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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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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.
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Source: Anadolu / Getty
If we know anything about Cardi B it’s that she’s all about getting that bag. But when she revealed her latest endorsement of clothing brand Shein, people reacted with shock and criticism as the “W.A.P.” rapper is known for rocking high-end clothing brands.
As surprising as it was to see Cardi B co-sign a clothing brand that many people wouldn’t admit to wearing just because it’s, well, “cheap,” some people began to roast Cardi for daring to promote affordable coats and jackets, saying she must be strapped for cash if she’s willing to go this route. “Shien?!?! Are you kidding me. That’s embarrassing,” one commenter said. Still, many others came to her defense in the comments section reminding people that Cardi came from the bottom to the top responding with comments like, “She humble she grew up hustling she buys shein and. Nothing wrong with it and she paired it with red bottoms she knows.”
Not one to take any disrespect lying down, Buzzfeed is reporting that Cardi addressed her haters herself by going on X Spaces and reminding everyone she’s still getting plenty of money.
Per Buzzfeed:
“People say that I’m surviving on Shein deals and brand deals,” she began. “Y’all like to talk about tour deals a lot. I want to let y’all know I could wake up tomorrow, sign a contract, and have half of $65 million — or half of $70 million – in my bank.”
Adding that she was offered that much on her “off year,” she continued, “I don’t want to take tour deals until I announce my album. When I announce my new album I know they’re going to up it. You’ve got to move smart like a bitch. You can’t act like you’re hungry, especially when you’re not.”
“I’m not surviving, baby. Spend like about $3 million in a month,” Cardi said, later adding that she’s waiting for an $80 or $100 million deal. “As long as my bills is paid, I can buy whatever the fuck I want whenever the fuck I want. Shit, I can go spend $500,000 on a fucking car tomorrow. I could buy me a $300,000 watch tomorrow. Bitch, I could buy your mother.”
Yeah, don’t try to slander Cardi’s money moves cause she will respond.
What do y’all think about Cardi B’s Shein deal? Is she too big of a star to go that route or do y’all think it’s much ado about nothing? Sound off in the comments section below.
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Spotify Wrapped is back for 2024 and this year’s wrap-up adds some interesting new genres, graphic flourishes, and month-to-month breakdowns of your listening habits. For the eighth year in a row, Drake is listed as the most-listened-to rapper in both the United States and the world.
In some circles, it’s been said that Drake and his audio war with Kendrick Lamar put a tarnish on the Canadian superstar’s musical legacy. However, that hasn’t put a dent into Drizzy’s streaming numbers as evidenced by the latest Spotify Wrapped roundup.
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In the United States, Taylor Swift is just one slot ahead of Drake as the most-listened-to artist, which makes all the sense in the world given her massive popularity and supportive fanbase. With Swift and Drake taking spots one and two, the rest of the United States’ top 10 list includes in order Zach Bryan, Morgan Wallen, Kanye West, Future, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, and Metro Boomin.
On the domestic front, the inclusion of Future, Metro Boomin, and Kendrick Lamar has a tipping point in the explosive “Like That” track that ignited the war of words between Drake and K-Dot and culminated in the chart-topping “Not Like Us” that boosted the profile of the Compton, Calif. star.
On the global front, the top artist is Taylor Swift once more, with The Weeknd, a rival of The Boy, taking the second slot with Bad Bunny at #3, Drake at #4, and Billie Eilish at #5.
As it stands, Drake can once again claim superiority as the top rapper in the States and the OVO honcho may be motivated to gain ground on the global front despite having a largely quiet 2024. All eyes will be on October’s Very Own for sure in the following year.
Source: Spotify
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Photo: Getty
HipHopWired Featured Video
Spotify Wrapped is back for 2024 and this year’s wrap-up adds some interesting new genres, graphic flourishes, and month-to-month breakdowns of your listening habits. For the eighth year in a row, Drake is listed as the most-listened-to rapper in both the United States and the world.
In some circles, it’s been said that Drake and his audio war with Kendrick Lamar put a tarnish on the Canadian superstar’s musical legacy. However, that hasn’t put a dent into Drizzy’s streaming numbers as evidenced by the latest Spotify Wrapped roundup.
Related Stories
In the United States, Taylor Swift is just one slot ahead of Drake as the most-listened-to artist, which makes all the sense in the world given her massive popularity and supportive fanbase. With Swift and Drake taking spots one and two, the rest of the United States’ top 10 list includes in order Zach Bryan, Morgan Wallen, Kanye West, Future, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, and Metro Boomin.
On the domestic front, the inclusion of Future, Metro Boomin, and Kendrick Lamar has a tipping point in the explosive “Like That” track that ignited the war of words between Drake and K-Dot and culminated in the chart-topping “Not Like Us” that boosted the profile of the Compton, Calif. star.
On the global front, the top artist is Taylor Swift once more, with The Weeknd, a rival of The Boy, taking the second slot with Bad Bunny at #3, Drake at #4, and Billie Eilish at #5.
As it stands, Drake can once again claim superiority as the top rapper in the States and the OVO honcho may be motivated to gain ground on the global front despite having a largely quiet 2024. All eyes will be on October’s Very Own for sure in the following year.
Source: Spotify
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Photo: Getty