Current Events
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D.L. Hughley delivered remarks on the final night of the Democratic National Convention and used the angle of humor to show his support for Vice President Kamala Harris. During his appearance, D.L. Hughley threw a few jabs in the direction of Donald Trump, much to the approval of the attendees.
D.L. Hughley, who formerly had strong critiques of Vice President Kamala Harris, leaned into his comedic talent and didn’t waste time while setting up his larger point with jokes. He then apologized to Vice President Harris for his past views of her.
“I don’t blame Donald Trump for not wanting to debate Kamala,” Hughley said early in his remarks. “I’ve been married to a Black woman for 40 years and I ain’t won one debate. I’m 0-93,000.”
With the audience in line with his phrasing and jokes, Hughley began chipping away at Trump and his supporters attempting to question Harris’ Blackness.
“I guarantee you this, Kamala has been Black a lot longer than Trump has been a Republican,” Hughley said, sparking uproarious laughter. And the Trump haymakers didn’t end there. Hughley made mention of Trump’s polling numbers, a subject he touts as a mark of superiority, and then tied in Trump’s infamous 1973 racial discrimination lawsuit for failing to offer housing to Black New York residents.
“If he keeps sliding in the polls the way he is, the only thing to keep Kamala out of the White House is if he buys it and refuses to rent it to her,” Hughley said.
The crowd erupted in laughter.
The full DNC speech from D.L. Highly can be viewed below, courtesy of PBS NewsHour.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Marvel Studios / Deadpool & Wolverine / Blade
Deadpool might be “Marvel Jesus” after “resurrecting” the MCU with Deadpool and Wolverine. Can he do the same for Wesley Snipes’ Blade movie franchise?
After Deadpool and Wolverine did what many expected it to at the box office, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, Ryan Reynolds has been sharing moments from the cameo-filled goodbye to the Fox Marvel universe and giving props to each of the actors who helped him, Hugh Jackman and director Shawn Levy make history.
One person in particular, Reynolds, has been showering with praise, none other than Wesley Snipes, the original cinematic version of The Daywalker, Blade, aka “Marvel Daddy.”
In a post to his social media accounts, Reynolds echoed sentiments shared by many Marvel fans, who call for Snipes’ Blade to return.
Snipes has been credited with saving Marvel from bankruptcy with his hit 1998 Blade film, followed by 2002’s Blade II and 2004’s Blade: Trinity. The latter also starred Reynolds but was not as well received as the first two films, which allegedly led to some bad blood between the two actors.
So, you can imagine Snipes’ return as the human/vampire vamp hunter in Deadpool and Wolverine generated a lot of excitement, and Reynolds acknowledged that.
In an Instagram post, he called for “More Blade Please,” wanting Snipes’s version of Blade to get a sendoff akin to Hugh Jackman’s “Swan Song” in Logan.
“The reaction when @realwesleysnipes enters the movie is the most intense thing l’ve heard in a theater. People screaming with uninhibited joy and love is also the sound of a legacy. More Blade please. #DayWalker ***A Logan-style send off, specifically,” Reynolds wrote.
We can’t argue with that.
Can Ryan Reynolds Push Kevin Feige To Give Snipes’ Blade Another Movie?
We don’t know how much influence Ryan Reynolds has over Marvel Studios’ head, Kevin Feige, so it’s not certain that something like that will happen.
But he has a sound bargaining chip worth $1.029 billion. There is also that Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali as the titular character currently stuck in “development hell.” Still, Feige insists that his studio is taking its time so they can deliver a good film.
Still, many fans feel like Ryan Reynolds; you can see those reactions in the gallery below.
1. E-Man with some ideas for a Wesley Snipes movie, Kevin Feige we you are listening
2. We hope not, because we want BOTH!
3. We all did.
4. No debate here.
5. Time is indeed a flat circle
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Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty / Travis Scott
Travis Scott fans rejoice; you can listen to the Houston artist’s iconic mixtape, Days Before The Rodeo, again very soon.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Days Before The Rodeo, Travis Scott plans to release the 12-track mixtape on streaming services.
Originally released on August 18, 2014, Scott fans can look forward to hearing songs like “Don’t Play” featuring Big Sean, “1975,” and “Mamacita” featuring Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug again.
The mixtape also featured production from Metro Boomin, Lex Luger, and WondaGurl and appearances from Migos, Peewee Longway, and Young Thug.
Of course, a merch store will allow fans to purchase three different box sets, hats, hoodies, and vinyl records. Those who get their hands on the mixtape’s digital version will gain access to unreleased tracks.
The “Sicko Mode” crafter got the ragers raging by dropping a trailer for the mixtape on his Instagram account. In the clip, we see him in the studio with Metro Boomin, Future, and Young Thug, getting up close and personal with his fans by crowd surfing.
In the caption for the post, he wrote:
DAYS BEFORE RODEO 10yr ANNIVERSARY BEING CELEBRATED BY FINALLLY RE-RELEASING EVERYWHERE AUGUST 23RD AND MAYBE COUPLE DBR SONGS FROM THAT ERA FROM THE VAULT Travisscott.com more info and shizzzz shsbsbsbsb IM FCKING JUMPING THRU WALLS AHHHH.
Travis Scott Has Found His Groove Once Again
Following Days Before The Rodeo, Scott released three albums: Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, Astroworld, and Utopia.
He has since rebounded in the form of numerous settlements from the deadly incident that occurred at his Astroworld music festival and was last seen at Michael Rubin’s Fanatics convention, Fanatics Fest, where he showed off his DJing skills and put on an impromptu performance for the attendees.
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Source: Robert Gauthier / Getty
Comedian Kenan Thomspon tore into Project 2025 with a skit at the Democratic National Convention highlighting its horrors.
On Wednesday (Aug. 21), the third night of the Democratic National Convention got a comedic boost with context as Saturday Night Live alum Kenan Thompson took the stage, carrying an oversized book under his arm, which he stated was a real document – Project 2025. “Y’all remember this big old book, from before?” he asked the crowd at the United Center, who burst into laughter. “You ever seen a document that can kill a small animal and democracy at the same time? Well, here it is,” he quipped.
“You know how when you download an app and there are hundreds of pages there that you don’t read, it’s just the terms and conditions, and you just click, agree, right?” Thompson said while slamming the book down on the lectern. “Well, these are the terms and conditions of a second Trump presidency. You vote for him. You vote for all of this. Let’s take a look.” He then engaged members of the public who appeared on screen behind him. After encountering technical difficulties with the first guest, he moved on to a woman named Becky who shared that she’s been married to her wife for eight years. “Oh, that’s amazing. Very, very cute,” Thompson replied. “But I have got some bad news for you on page 584, Project 2025 calls for the elimination of protections for LGBTQ+ Americans. Right back to the Stone Age, I’m afraid so.”
He moved on to the next guest, who shared that she was diabetic and thanked President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for their work in cutting the price of insulin down to $35. “That is great,” said Thompson. “But! On page 465, Project 2025 calls for millions of people like yourself to pay more for prescription drugs like insulin. Why? Well I guess to help big pharma make more money to donate to Republican politicians, I assume.” Thompson then directed the crowd to look up the document on Harris’ campaign website.
Project 2025 has been under intense scrutiny since its online publication by the Heritage Foundation, thanks to Democrats along with other celebrities like Taraji P. Henson informing the public. Trump has denied any knowledge of Project 2025 via social media, but reports have tied numerous figures in his previous presidential administration to its creation.
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Source: The Washington Post / Getty
Every election year, and in all the years in between election years for that matter, all we hear from the GOP is about how they’re the job-creating party and how terrible Democratic leadership has always been for the American economy.
Well, a funny thing happened during day three of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday: former President Bill Clinton pulled the rug from under what is arguably Republicans’ biggest lie excluding their “big lie” about the 2020 election being rigged against their MAGA messiah Donald Trump.
“You’re going to have a hard time believing this, but so help me, I triple-checked it,” Clinton said during his half-hour-long DNC speech. “Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, America has created about 51 million new jobs. I swear I checked this three times. Even I couldn’t believe it. What’s the score? Democrats 50, Republicans one.”
Now, I know what you’re thinking because I was thinking it too: “Oh, come on now, Billy Clint, there’s just no way those numbers are right.” Most of us aren’t actually gullible enough to believe Republicans are the white saviors of American jobs that they purport to be, Still, it’s difficult to believe the gap between Democrat-created new jobs and Republican-created new jobs is really that wide.
Fortunately, we don’t need to take Clinton’s word for it that he “triple-checked” his math on this, because the Washington Post and several other fact-checking sites have already done the homework for us and come with receipts.
“There have been six presidents since 1989, three from each party,” Phillip Bump, a fact-checker for the Post wrote. “Under the three Democrats — Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden — there was a cumulative increase of 50 million more people working between the starts of their terms and the ends. Under the three Republicans — George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump — the cumulative total was, in fact, only 1 million.”
(Don’t let Trump read that. He’ll get so flustered and angry that his butthole-shaped mouth will recede into his actual butthole.)
November is coming up fast, y’all. Go into that voting booth with the right information.
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Vice President Kamala Harris closed out the four-day Democratic National Convention with a powerful display of leadership in a speech that was both biographical and emotionally driven. Sharing the story of her family’s humble beginnings, Vice President Kamala Harris accepted her party’s nomination for president and took the crowd through a journey of being raised in the Bay Area by her single mother and how she was motivated to succeed because of it.
Seizing on the momentum gained from the moment President Joe Biden decided to not seek reelection, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with a command not unlike her time as senator and as Vice President, garnering applause at almost every stanza in her speech.
As she accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination to become its presidential candidate, Harris kept her message straightforward and pushed back against the negative attacks toward her and her running mate Gov. Tim Walz with class. Like several speakers before her, Harris spoke about the importance of a strong democracy, opportunity for all, and a devotion to the values that Americans of all walks of life hold dear.
Harkening back to her days as a prosecutor en route to becoming California’s Attorney General, Harris reminded attendees and viewers at home that her focus then and now was to fight against criminals, give voice to those who feel they have been wrong by the system, and to never waver in the face of those who look to skirt by the legal system.
In a portion of Harris’ speech, she referenced the attempted January 6 insurrection that took place at the site of the U.S. Capitol, placing the impetus squarely on her opponent, Donald Trump. She mentioned Trump by name at several intervals, at one point saying that he desires to be an autocrat in the same vein as North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un.
With more pressing matters in mind, Harris also made certain to hit back at critics regarding border security, foreign policy, and strengthening the military, which contrasts greatly with Trump’s messaging that she is an extreme Leftist hoping to insert Communist rule in America.
Harris also spoke of supporting Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas, a moment in history that pundits and observers alike feel could end up being a stain on the Biden-Harris administration. It was artful in how she still positioned her talking points to call for peace in the region and called for an end to the conflict, most especially the hostage situation, but those words may not be enough to sway some of her harshest critics who stand on the side of Palestinians.
On X, formerly Twitter, reactions to Vice President Harris accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for president and her speech were rapid as they were glowing. We’ve got the best of them below.
Here is the video of Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech by way of PBS NewsHour below.
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Photo: Getty
5. If only..
7. It didn’t happen, so….
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Source: Alex Wong / Getty
All day on Thursday, August 22 rumors were circulating that Beyoncé would be making some sort of appearance at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Yeah, that didn’t happen.
In fact, Bey was never even on the schedule. That’s according to her longtime publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure. Guess no one bothered to ask her if Bey was going to be there?
The Hollywood Reporter was the first to confirm that Beyoncé could be anywhere in the world, but it wasn’t going to be at the United Center on Thursday night. “Beyoncé was never scheduled to be there,” her rep told The Hollywood Reporter. “The report of a performance is untrue.”
And that’s that on that.
Vice President Kamala Harris did walk out to “Freedom” before delivering her speech where she accepted the DNC’s nomination for President of the United States, though. We’d still bet good money that Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift, are going to make a campaign appearance on Harris and Tim Walz sooner than later.
Until then, be sure you vote in November.
Oh, and it was TMZ that said Bey was going to be there. So it’s getting really ugly for them on these Internets.
10. Who that?
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Source: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / Getty
Gus Walz is the son of Minnesota Governor and VP candidate Tim Walz. The 17-year-old won the hearts of millions when during the Democratic National Convention he displayed raw emotion, clapping “That’s my dad!” during his father’s speech on Wednesday (August 21) night.
While the goodwill was already flowing, Gus Walz’s legend only grew when many then learned that when he was becoming a teen he was diagnosed with a nonverbal learning disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. As you would guess, the Walz family was nothing but supportive, telling People magazine, “It took time, but what became so immediately clear to us was that Gus’ condition is not a setback — it’s his secret power.”
Nevertheless, people on the conservative right proceeded to show their asses on social media and actually mocked Gus Walz for daring to show emotion during his father’s stirring moment when he accepted the VP nomination. The worst of the bunch was easily Ann Coulter, who wrote “Talk about weird…” as a caption of a picture of Gus in tears. Of course, Coulter eventually deleted her tweet after immense backlash, but nothing is ever wiped away on the Internets.
Coulter was not an anomaly, with many a troglodyte co-signing her foolishness with similar attacks. But despite Elon Musk’s X becoming a cesspool of hate, the overwhelming reactions have been nothing but support and love for Gus Walz and his family. Social media is filled with people smacking down the attacks with accounts about their own lives with neurodivergent children and while disparaging the lack of human decency Coulter and her ilk routinely display.
See some of the more passionate reactions in the gallery.
3. Never forget.
7. Posting for archival purpose because they will deny it.
8. It’s personal.
9. We won’t condone everything written here, but we understand.
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Source: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / Getty
Gus Walz is the son of Minnesota Governor and VP candidate Tim Walz. The 17-year-old won the hearts of millions when during the Democratic National Convention he displayed raw emotion, clapping “That’s my dad!” during his father’s speech on Wednesday (August 21) night.
While the goodwill was already flowing, Gus Walz’s legend only grew when many then learned that when he was becoming a teen he was diagnosed with a nonverbal learning disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. As you would guess, the Walz family was nothing but supportive, telling People magazine, “It took time, but what became so immediately clear to us was that Gus’ condition is not a setback — it’s his secret power.”
Nevertheless, people on the conservative right proceeded to show their asses on social media and actually mocked Gus Walz for daring to show emotion during his father’s stirring moment when he accepted the VP nomination. The worst of the bunch was easily Ann Coulter, who wrote “Talk about weird…” as a caption of a picture of Gus in tears. Of course, Coulter eventually deleted her tweet after immense backlash, but nothing is ever wiped away on the Internets.
Coulter was not an anomaly, with many a troglodyte co-signing her foolishness with similar attacks. But despite Elon Musk’s X becoming a cesspool of hate, the overwhelming reactions have been nothing but support and love for Gus Walz and his family. Social media is filled with people smacking down the attacks with accounts about their own lives with neurodivergent children and while disparaging the lack of human decency Coulter and her ilk routinely display.
See some of the more passionate reactions in the gallery.
3. Never forget.
7. Posting for archival purpose because they will deny it.
8. It’s personal.
9. We won’t condone everything written here, but we understand.
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Red Bull BC One, the largest Breaking competition in the world, will make its return this year and the stakes remain as high as ever. Red Bull BC One just unveiled its 2024 United States competition schedule with the final taking place in Los Angeles.
Breaking has enjoyed quite a resurgence and much of that is due to the efforts of Red Bull BC One, which features B-Boys and B-Girls from around the globe taking on one another in a chance to represent their country for the world title. The art form that was created within the underground also enjoyed a moment in the mainstream after the 2024 Summer Olympics featured Breaking as an event.
Victor Montalvo, the bronze medalist for Team USA’s Breaking team on the men’s side, echoed the significance of Breaking being seen on the world stage in a statement.
“Before Paris, the biggest international breaking competition you wanted to win was Red Bull BC One, which has been around since 2004,” says two-time Red Bull BC One World Champion and Olympic medalist, Victor Montalvo, better known as B-Boy Victor. “Paris was the first look at competitive breaking for many people around the world, but the breaking scene has grown significantly since the 80’s. Red Bull BC One has not only played a pivotal role in my success and breaking journey, but it’s also the best event to tune into if you want a real look into the true spirit of the dance. I hope breaking’s new revival attracts even more fans to the competition.”
Source: Red Bull / Red Bull Content Pool
Hip-Hop Wired has the honor of attending past BC One events and we can attest to what B-Boy Victor expressed. The competition features some of the best dancers across the nation, and the connection within the community was beautiful to witness.
This year, the 2024 season will hold two “Regional Cyphers” serving as qualifying rounds for dancers and the winners of the qualifiers will then compete at the National Cypher in Los Angeles, which is officially the BC One National Championships event.
The first Cypher, Regional Cypher East, will take place in Philadelphia, Pa. on September 7, and the Regional Cypher West event takes place in Denver, Colo. on September 20th. Among the qualifiers will be specially invited dancers known as “wildcards” and winners of the Red Bull BC One City Cypher Series, several smaller local competitions that were held in Boston, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis, and New York City.
Source: Red Bull / Red Bull Content Pool
A total of 16 B-Boys and eight B-Girls will face off at the Cypher East and Cypher West in the BC One’s usual bracket format featuring a panel of judges who are from the Breaking scene.
At the conclusion of the Regional Cyphers, the National Cypher festivities will begin on Thursday, September 26 with the annual Red Bull BC One Camp USA, which will be teeming with knowledgeable dancers and figures from the community and also a place for people new to Breaking to learn more about the sport. On Saturday, September 28, the BC One USA National Cypher will take place on the world-famous Venice Beach in California. The World Final will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on December 7.
The schedule is below. Click here to learn more about Red Bull BC One, including where to watch online.
RED BULL BC ONE U.S. SCHEDULE
● East Cypher [Philadelphia, PA]: Saturday, September 7, Dilworth Park
● West Cypher [Denver, CO]: Friday, September 20, Temple Nightclub Denver
● Red Bull BC One Camp [Los Angeles, CA]: September 26 – 27
● Red Bull BC One USA National Cypher [Los Angeles, CA]: Saturday, September 28,
Venice Beach Boardwalk
● World Final [Rio de Janeiro, Brazil]: December 7, Farmasi Arena
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Photo: Red Bull Content Pool