State Champ Radio Current Events
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Source: Gilbert Flores / Getty / Rapper T.I. and Tiny
Rapper T.I. and his wife, Tameka “Tiny” Harris, secured a massive $71 million payout in their lawsuit against the maker of the popular L.O.L. Surprise! Dolls.
Spotted on TMZ Hip Hop, the “U Don’t Know Me” crafter and his wife got richer after a jury sided with them in their lawsuit against toy company MGA Entertainment following a week-long trial.
According to the lawsuit, the couple claims MGA Entertainment violated the intellectual property rights of their now-defunct girl group, OMG Girlz, which also featured Tiny’s oldest daughter, Zonnique Pullins.
Per TMZ Hip Hop:
The jurors reportedly agreed that “L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. dolls” infringed on the trade dress and misappropriated the name, image, and likeness of the all-female group that T.I. and Tiny formed in 2009.
At trial, T.I. and Tiny zeroed in on 7 dolls MGA promoted that they argued had the identical appearance of their OMG Girlz during “very specific public events,” including the image and likeness of Tiny’s oldest daughter, Zonnique Pullins.
Following the decision, Tiny, along with OMG Girlz members Bahja “Beauty” Rodriguez, Breaunna “Babydoll” Womack, and her daughter Zonnique “Star” Pullins, celebrated the massive legal victory that earned them $17,872,359 in real damages and $53,616,759 in punitive damages.
The victory doesn’t necessarily end the beef with MGA. According to Forbes, the company can still appeal the decision.
So, this victory could be short-lived, with all parties heading back to court.
It’s also a big win for the couple who found themselves as the subject of a sexual assault lawsuit earlier this year.
$71 million is a lot of money. We are curious about what the couple does with it, barring MGA not appealing the decision.
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Source: Andrew Lichtenstein / Getty
Federal prosecutors are now researching New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ ties to five other countries concerning an investigation into his campaign.
According to the New York Times, the federal investigation of New York City Mayor Eric Adams and his ties to the Turkish government has now expanded to include five other countries, according to sources. The request for information is linked to the sweeping grand jury subpoenas that were issued to a swath of City Hall back in July. The primary goal of the investigation for prosecutors was to determine whether Adams conspired with the Turkish government to illegally funnel foreign donations into his campaign back in 2021. The five countries prosecutors requested information about are Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea, and Uzbekistan.
The specific information that the federal authorities are looking for in this new batch of subpoenas includes information on records concerning tickets to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which Adams attended, as well as data on New York Police Department booths outside of foreign consulates and Adams’ use of the encrypted Signal app. Prosecutors are also looking into allegations of Adams receiving free flights and upgrades from Turkish Airlines, as well as the allegations that he pressured the New York Fire Department into approving a high-rise consulate building in Midtown
They also sought more information about the former Turkish Consul General Reyhan Özgür and Arda Sayiner, a brand influencer based in Turkey who has ties to Rana Abbasova. Abbasova was a former Adams liaison to Turkey and worked in his international affairs office until her home was raided by federal authorities last November. Ms. Abbasova is now cooperating fully with the government’s investigation. The July subpoenas had been issued after FBI agents had seized Mayor Adams’ phones after stopping him outside of an event he was attending last November.
Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for City Hall said officials weren’t going to comment on the subpoenas “but, as we have repeatedly said, we will continue to fully comply with any law enforcement inquiry.” At his weekly press conference, Adams defended his policies. “We continue to progress…that is what I must do,” he said. “I’ve always done that for New Yorkers, and I will continue to do that.” To date, Adams’ administration has been rocked by resignations after federal seizures of devices including former NYPD commissioner Edward Caban.
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Freddie Lee Trone, the California man at the center of the plot to rob and murder PnB Rock, will see prison time for his actions after being convicted earlier. Freddie Lee Trone will serve 31 years behind bars after his sentence was heard on Monday (September 23).
Local outlet KTLA reports that Freddie Lee Trone, 42, who was iniitally convicted of the murder of PnB Rock in 2022, was found guilty on all charges in August. The fatal incident took place on September 12, 2022, at a Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles location in the South Los Angeles region. Trone also faced charges of felony murder, robbery, and conspiracy.
One of Trone’s co-defendants, Tremont Jones, was found guilty of robbery and conspiracy. Jones was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Trone ordered his then-teenage son to rob and kill PnB Rock, who was dining in the establishment with his romantic partner at the time. According to prosecutors, Trone was the mastermind of the crime and served as his son’s getaway driver in the crime.
The son of Freddie Lee Trone is charged with first-degree murder and his case will be heard in juvenile court.
Another co-defendant, Shauntrel Trone, pleaded no contest to an accessory after the fact charge earlier this summer. She will face sentencing in January 2025.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Atlantic Records / Atlantic Records
The cult classic film The Warriors is getting a new interpretation from Lin-Manuel Miranda, featuring Lauryn Hill among others.
For many, The Warriors is a beloved film from the late 1970s that has been celebrated since its release. A new album reimagining the original story from award-winning playwrights Lin-Manuel Miranda and Elsa Davis is set to be released on October 18, and it features Grammy Award-winner Lauryn Hill playing the role of Cyrus, and the titular street gang from Coney Island played by notable actresses Kenita Miller, Sasha Hutchings, Phillipa Soo, Aneesa Folds, Amber Gray, Gizel Jiménez, Jasmine Cephas Jones and Julia Harriman.
Lauryn Hill’s addition to the album already rounds out the highly-impressive cast on the project. “We just had to have her, you know what I mean? There was no plan B, whatsoever,” Davis said of reaching out to the singer. The album also features Nas (who’s an executive producer), Ghostface and The RZA, Busta Rhymes, Cam’ron, Chris Rivers, and reggae artist Shenseea, along with actors Colman Domingo and Billy Porter. Original cast members James Remar and David Patrick Kelly also appear on the project. “Eisa and I crafted our letter with care and just stayed in touch with her manager over the course of the year, never having a plan B, texting back and forth until one day we had a Dropbox file with all of these harmonies,” Miranda said.
For the Hamilton actor and producer and Davis, an Obie Award winner her performance in Passing Strange, the Warriors being portrayed by all women isn’t just a mere gender-swap. It’s a choice inspired by the online vitriol that the two observed in Gamergate and tying it to the moment Cyrus is killed by Luther and his gang. “I made that connection and then thought, “Well if the Warriors are women, how does that change the narrative?” At every point, it complicates it in a really compelling way,” Miranda explained. “I think that it’s just so crucial to think about this — it’s a group of women that no one believes. Everyone is accusing you falsely, as Lin is saying, and what is it that you do? What is it that you try?” Davis stated.
The two did say there are no plans to turn this version into a feature film. The Warriors concept album is out October 18.
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Source: Emma McIntyre / Getty / Usher
Following Diddy’s arrest, social media has been doing the most in trying to connect everyone who has been in the disgraced musician/mogul’s arrest to his “freak offs” and other shenanigans. Usher is one of those people.
Responding to people speculating something was afoot after tweets that disappeared from his X account, the iconic R&B star responded to sleuths on X, formerly Twitter, that his account was hacked.
“Account got hacked and damn y’all ran with it * laughing emojis*, See you tonight at Intuit Dome,” the “Love In This Club” crafter wrote in a post on his account, just a week after Diddy was arrested for sex trafficking with the Feds finding 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lube in his home.
Previous tweets on the 45-year-old musician’s account have reappeared, but that did not stop the train from pulling into the speculation station.
“u got hacked and the hackers decided to delete all your tweets instead of tweeting random stuff?,” one post in response to Usher’s tweet, read.
Another user on X wrote, “So crazy how it got hacked…but instead of posting crazy stuff, the hacker just DELETED your posts and Diddy just got arrested…and all the stuff with Justin Bieber. Soooooo weird we all “ran with it”. Right bro.”
According to Page Six’s reporting, at the time, the only tweets appearing on his page were from hackers writing about cryptocurrency scams. Pink and actress Megan Fox were also alleged victims of a hack over the weekend.
Welp.
As the fallout from Diddy’s arrest continues, we definitely expect more online speculation floating around anyone who called Sean “Diddy” Combs a friend.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
1. Lol, smh
2. Oh lord
3. Do you now?
4. Guys it’s not the big conspiracy you think it is.
5. Oh lord
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Source: The Washington Post / Getty / Cards Against Humanity
Bootleg Tony Stark, aka Elon Musk, pockets could take a hit thanks to a new lawsuit.
The Tesla chief, SpaceX boss, and now reluctant owner of X, formerly Twitter, is the subject of a lawsuit by game company Cards Against Humanity.
According to the lawsuit, Musk’s company, SpaceX, is destroying South Texas land owned by Cards Against Humanity when it illegally launches its rockets into space from Texas.
Cards of Humanity is seeking $15 million from Musk’s company.
Per Raw Story:
The lawsuit, filed in Cameron County, was posted on a website the company is using to call attention to the civil battle. The suit claims that SpaceX has used Cards Against Humanity’s once “pristine” property filled with wild grass and cacti and changed the entire dynamic of the area by using the land as a construction staging site. SpaceX acquired vacant lots along the same road as the property and has constructed buildings around the area. According to pictures included in the lawsuit, the property now looks like an unfinished worksite filled with machinery and piles of materials.
Cards Against Humanity Made Donald Trump’s Life Miserable
Cards Against Humanity was out here doing the Lord’s work by making the disgraced former president, Donald Trump’s life, miserable by starting a crowd-funding campaign called CAH Saves America with the sole purpose of buying land to block the building of Trump’s stupid wall along the Texas/Mexico border.
In the campaign, 150,000 people paid $15 to protect land along the U.S.-Mexico border three miles from SpaceX’s launch facility.
Cards Against Humanity also owns the land, and if they win the lawsuit, they will compensate all 150,000 people involved with $100.
“150,000 people gave us their hard-earned money, and in exchange we vowed to protect this land from racist billionaires and their dumb vanity projects.”
Do know we are rooting for Cards Against Humanity.
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Source: Gilbert Flores / Getty
Janet Jackson seems to be fully down the rabbit hole of misinformation. During a recent interview, the music icon said she heard that Vice President Kamala Harris is not Black, and fans on social media are not happy about her apparent naivete.
To be clear, Kamala Harris has an Indian mother and Black, by way of Jamaica, father. So that makes her both Black and Indian—so, both. She has identified as Black her entire life, and even attended HBCU Howard University. So anyone entertaining the notion that she somehow is not really Black is either misinformed or operating in bad faith.
As for Jackson, in an interview that was published on Saturday (Sept. 21), she told the Guardian. “Well, you know what they supposedly said? She’s not Black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian.”
But when the writer told her that Harris was Black and Indian, she essentially doubled down on the ignorance, saying, “I mean, I haven’t watched the news in a few days. I was told that they discovered her father was white.”
For the record, Harris is 59 years old, meaning her daddy has been a known Black man for at least that long.
To add to the struggle, Jackson allegedly issued an apology on Sunday (Sept. 22) to Buzzfeed. However, her reps have since noted that the guy who provided that quote, Mo Elmasri, isn’t her manager as he claimed—so that mea culpa was not authorized. Also, Mr. Elmasri is now claiming he was fired by Jackson and Randy Jackson, with many pointing out that the latter has been known to believe conspiracy theories with his whole chest.
Man alive. Also, come on Randy.
Peep the reactions to Janet Jackson’s failure of the simplest of research in the gallery. Yes, Janet Jackson is icon, but she’s still going to catch this slander.
1. Cold world.
7. It’s real if they call her Damita
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Source: Scott Legato / Getty
It seems Trick Trick and Rick Ross have moved past their differences. The two have officially squashed their beef in front of a concert crowd.
As spotted on HipHopDX the two Hip-Hop heavyweights no longer have issues with each other. On Tuesday, September 17 Death Row Records investor Michael “Harry O” Harris hosted the Our Community First Action concert in Pontiac, Michigan. Here the two rappers shared the stage and embraced. From there Rozay performed his sleeper hit “I’m Not A Star” to the crowd’s approval. Rick Ross then addressed everyone on the microphone. “I want to take time out and salute the ones really making a difference in the community,” he said as a nod to Harry O’s work in the city.
The following day Rick Ross took to social media to speak on the moment and confirming Harry O made it all happen. “You flying me out last night, you having Trick Trick bring me out on stage. I’m sure everybody knows me and Trick Trick had our differences for over a decade and here we are just moving forward, doing big things in the community. We got some more big things coming” he explained in the video.
In 2010 it seems that Trick Trick took issue with Ross over some comments he made. Rumor has it Trick Trick and almost 100 of his affiliates blocked him from performing in Detroit. Since then it has been alleged Trick put out a no fly zone out on Ross; a street term that infers that that MMG boss wouldn’t be safe in the town.
You can see them together on stage below.
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Source: Kevin Winter / Getty / Shyne / Sean “Diddy” Combs
Shyne didn’t have anything kind to say about his former boss, Sean “Diddy” Combs, in the wake of his arrest.
Former Bad Boy artist and now current Leader of the Opposition in Belize, Moses “Shyne” Barrow, born Jamal Barrow, broke his silence about Diddy after law enforcement took him into federal custody.
During a press conference, Barrow was asked about the Diddler’s arrest and did not mince words about the disgraced mogul. Barrow spoke on his arrest following the infamous 1999 nightclub incident in which he attended a party with Diddy and then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez.
A fight broke out, shots were fired, and three people sustained injuries. According to multiple accounts, Diddy was the one who pulled the trigger, but Shyne was blamed. Shyne was found guilty and served nine years in prison.
Per Digital Music News:
One of the things that I would never wish on my worst enemy is to be incarcerated or to be sick, to be bedridden. So I take no joy in anyone’s challenges, whether with the criminal justice system or otherwise.
But I’d just like to clarify, you have to be truthful in the description of the relationship. This is someone who, in essence, testified against me when I was on trial, when I was an 18-year-old kid just wanting to do nothing other than make my mother proud and make Belize proud and do what all of us want to do, be recognized for our talent and take over the world.
This is not someone who I vacationed with, this is someone who destroyed my life, and who I forgave, and who I moved on, and for the better interest of Belize because he was in a position at that time to give scholarships and maybe to invest, would not deny attempting to bring the investment to Belize and bring the contributions to education.
Users on X, formally Twitter, had thoughts about Shyne’s comments; you can see those reactions in the gallery below.
2. It definitely was
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Source: Mindy Small / Getty /Rickey Smiley
Comedian/radio host/actor Rickey Smiley has found new representation.
Deadline exclusively reports that UTA has signed the award-winning radio host and TV personality for representation.
Smiley started on Def Comedy Jam and has been doing standup for over 30 years. He eventually gained more popularity for hosting BET’s Comic View. He is still doing his thing on stages in comedy clubs and theaters across the country and is part of lineups for comedy shows like Martin Lawrence’s “Lit AF” Tour and the Bad Boys star’s upcoming “Y’all Know What It Is” Tour.
Smiley is set to release his next hour-long special. David Talbert will direct, and filming will take place in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, sometime later this year. The unnamed comedy event will follow his previous comedy specials, Comedy Central Presents: Rickey Smiley and Rickey Smiley: Open Casket Sharp.
He currently hosts The Rickey Smiley Morning Show, the country’s #1 syndicated urban radio program, which reaches seven million weekly listeners in 75+ markets.
Smiley is also best known for his performances on the big screen in Friday After Next and Baggage Claim, as well as his starring roles in The Rickey Smiley Show and Rickey Smiley for Real.
His social media reach is nothing to scoff at, with 18+ million followers across all platforms.
Smiley also recently spoke with Vice President Kamala Harris before she beat the brakes off Donald Trump on the debate stage, asking her how she would handle his temperament.
“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he would go. And we should be prepared for that. We should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth,” VP Harris told Smiley.
