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Severance, a critically acclaimed series that netted several awards along with prominent nominations, made its debut on the Apple TV+ streaming service in 2022. After a lengthy hiatus, Severance returns to the streamer next month, and a new trailer was unveiled that surely drummed up excitement.
Starring Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, and Britt Lower, Severance follows the life of Mark Scout and the split between himself and his severed persona. Cherry plays the role of Dylan George, another severed worker for Lumon Industries in the Macrodata Refinement division who is deeply committed to the job. Lower plays Helly Riggs, a recently severed Lumon employee.
For those who haven’t seen the first season, we won’t reveal too much of the plot but the show benefits from strong performances by a variety of fantastic actors including Tramell Tillman, John Turturro, and Patricia Arquette among others.
Source: Severance / Apple TV+
Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle split directing duties for the first season with Stiller returning to direct five more episodes in season 2 according to reports. The main cast members are returning to their roles and with the first season ending explosively, fans are clamoring to see what happens for the rest of the severed workers and their “outies” in the coming season.
Severance returns on Jan. 17, 2025. Check out the trailer below.
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Photo: Apple TV+
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Source: Christopher Polk / Getty
Diddy is requesting access to a laptop while in jail awaiting trial, decrying the conditions restricting him from using it.
The legal team representing Diddy has requested the use of a laptop promised to him while he is incarcerated and awaiting trial, claiming that he’s been blocked from use by the government under unfair conditions. The request was made in a letter to Judge Arun Subramanian Wednesday (Dec. 4). In that letter, it was explained that Diddy could gain access to the laptop either in the video-teleconference room at the Brooklyn Detention Center while in the presence of other legal staff or the legal visiting room between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
“These restrictions are untenable and from what we understand, not required of any other inmate on Mr. Combs’ unit,” the letter from attorneys Tony Garagos and Marc Agnifilio stated. “They significantly limit the time available for Mr. Combs to use the laptop and force Mr. Combs to choose between using the laptop and meeting with his attorneys (who often meet with Mr. Combs over video-teleconference).”
Both lawyers claim that there is “no justification” for those conditions, also alleging that the federal government was keen on surveillance of the embattled mogul’s communication. “Moreover, given the government’s efforts to surreptitiously monitor and record his handwritten legal notes, Mr. Combs’ need for a laptop to take legal notes free from government surveillance is heightened,” they wrote. The letter also said that the government “has indicated that it intends to file a response.”
Diddy is currently awaiting trial for federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. The date for preliminary hearings to begin is May 5, 2025. If convicted, Diddy aka Sean Combs can receive a sentence of life in prison. With Damian Williams, the Attorney General for the Southern District of New York having resigned to be replaced by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton, there will be more scrutiny on the Bad Boy Records founder’s case as Donald Trump is set to return to the White House next January.
Indeed, Trump’s pick to head the FBI, Kash Patel, has declared that he would release the names of all those who attended Diddy’s parties in the past decades if appointed to the position. Of course, that list would include Trump who was a fixture at some of Diddy’s parties as well as those of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
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Source: ANGELA WEISS / Getty
Last month, Diddy was forced to celebrate his 55th birthday behind bars with some prison pizza, biscuits and oatmeal. With Christmas now on the horizon, the “Bad Boy For Life” rapper will have to endure his first Christmas celebration under similar circumstances. Luckily, it will be an improvement over his previous soiree.
According to TMZ, Diddy’s Christmas in the bing won’t be as struggle as his birthday and Thanksgiving were as not only will he and his fellow inmates at MDC Brooklyn be served some baked Cornish hens, macaroni and cheese, cranberry sauce, and a “holiday dessert,” but there will also be some fun and games as there will be a spades tournament along with a dominos competition. The winner may get to make Diddy’s bed for a month (just kidding, but probably).
As if that wasn’t fun enough, there will also be a 3-on-3 basketball tourney and a soccer competition. Truth be told, this sounds like more fun than being unknowingly drugged and sexually trafficked at a Diddy party. Just sayin’.
If officials wanted to make some money they could sell tickets to these sporting events a la The Longest Yard or something.
The revelation comes after Diddy was hit with yet another lawsuit by an associate of Cassie who says Diddy dangled her off a 17th-floor apartment balcony back in 2016.
With many months between now and his sex trafficking trial date of May 2025, one can only wonder what other stories about Diddy’s past and maybe present will surface between now and then.
What do y’all think about Diddy’s current status? Should he be granted bail for the holidays, or is society better off with the man behind bars until he has his day in court? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Doechii is shining brightly in the limelight, living up to the promise many of her longtime fans knew existed before inking a deal with the Top Dawg Entertainment collective. After tearing down NPR’s Tiny Desk stage in what some say is the best performance delivered on the set, Doechii is delivering anything but “Harriet Tubman Music.”
Doechii, 26, hit the Tiny Desk stage with an all-Black, all-woman backing band who provided powerful sonics to match the Tampa, Fla. star’s charismatic and animated performance. The rapper and singer, born Jaylah Hickmon, first appeared on our radar with her 2020 mixtape, Oh the Places You’ll Go. It was clear then that the “Swamp Princess” was poised for stardom. TDE, as is the label’s custom, has brought the multi-talented Doechii along carefully after signing her in 2021, and it culminated in her acclaimed mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, an explosive mix of Hip-Hop, pop, and R&B music but even that simplifies her artistry.
The Tiny Desk set opened with “BOOM BAP” from Alligator Bites Never Heal, one of many standout tracks from the mixtape. Doechii and the band then launched into a six-song set comprised of songs from the aforementioned mixtape, including a rousing high-energy rendition of “NISSAN ALTIMA” before toning it down and allowing her band and background singers to carry the moment over.
In an emotional closing moment, Doechii took it back to 2020 with “Black Girl Memoir,” neatly wrapping up her set but doing so with a manner of pride about not only her status as a Black woman but specifically as a dark-skinned Black woman from the South.
Despite a nearly universal amount of praise for the performance, a viewer of the performance by the name of @Mzthangggg took to X and dropped off what many felt was a tasteless insult regarding another acclaimed performance. Doechii was the musical guest for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, rocking the studio set with “DENIAL IS A RIVER” and “BOILED PEANUTS” via a theatrical production that was just as stirring as the Tiny Desk set.
Of the latter performance, @Mzthangggg wrote, “Making those Harriet Tubman music is the cheat code to getting respected in rap,” which led to an epic dragging and charges of colorism.
By now, social media and much of the world realize that Doechii makes great music coupled with stellar performance values and the culture is rallying around her. We’ve got reactions from X listed below.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty
Many people tend to forget that British music star M.I.A. was signed to Roc Nation back in 2012. Alhough the relationship dissolved just two years later, M.I.A.’s interaction with Roc Nation boss Jay-Z seems to have left quite an impression on her.
On Friday (Nov. 29), the “Paper Planes” artist took to Instagram Live to spill some disturbing beans about what Jay-Z asked of her when she put her John Hancock on that Roc Nation contract and revealed that Hova actually implored her to get some plastic surgery done.
Word?!
Dispelling any notion that she would need plastic surgery to get over any insecurity she may have, M.I.A. explained why she rebuffed the request saying, “Even when I met Jay-Z and signed to Roc Nation the first thing he told me to do was get plastic surgery. I’m not insecure because I would have got plastic surgery. So their argument of ‘Maya’s f-cking insecure, that’s why she needs to f*cking massage her ego,’ fails. Fails. Because you turn around and ask the mutha*cka – what women do you know who hasn’t had plastic surgery around you? All of them have. I’m the only one who didn’t, which already proves the fact it’s not insecurity.”
We can’t be mad at that at all. If the woman doesn’t want any work done on herself she shouldn’t have any work done even at the behest of her boss.
Continuing to explain herself, M.I.A. said, “Because if I was insecure I would have done that 100 times over. Even when I met Jay-Z and I signed to Roc Nation, the first thing he told me to do is get plastic surgery and I didn’t because it’s okay. Guess what, I’m 50. And I’m totally fine with the fact I am because, yeah, I f*cking took off when I was 30. It took 10 more f-cking years than any other f-cker because I was the first and I was the new. I was making something interesting happen that wasn’t f*cking happening before.”
Well, y’all can expect social media to be disgusted and begin to start going at Hov for trying to get M.I.A. to make some enhancements to herself. That being said, good for her for standing her ground and refusing the request.
According to MadameNoire, the relationship between herself and Roc Nation soured just two years after signing with them in 2012, and from the sound of it, it seems like M.I.A. not playing ball with them might’ve been the reason.
Per MadameNoire:
One of the first major issues was regarding a documentary that was about her. Roc Nation continued to delay the promotion for it and frustrations grew. The director of the project, Steve Loveridge, leaked the trailer for it, which Interscope immediately took down. This led to Loveridge quitting the project.
That next month, M.I.A. threatened to leak Matangi if Interscope wouldn’t stop delaying it and give it a release date.
The 50-year-old explained the reasons behind the delay of her fourth album, originally scheduled for release in December 2012.
According to Fader, in January 2013, months before her warnings, she told Gold Coast Bulletin about her label’s concerns with the project.
“I thought I’d finished it. I finished it and then I handed the record in, like a couple of months ago,” she said. “At the moment, I’ve been told it’s too positive. So we’re having a bit of an issue at the label. They’re like, ‘You need to like darken it up a bit’. I don’t know what it is but as soon as I work that out. I’m taking my time to decide what they mean. It’s an interesting one for me. It’s like ‘We just built you up as the public enemy No. 1 and now you’re coming out with all this positive stuff.’”
M.I.A. ultimately bounced before the end of 2013.
Check out M.I.A. talk about her situation at Roc Nation below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
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Source: Rolling Stone / Getty
On the heels of receiving four Grammy Award nominations just a few weeks ago, TDE’s up-and-coming artist Doechii took her talents to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and showed everyone in the audience and viewers at home why she’s going to be a problem for years to come.
Taking to the stage with two look-alike back-up dancers decked out in some spiffy Gucci attire and interlinked braids (that was a dope touch), Doechii performed her hit singles “Denial Is A River” and “Boiled Peanuts” much to the delight of the crowd. After giving a captivating performance you can understand why she’s up for Best New Artist and even has her album Alligator Bites Never Heal up for Best Rap Album of 2024. While she has some stiff competition in the likes of Drake and Eminem, we’re sure she’s honored to even be in the running.
Check out Doechii do her thing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Source: Eric Charbonneau / Getty
Whenever Will Smith tells his story expect some flowers to be given to those that helped him. He says his relationship with Alfonso Ribeiro changed his life.
As per HuffPost, the Philadelphia, Penn., native recently made an appearance on Vice’s Black Comedy in America series. During the in depth interview the multi-hyphenate discussed the many people that helped him during his historic career. When discussing his run as a rapper he made sure to highlight his partner DJ Jazzy Jeff. “There’s been a couple of creative relationships I’ve had that have totally transformed my life. And the first one was Jazzy Jeff,” Will Smith explained.
When it came to acting he revealed that meeting his The Fresh Prince of Bel Air co-star Alfonso Ribeiro was a game changer. “When you meet somebody who understands you in a way that other people don’t understand you. And they’re able to understand you, then craft things for you to create and shine and explode. And Alfonso was that guy for sure” he said.
The “Summertime” rapper went on to detail that the man who would go on to be forever known as Carlton Banks has always been special. “When he came in for the audition, there was like no question. That’s the one,” Will added. “Nobody commits as hard as Alf. We call it the ‘comedic limb.’ You know where you gon’ try this joke and you gon’ go out there with it, and you gon’ risk it all. And one of his big things, why he would commit so hard with the lines, he says, ‘You commit so the writers can know it doesn’t work.’”
You can see Will Smith discuss Alfonso Ribeiro below.
