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Source: @mr_camron / Instagram
Cam’ron celebrated Independence Day his own way. The rapper wore O.J. Simpson’s NFL football uniform with pride.
As reported by HipHopDX, the Harlem, New York, native isn’t using the holiday to pay his respects to Amerikkka. On Thursday, July 4, he found himself in Las Vegas for a private party. In signature fashion he threw all cares out the window and wore Orenthal James Simpson’s iconic look to the event. The outfit included O.J.’s Buffalo Bills jersey, pants and even the original helmet two-bar face mask. To further make the cipher complete he carried a football in one hand and wore the Nike Air Jordan Cherry 11 retro sneakers on feet.
“OJ was here!!!! Happy INDEPENDENCE DAY! This ain’t really Our holiday.. But it feels good not to have to answer to nobody!! #FreeNigga #IIWII,” the caption read. While the post seemed to just highlight Cam’ron’s cosplay range some of his followers assume it was a shot at Stephen A. Smith who recently called out BET for celebrating O.J. Simpson during the 2024 BET Awards.
“Did y’all see the in memoriam segment paying tribute to quote, ‘Black excellence,’ that we unfortunately lost this year?” he said on the opening segment of his self-titled show. “There was a notable silence from the crowd when the image of O.J. Simpson appeared on the big screen. You may recall O.J. Simpson died this past April after a battle with cancer. Yes, he is known for being a Hall of Famer on the football field out of USC, and ultimately with the Buffalo Bills in his NFL career, but he was also accused of double murder!”
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Smith also called out that the late great didn’t side with people of color once he became successful but also reminding us of his infamous “I’m not Black, I’m O.J.,” quote. Simpson was a frequent guest on Cam’ron’s sports talk show It Is What It Is. You can see Cam’ron’s outfit below.
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Flavor Flav’s efforts to save the cheddar bay biscuits are getting traction. Red Lobster has announced a new meal in his name.
As spotted on The Grio, the seafood restaurant chain is making it clear that the Public Enemy member’s efforts did not go unappreciated. This week the Orlando, Florida-based company announced the launch of “Flavor Flav’s Faves.” The meal includes a Maine lobster tail, snow crab legs, garlic shrimp scampi, and bacon mac and cheese, plus a side dish.
The “911 Is A Joke” rapper expressed his enthusiasm about the partnership in a formal statement. “As a long-time Red Lobster fan, I’m fired up to bring a little bit of my own flavor to fans with a meal featuring my seafood favorites,” he said. “You gotta get to Red Lobster and give it a try because this signature meal is hype, boy!”
Red Lobster detailed why the limited-time menu was a no brainer. “When you have someone like Flavor Flav who shows their love for a brand by ordering the entire menu, you know there is a lot more fun to be had,” said Sara Bittorf, chief experience officer at Red Lobster. “Flavor Flav’s passion for Red Lobster is unmatched, and we’re excited to bring our guests a flavor experience unlike any other.”
Along with the launch of Flavor Flav’s Faves, Red Lobster also launched some new menu items including the Creamy Crab Carbonara, the Crab & Lobster Duo and the Snow Crab & Crab-Topped Steak. Earlier this year the chain announced bankruptcy after taking a huge hit on their endless shrimp promotion. Upon hearing the news Flavor Flav ordered every item off the menu in an attempt to save the franchise.
The Flavor Flav Fave’s offering is available during Crabfest.
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Jay-Z is turning his love of timepieces into a business play. He has invested into Wristcheck, a watch marketplace.
As spotted on Hypebeast, the media mogul is taking his business acumen to the world of horology. This week Bloomberg News reported that Jay-Z has taken on a stake into Wristcheck. According to the feature, the company recently conducted a round of funding, which the “Brooklyn’s Finest” rapper participated in. It is estimated that he invested about $5 million dollars, which would give him minority equity into the Hong Kong based brand.
On Tuesday, July 2, Wristcheck confirmed the partnership via their Instagram account. “The news is out. We’re thrilled to welcome legendary 24-time Grammy Award-winning artist, business mogul, and fellow watch aficionado Jay-Z on board as an investor of Wristcheck,” the statement read. “The godfather of celebrity watch collectors, Jay-Z is a visionary who shaped modern watch culture as we know it today. His investment speaks volumes about the trust and credibility we’ve built since founding Wristcheck in late 2020 – and it’s all thanks to you, our incredible community. We couldn’t have done it without your trust and support.”
Jay-Z has been a long time collector of luxury timepieces. Business Insider estimates the value of his watch collection to be around the $25 million mark. Jiggaman has yet to comment on the matter.
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Chet Hanks’ aka Shabba Hanks aka Tom’s Son’s redemption arc comes with some wild stories. He says cokeheads told him he was abusing the drug.
As reported by Page Six, the Your Honor actor made a recent appearance on Bradley Martyn’s Raw Talk podcast. The Los Angeles, California, native discussed a variety of topics during the almost two-hour interview. He openly talked about his struggles with drug abuse, specifically cocaine. “The drug I had the most problem with was just f****ing coke, dude,” he revealed. Hanks went on to admit he was an addict to the white powder. “I’m a f***ing cokehead, straight-up,” he said before adding, “Not anymore, but that is my drug of choice — cocaine, bro, like Tony Montana.”
The “White Boy Summer” rapper went on to admit that he was doing so much that his co-conspirators were advising him to slow down. “I would go do coke with the cokeheads, and they would be telling me, like, ‘Yo, chill, bro. … Wait a second. Give it like 15 minutes.’” Thankfully, Chet kicked the habit by going to rehab and eventually found God in the process.
You can view Chet Hanks’ Raw Talk interview below.
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Eddie Murphy recently sat down with The New York Times for an episode of its podcast The Interview. During the conversation, host David Marchese pointed out that, early in his career, Murphy was at the same level of white-hot fame as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Prince, all of whom died before their time and, in one way or another, from drug use.
“Those guys are all cautionary tales for me,” Murphy told Marchese. “I don’t drink. I smoked a joint for the first time when I was 30 years old — the extent of drugs is some weed. I remember I was 19, I went to the Blues Bar. It was me, [John] Belushi and Robin Williams. They start doing coke, and I was like, ‘No, I’m cool.’ I wasn’t taking some moral stance. I just wasn’t interested in it. To not have the desire or the curiosity, I’d say that’s providence. God was looking over me in that moment.”
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All four of these performers achieved superstardom at a young age. Jackson was just 11 in 1970 when The Jackson 5 landed their first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “I Want You Back.” He was only 14 in 1973 when he sang his solo hit “Ben” at the Academy Awards, where it was nominated for best original song. Presley was 21 in 1956 when he landed his first roof-rattling (and Billboard chart-topping) smash, “Heartbreak Hotel.” Prince was 21 in 1980 when he received his first platinum album for Prince and his first gold single for “I Wanna Be Your Lover.”
In similar fashion, Murphy was just 19 when he debuted on Saturday Night Live in December 1980. He was the standout cast member on a show that was rebuilding following the departure of the remaining original cast members at the end of the previous season.
Murphy’s fame quickly spread beyond the show. His first comedy album, Eddie Murphy, was released in August 1982. That December saw the release of his first film, 48 Hrs., in which he co-starred with Nick Nolte. Trading Places, in which he co-starred with SNL alum Dan Aykroyd, was released in June 1983. Beverly Hills Cop, which he carried by himself, was released in December 1984.
Murphy was just 21 in early 1983 when he received his first Grammy nominations – best comedy album for Eddie Murphy and best R&B instrumental performance for “Boogie in Your Butt,” a novelty track from the album. He won a Grammy the following year for his second album, Eddie Murphy: Comedian.
Murphy had turned 22 when, later in 1983, he received his first Primetime Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy, variety or music series for SNL. He received two more Primetime Emmy nods – for both performance and writing – the following year. He finally won his first Emmy in 2020 for returning to SNL as a guest host. He received his first Oscar nomination in 2006 for best supporting actor in Dreamgirls.
Murphy, 63, has already lived longer than Presley, Jackson and Prince — Presley died at age 42 in 1977; Jackson at age 50 in 2009; and Prince at age 57 in 2016.
In the podcast, Murphy explained that getting famous at a young age, especially as a Black artist, can be like living in a minefield. “Now, at this age, I can look back and be like, ‘Wow, I came through a minefield for 35 years.’ How do you make it through a minefield for 35, 40 years? Something has to be looking over you,” he said. “This business, it’s not set up for a Black artist. It was a new thing: I’m doing this stuff that no one’s ever done, and it’s in a business that’s not set up for me. It’s set up for some white dude. So, you don’t have people watching your back, and you don’t have support groups.”
Murphy also discussed how his enormous success impacted how comedy performers, and Black performers, are seen. “The comic used to be the sidekick, the comic was the opening act, and I changed it to where the comic can be the main attraction,” he said. “They thought of comics one way, and it was like, no, a comic could sell out the arena, and a comic could be in hundred-million-dollar movies. All of that changed. And with Black actors, it was, like, the Black guy could be the star of the movie, and it doesn’t have to be a Black exploitation movie. It could be a movie that’s accessible to everyone all around the world.”
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On Monday (July 1), the internet reacted in all kinds of ways when a video of Rick Ross and his crew getting jumped in Vancouver, Canada, by Drake super fans hit the web, and now it seems like the King of the North is practicing a bit of trolling over the incident with his latest social media post.
Following the release of the video, Drake took to his IG page to post a pic and a video of himself and his crew enjoying some outside weather at his mansion as Drizzy raps along to “Northern Touch” by the Rascalz, who hail from Vancouver. Coincidence that Drake is listening to a rap group that represents the city where Ross and company got jumped? Maybe, but we doubt it.
Drake also dropped another video in which he wished his fellow Canadians a “Happy Canada Day” before saying, “Cheers to the whole country” and taking a sip of some adult juice with a slice of lemon in it. Fancy!
50 Cent meanwhile didn’t miss the opportunity to continue to troll his former rival Rick Ross as well with a new video. While Fiddy called it a “very unfortunate situation that took place in Canada” and said, “I hope that brother made it home safely,” he ended his quick reaction by saying Ross should call on Meek Mill’s Dream Chasers crew or the “305 killers” before laughing it off as he’s known to do.
Man we hope this doesn’t lead to North vs. South Hip-Hop war like the East vs. West thing in the ’90s.
What are your thoughts on Rick Ross getting jumped in Canada for playing Kendrick Lamar’s Drake diss song “Not Like Us”? Fair or foul? Let us know in the comments section below.
It’s been more than a year since Jamie Foxx was hospitalized due to what has so far been an described as a “medical complication.” Though he spent nearly a month in the hospital, the Oscar-winning star has not revealed any details of what crisis he suffered to date.
But in an impromptu scrum outside a hotel in Phoenix recently, Foxx gave a group of fans a few details about how he ended up in the ER. In a clip posted to TikTok by motivational speaker Dr. Brenda Combs, Foxx revealed that he has almost no memory of that time.
“Look, April 11 last year — bad headache. I asked my boy for an Advil,” Foxx said, pausing and then snapping his fingers. “I was gone for 20 days. I don’t remember anything.” He explains that his sister, Diedra Dixon and daughter, Corinne Foxx, took him to a doctor’s office in Atlanta, where he got a cortisone shot. Pointing to his head, Foxx said the doctor told him, “There’s something going on up there.”
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Foxx then paused again and said cryptically, “I won’t say what on camera… I don’t want to say it on camera.”
In March, Foxx, 56, said he was getting ready to open up about the health crisis. “Everybody wants to know what happened, and I’m going to tell you what happened. But I’ve gotta do it in my way,” Foxx said at the time. “I’m gonna do it in a funny way. We’re gonna be on the stage. We’re gonna get back to the standup sort of roots.” Foxx teased that the show would be called “What Had Happened Was” and that it will feature “all the things that happened, especially on our side of our community.”
Last July, Foxx posted an emotional video update on his recovery. “I went through something that I thought I would never, ever go through. I know a lot of people were waiting or wanting to hear updates, but to be honest with you, I just didn’t want you to see me like that,” Foxx said. “I want you to see me laughing, having a good time partying, cracking a joke, doing a movie, television show. I didn’t want you to see me with tubes running out of me and trying to figure out if I was gonna make it through.”
Last April, daughter Corinne Foxx announced that her dad had been hospitalized for an undisclosed “medical complication” while filming the Netflix movie Back in Action in Atlanta with Cameron Diaz.
Check out the video below.
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2024 is proving to be the year of Killer Mike as the OG from the A continues to rack up awards to take home and stuff in his display case.
Just a week after receiving the inaugural Rico Wade Game Changer Award, Killer Mike got another big win last night when he took home Album of the Year honors at last night’s BET Awards. Edging out the likes of Gunna’s a Gift & a Curse, 21 Savage’s American Dream, Drake’s For All the Dogs (Scary Hours Edition) and Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday 2, Killer Mike’s Michael continues to keep Mike’s trophy case busy as it garnered him the biggest award of the night.
Taking to the stage to thank his day-ones and the Black community specifically saying, “Thank you for seeing me Black people. Thank you for believing in me Black people. Thank you for honoring me in this way.”
He even touched on his post-Grammy awards arrest saying, “Technically, I was not supposed to be here. I was put in handcuffs and I was marched out of this building, but I want to tell you look at God ’cause I’m back, baby, I’m back and I’m winning.”
Mike is winning indeed, and we couldn’t be happier for him.
Check out Killer Mike accept his Album of the Year Award at the 2024 BET Awards below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
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Another day another case for Kanye West as the “MAGA” rapper has just been slapped with a brand new lawsuit which accuses him and his former chief of staff Milo Yiannopoulos of some pretty wild stuff.
According to TMZ, former employees of Kanye West have filed a suit against the Donda rapper and Milo Yiannopoulos, claiming that they were subjected to a horrible work environment, which “forced labor and cruel inhuman, or degrading treatment.” In the suit they claim that not only were they referred to as “new slaves” but Yeezy’s wife, Bianca Censori, also sent porn to staff members which were accessible by minors.
Sounds like the kind of place hardcore MAGA enthusiasts would love to work in actually.
TMZ reports:
It all started in the Spring of 2024 when Ye decided to launch the YZYVSN streaming service app to rival Tidal, Spotify and Apple Music. The suit says Ye wanted to avoid paying those companies to promote his new albums, “Vultures” and “Vultures 2.”
So, he and Milo allegedly hired an international developer group comprised of several Black members, which also included underage teens as young as 14.
The docs say the employees mostly worked remotely, staying in constant communication with Ye, Milo and their team by using digital and online communication applications such as Discord, Zoom and Slack.
In April 2024, the docs say, Milo promised to pay $120,000 to the developer group after they completed the app if they agreed to the work conditions and didn’t complain.
While that sounded good and all, things apparently went left after everyone was forced to sign non-disclosure agreements under the threat of termination if they didn’t. Younger workers had to sign on as “volunteers” if they wanted to keep their jobs. Once they complied, the ugliness came out courtesy of Yeezy’s white management team.
In group chats, the Caucasian managers used harassing language toward the underlings in regards to their age, race, gender, sexual orientation and national origin. Some team members were called “slaves” while others were referred to as “new slaves.”The docs say Milo once sent a chat message with a Black/brown skin emoji to an African American team member, while calling a younger worker a school shooter. The employees were also bullied into working long hours through the night without pay or sleep.Then, in late April, Ye announced he was launching an adult film biz called “Yeezy Porn,” with his wife Bianca sending one worker a file-sharing link containing hardcore sexual activity, according to the docs. The minors were not shielded from viewing the smut videos as they developed Ye’s porn app. Bianca is not named as a defendant.
Ultimately, the team was able to finish an app and handed it over to Ye on May 1 of this year. Unfortunately, they weren’t paid what they were owed, which led to the lawsuit at hand.
The workers are seeking damages for unpaid wages and overtime pay, and of course, emotional distress.
Don’t be surprised if Kanye and Milo settle this one out of court.
What do y’all think of this latest lawsuit against Kanye West? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Just weeks after it was reported that Diddy returned to keys to New York to the offices of Mayor Eric Adams, it’s now being reported that Miami wants nothing to do with the embattled music mogul either as they’re canceling the one day they dedicated to the Bad Boy founder.
According to TMZ, the Miami Beach Commission has made the decision to cancel their annual “Sean Diddy Combs Day,” which has apparently been a thing since it was bestowed on him in 2016. (Who knew?) The Miami Beach Commission becomes the latest institution to publicly cut ties with Diddy as Howard University, Revolt, Capital Preparatory Schools and a few others have done the same since the video of Diddy assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Cassie, came to light.
TMZ reports:
In fact, Diddy received the proclamation in October 2016 … just 7 months after he was caught on surveillance video assaulting ex-GF inside an L.A. hotel. Of course, the general public — and certainly not the City of Miami Beach — knew that had happened until the video came out this year.
According to the Miami Herald, the MBC made the final decision this past Wednesday without any debate.
Miami Beach has long been Diddy’s home … his properties on Star Island were raided back in March and he’s since been spotted out and about.
Real talk, we didn’t even know Diddy had so many multi-city accolades until they began rescinding them after learning he was in fact a trash human being, allegedly.
What do y’all think about Miami canceling “Sean Diddy Combs Day”? Did y’all know that was a thing? Let us know in the comments section below.