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Jay-Z doesn’t make many public appearances where he speaks these days, but that shifted majorly over the weekend. During his acceptance speech at the annual Grammy Awards ceremony for the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, Jay-Z took a slight shot at the Recording Academy and mentioned that his wife, Beyoncé, has a leading 32 Grammy Awards but has never won the coveted Album of The Year trophy.
Flanked by his daughter Blue Ivy, Jay-Z took to the stage but humbly thanked Dr. Dre, the man for whom the award is named. In a loose moment for both men, Hov is heard lavishing praise upon the veteran producer, who bashfully tried to keep the moment focused on the man on the stage.
From there, the rapper born Shawn Carter launched into a freewheeling speech where he mentioned Beyoncé, who looked on with a beaming smile, stating that he doesn’t understand how the Academy hasn’t voted for her to win the AOTY Grammy.
Jay then spoke about the nature of the award show itself, mentioning the historic win for DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince and their 1989 boycott of the ceremony. The Brooklyn bomber then made mention of how the pair went on to watch the Grammys anyway. He then turned the moment on himself after he boycotted the Grammys in 1998 for snubbing the last DMX, who had a monster year with two top-charting and acclaimed albums.
It didn’t end there as Jay continued to shoot from the hip, saying that some nominees will feel like they were robbed and that some might actually get robbed before wrapping it up and saying that some people probably didn’t deserve to be nominated.
Check out the speech from Jay-Z below. Keep scrolling for reactions from X, formerly Twitter.
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Jamaica is a popular destination for many Americans, but the U.S. government has issued a recent travel alert advisory for the Caribbean island. According to reports, Jamaica is undergoing a recent spat of murders and other crimes over the past few weeks, prompting a Level 3 advisory.
The State Department issued its travel advisory late last month, citing the recent crimes in Jamaica, which include murders, sexual assaults, and robberies, even inside all-inclusive resorts where travelers are thought to be safer. As it stands, the government agency is suggesting potential visitors to reconsider traveling there.
From the advisory:
Country Summary: Violent crimes, such as home invasions, armed robberies, sexual assaults, and homicides, are common. Sexual assaults occur frequently, including at all-inclusive resorts.
Local police often do not respond effectively to serious criminal incidents. When arrests are made, cases are infrequently prosecuted to a conclusive sentence. Families of U.S. citizens killed in accidents or homicides frequently wait a year or more for final death certificates to be issued by Jamaican authorities. The homicide rate reported by the Government of Jamaica has for several years been among the highest in the Western Hemisphere. U.S. government personnel under COM security responsibility are prohibited from traveling to the areas listed below, from using public buses, and from driving outside of prescribed areas of Kingston at night.
On Jan. 29, the U.S. Embassy in Jamaica added, “We strongly encourage you to obtain traveler’s insurance, including medical evacuation insurance, before traveling to Jamaica. The Department of State does not pay medical bills.”
News of the travel advisory made its rounds on social media with reactions varying from humor to some looking at this as an opportunity to visit the country at a cheaper price.
See the reactions below.
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Nicki Minaj and her beef with Megan Thee Stallion has become quite a hot topic, and a recent chat with Joe Budden displayed the depths of that rift. Via Twitter Spaces, Nicki Minaj went on a rant targeting Megan Thee Stallion, suggesting that the Houston star was never shot among other jabs.
On Wednesday (Jan. 31), Nicki Minaj joined Joe Budden, who maintains a robust Twitter Spaces community, for a 40-minute chat with the unavoidable topic of Megan Thee Stallion at the center. At several points in the discussion, Minaj suggested that Megan was never shot by Tory Lanez and that Roc Nation and an entity she referred to as “the machine” is responsible for the issue between the women.
Minaj also shared that she believes social media users were being paid $250 to disparage her online, only to turn around and say they’re supporting her diss track “Bigfoot” and once more saying the so-called machine is behind all of this.
“This is a dialogue between me, the machine and a bunch of different machines having to come together constantly using different people. When one fails, let’s go somewhere else and try,” Minaj said.
Because of Minaj’s vocal tones and voice changes, some were suggesting, as they’ve done previously, that the Queens superstar has a substance abuse problem. However, Minaj claims she’s never done cocaine and even said she’s willing to be tested.
On Twitter, reactions to Nicki Minaj discussing Megan Thee Stallion with Joe Budden went wide. We’ve got a handful of them below.
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Super Bowl LVIII will take place in just under two weeks after the conclusion of the AFC and NFC championship games this weekend. The San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs will face off against one another for Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, but some fans online are suggesting this was a matchup planned by the NFL all along.
During the AFC championship, the Chiefs, with stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, were visiting the Baltimore Ravens’ home field where it was thought that NFL MVP candidate Lamar Jackson would lead his team to victory. With a series of penalties, miscues, and the like, the Chiefs’ defense proved to be too much and their experience shined through.
For the NFC championship, the Detroit Lions appeared to be running away with the whole thing in the first half as Jared Goff shredded the 49ers’ secondary. However, it all came apart in the second half as Brock Purdy and the rest of the offense began to heat up with the Lions unable to answer the bell.
For many, this wasn’t the desired outcome as the Lions had a feel-good story about a franchise that has long been frozen out of competing for a Super Bowl title, while the Ravens, behind the talents of Jackson, hoped to bring the title home for Charm City once more.
As it stands, some fans online are suggesting that the 49ers-Chiefs lineup is a desired outcome ratings-wise, pointing to the Chiefs’ Kelce and the hype around his relationship with Taylor Swift as a marketing boost while the 49ers are one of the marquee teams in the league with Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, and Christian McCaffrey leading the offense. We’ve got those reactions below.
Super Bowl LVIII takes place on Feb. 11.
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Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion have disrupted the Hip-Hop timeline in a major fashion, with the Queens veteran launching an all-out online assault on the Houston star. After the perceived shot from Megan Thee Stallion towards Nicki Minaj on “Hiss,” the Pink Friday 2 star fired back with the diss track “Bigfoot,” and fans are reacting.
As we previously reported, Megan Thee Stallion dropped her latest single, “Hiss,” last week as part of her return to the music scene, and one line in particular seemed to ruffle the feathers of Nicki Minaj.
The lyric in question reads, “These hoes don’t be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan’s Law/I don’t really know what the problem is, but I guarantee y’all don’t want me to start,” which has been assumed to be about Minaj’s husband, Kenneth Petty and his past legal woes.
This, in turn, sparked Minaj to go on a days-long tirade on social media, egged on her legion of fans known as the “Barbz,” and things got ugly with MTS’ deceased parents being brought into the fray and mention of the shooting incident with Tory Lanez.
With “Bigfoot,” Minaj wasted little time addressing the line mentioned above from “Hiss” and continued to pile on the attacks in a song with all the current tea within.
From “Bigfoot”:
This lil’ beggin’ whore talkin’ ’bout Megan’s lawFor a free beat, you could hit Megan raw (Ooh)If you a ghost writer, Pardi in Megan jaw (Ooh-ooh)Shots thrown, but I still ain’t let Megan score (Tell ’em)Bad bitch, she like six foot (Ooh), I call her Big Foot (Brr-brr)The bitch fell off, I said, “Get up on your good foot” (Ah, ah)
Minaj ends the song by suggesting she. has more ammo in the tank for Megan should she want this beef to continue. As expected, the Barbz and the Hotties, which are MTS’ supporters, are at each other’s virtual throats and we’ve got all the reactions to “Bigfoot” below.
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Welcome back to our latest Baes & Baddies update and this one is a bit more classy as we’re featuring the “Bilingual Rappin Educator” known to the world as Just T. How Just T appeared on our radar were a series of viral videos of the teacher and influencer showing off an array of fly fits and her tales in teaching.
Far more than just a Spanish teacher, Just T is the founder of Traplingual, a method of teaching Spanish using the Hip-Hop subgenre of Trap Music. On her @its.sweet.tea Instagram page and also her popular TikTok account, T often shows off her outfits for the week and discusses some of the pleasant run-ins with her students. She’s also a new mother and details that part of her life as well.
Check out Just T aka @its.sweet.tea aka @Miss.Sweet.Tea in the gallery below.
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Megan Thee Stallion is back with another snake-themed single following last year’s “Cobra” with the blistering “Hiss” track and it looks like there’s some smoke for a fellow artist if the chatter is true. Some fans believe Megan Thee Stallion took a swipe at Nicki Minaj on “Hiss” and the reactions are going crazy right now.
Megan Thee Stallion has been inching her way back to the limelight after taking time away to gather her resources, doing so with the explosive “Cobra” last November. While that track gave fans some insight into Megan’s journey to healing, “Hiss” is a return to Tina Snow addressing all her haters in a big and bold fashion.
However, there is a portion of the song’s first verse that seemingly has the Barbz forming like Voltron to attack the Houston Hottie by calling her “Bigfoot” as some believe it was a dig at Nicki Minaj and her husband, Kenneth Petty.
“These hoes don’t be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan’s Law/I don’t really know what the problem is, but I guarantee y’all don’t want me to start,” reads the lyric. Megan’s Law is a federal law that “require(s) the release of relevant information to protect the public from sexually violent offenders” — and some are connecting this bar to Petty’s sex offenders registry inclusion.
In the early part of the verse, Megan addressed her so-called promiscuity, which came under fire during the Tory Lanez trial and was once brought up again by her ex-boyfriend, Pardison Fontaine. In the second verse, Megan seemingly takes a shot at Drake and that too is causing a stir online.
That said, Megan Thee Stallion is taking ownership of her choices and body, and it doesn’t look like she’s letting her foot up off the gas anytime soon.
Check out the reaction from all sides below, along with the lyric video.
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Trontavious Stephens, a co-founder of YSL, took the stand in the ongoing RICO trial where Young Thug and his co-defendants hope to disassociate themselves from alleged ties to criminal activity. During the 20th day of the trial, Stephens explained Young Thug’s name, gang signs, and more.
As reported by local outlet Fox 5 Atlanta, Trontavious Stephens, 30, was questioned at length by prosecutors looking to land a big win in taking down Thug and his co-defendants over their alleged criminal acts. During the series of cross-examinations spanning days, Stephens, also known as Tick or Slug, discussed his YSL connection, alleged gang connections, and his plea deal.
On Monday (Jan. 22), LeBron James, Snoop Dogg, and other known figures were mentioned for their use of alleged gang signs. The defense raised a counter by saying that the insinuation that these figures are members of gangs or promoting gang culture can be proven.
The defense also played a clip of Snoop Dogg taking the stage at the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show where the Long Beach rapper wore a blue bandana, assumed to be a reference to the Crips gang, along with the rapper’s signature “crip walk” and their side says that does not prove true affiliation. The defense showed Serena Williams doing the same dance in an earlier portion of the trial.
Stephens also hammered home to the prosecution that the “Thug” in Young Thug’s stage name stands for “Truly Humble Under God,” a point raised earlier in the trial. The trial was to resume on Wednesday (Jan. 24) but as Fox 5 Atlanta reports, the trial was halted for reasons not known to the public.
A recording of the trial can be seen below, along with reactions from X, formerly Twitter.
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The 2024 Oscars are upon us and the full slate of nominees have been announced for the highly anticipated event. However, as these things go, fans online are unhappy that some of their favorite stars were snubbed in the nominations announcement.
The 2024 Oscars will take place on March 10, 2024, and the stars will be out in droves to take in the festivities and hopefully take home a coveted award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In the Actor in a Leading Role category, Colman Domingo and Jeffrey Wright were named as nominees for their roles in Rustin and American Fiction respectively, joining the likes of Bradley Cooper, Paul Giamatti, and Cillian Murphy.
For the Actor in a Supporting Role category, Sterling K. Brown was nominated for his role in American Fiction, joining Robert De Niro, Robert Downey Jr. Ryan Gosling, and Mark Ruffalo.
Going over to the Actress in a Supporting Role category, Danielle Brooks and Da’Vine Joy Randolph were nominated for their roles in The Color Purple and The Holdovers respectively, joining Emily Blunt, America Ferrera, and Jodie Foster.
For Animated Feature Film, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse landed a nomination next to The Boy and The Heron, Elemental, Nimona, and Robot Dreams.
With the 2024 Oscars nominations list going wide, the requisite reaction from fans on social media has come in strong per usual. Some are alleging that The Color Purple star Fantasia Barrino was snubbed along with other chatter.
See the full list here. Keep scrolling for reactions from X, formerly Twitter.
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Dwayne Johnson, largely known by his pro wrestling moniker The Rock, rose from his time in the square circle to becoming one of Hollywood’s top draws. Johnson recently joined the company board that oversees the WWE and UFC and earned himself millions.
Dwayne Johnson, 51, was announced as the latest board member for TKO Group Holdings, Inc., a sports and entertainment company that recently merged the interests of the WWE and UFC on Tuesday (Jan. 23). The Rock has diversified his holdings via his production company Seven Bucks Productions, Teremana Tequila, ZOA Energy, and the UFL among other ventures. Now as a member of TKO Holdings’ board, Johnson not only earned substantial stock options but also retains full ownership of his stage name.
In a statement, Johnson spoke to the significance of his new role at TKO:
My grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, and my dad, Rocky ‘Soulman’ Johnson, would’ve never thought this day would come. Which is why I’m very humbled to have a seat at the table that has decades of history and family legacy for me. A table that my family helped to build. Being on the TKO Board of Directors, and taking full ownership of my name, ‘The Rock’, is not only unprecedented, but incredibly inspiring as my crazy life is coming full circle. At my core, I’m a builder who builds for and serves the people, and Ari is building something truly game changing. I’m very motivated to help continue to globally expand our TKO, WWE, and UFC businesses as the worldwide leaders in sports and entertainment — while proudly representing so many phenomenal athletes and performers who show up every day putting in the hard work with their own two hands to make their dreams come true and deliver for our audiences. I’ve been there, I’m still there and this is for them.
The move puts Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson back next to TKO’s Executive Chairman of the Board, Vince McMahon who said of the move, “Very few people on the planet understand the convergence of sports, entertainment, media, and business like Rock. We are proud to have him join the TKO board to help take our company to new heights.”
Salute to Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock for this latest win.
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