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Source: Julian Dakdouk / other
Beyoncé has moved the needle for the culture in several ways beyond music, leaving her indelible mark on fashion, footwear, hair care, and beyond. The Houston superstar’s latest venture is SirDavis, a whisky named after her great-grandfather and adds to her deep commitment to honoring her family’s influence and legacy.
Via a collaboration with Moët Hennessy, a subsidiary of LVMH, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter brings SirDavis to the forefront. According to a recent press release, the creation of SirDavis took years of development. The Cowboy Cater artist is said to be a fan of Japanese whisky and worked with Moët Hennessy intending to broaden the reach of the spirit within the American market. In a statement, the award-winning entertainer explained the inspiration behind the impending bra.d
“I’ve always been drawn to the power and confidence I feel when drinking quality whisky and wanted to invite more people to experience that feeling,” says SirDavis Founder Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. “When I discovered that my great-grandfather had been a moonshine man, it felt like my love for whisky was fated. SirDavis is a way for me to pay homage to him, uniting us through a new shared legacy. In partnering with Moët Hennessy, we have crafted a delicious American whisky that respects tradition but also empowers people to experience something new and unique in the category. You can taste it better than I could ever tell you — welcome, SirDavis.”
SirDavis is named after Davis Hogue, Beyoncé’s great-grandfather who worked as a farmer and also made moonshine during the restrictive Prohibition period. According to family lore, Hogue would make batches of whisky and stash it inside trees for his family and friends to sip. And now, Hogue’s great-granddaughter will carry on tradition along with her vision of refinement and collaboration with Moët Hennessy.
“SirDavis is not only a revelatory and exceptional American Whisky, which we are very proud of. It is also a testament of the unwavering dedication to craftsmanship, heritage and innovation shared by LVMH and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter,” said Bernard Arnault, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LVMH.
Moët Hennessy tapped the services of Dr. Bill Lumsden, an avowed Master Distiller who has worked on fine Scotch whisky brands such as Glenmorangie and Ardbeg, names that should be familiar to readers of the Spirit.Ed column. Dr. Lumsden’s years of expertise in the whisky world were applied to creating SirDavis. Under his guidance, the team landed on a mash bill that puts the spice of rye at the forefront at 51 percent, the remaining 49 percent comprised of malted barley. After perfecting the balance of the distillate, the juice is then finished in sherry casks.
“With SirDavis, we looked to challenge the category norms and offer something new in the space,” said Lumsden. “The distinctive grain selection and unusual secondary maturation in sherry casks helped us achieve a signature profile completely unique to SirDavis, one of bold sophistication.”
Before going to market, SirDavis was anonymously submitted to several spirit competitions featuring some of the world’s top judges in the adult beverages space. In 2023, SirDavis won Best In Class for American Whiskey from the 2023 SIP Awards. In addition, SirDavis earned a Gold Medal designation from the 2023 New York International Spirits Competition and a 93-point rating from the 2023 Ultimate Spirits Challenge.
The design of the bottle was created with input from Beyoncé, and the whisky is a true homegrown product that is finished, blended, and bottled in Texas. SirDavis also owns the historic mark of being Moët Hennessy’s first spirits brand developed entirely internally by the company in the United States and has its headquarters in Houston.
While SirDavis has yet to launch nationally, interested parties can preorder SirDavis via its website. It will also become available at various retail locations across the United States, London, Paris, and Tokyo beginning in September. The airports LAX, JFK, and SFO will also sell the bottle.
To learn more, click here. View the bottle here as well.
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Photo: Julian Dakdouk/Moët Hennessy
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The Democratic National Convention kicked off on Monday (August 19) in Chicago, and the early returns suggest that things are off to a roaring start. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivered one of the more fiery speeches of the evening, aiming at Donald Trump and his record of busting unions while also praising Vice President Kamala Harris.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among several Democratic Party stars to deliver standout speeches, including former First Lady and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, Sen. Raphael Warnock, and a spirited showing from President Joe Biden.
Ocasio-Cortez’s speech opened with how just six years prior, she was working as a waitress in New York City after graduating from Boston College. During that time, Ocasio-Cortez worked alongside her mother to fight foreclosure on their home.
As the speech rolled on, Ocasio-Cortez aimed her attention at Donald Trump, attacking the former president on rumored financial cronyism among other digs.
“Donald Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends,” Ocasio-Cortez said during the speech to loud applause.
She added, “And I, for one, am tired of hearing about how a two-bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed, trampling on our way of life.”
Ocasio-Cortez also used her speech to graciously praise President Biden for his leadership and framed Vice President Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz as champions for the middle class. This too also garnered heavy applause from the attendees at the United Center.
On X, formerly Twitter, the reactions to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s speech at the Democratic National Convention have been plentiful. We’ve got them listed down below.
A video of the speech is posted below, courtesy of PBS NewsHour.
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Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / Getty
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Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty
The late, great Phife Dawg famously rapped, “I’ll never let a statue tell me how nice I am,” on “Award Tour” off A Tribe Called Quest’s class Midnight Marauders album. The words still ring true over 30 years later when it comes to the Grammy Awards, which too often have been lacking when it comes to its respect for Hip-Hop culture.
Back in the day, the Grammys wouldn’t even air the Rap category winners during the proper show. To many, the slights still continue, like Jay-Z sitting in the front row only to go 0-8 in Grammy wins in 2018. Every year it’s a guarantee, the Hip-Hop heads will be upset, about something, justifiably so.
Needless to say, the Grammys’ relationship with the culture is still strained at best, with artists like Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino all essentially curving the show after being asked and passing on performing.
Considering the amount of Hip-Hop legends, who have dropped quality material, only to never take home a Grammy Award, you can’t blame them. Like Phife insinuated, a Grammy Award will never make you a great MC, but the acknowledgment would still be cool. And don’t get use started groups like the aforementioned A Tribe Called Quest or De La Soul or Public Enemy.
To be clear, we’re not taking anything away from stars whose shelves are littered with Grammys. We just wish the distribution of the accolades were more equitable.
As evidence, check out the eyebrow-raising list of Hip-Hop artists who have never won a Grammy in the gallery. It wouldn’t really be the Grammys if someone wasn’t getting snubbed, right?
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Photo Getty
1. Yasiin Bey
Source:WENN
Yasiin Bey f/k/a as the Mighty Mos Def is already one of the greatest MC’s of all time. Not so much in Grammy land.
2. KRS-One
Source:Getty
Blastmaster KRS-One and Boogie Down Productions are legends. For shame.
3. Wale
Source:Warner Records
Wale has only one nomination to his name for Best Rap Song back in 2013 for “Lotus Flower Bomb.”
4. Rakim
Source:Getty
The R has been nominated a grand total of two times.
5. A Tribe Called Quest
Source:WENN.com
A Tribe Called Quest has come up blank after only four nominations. Two nominations in 1997, one nomination in 1999, and one in 2012. Q-Tip has a Grammy, but that’s thanks to a performance on “Galvanize” by the Chemical Brothers.
6. Scarface
Source:Getty
Brad Jordan is still a GOAT.
7. Snoop Dogg
Source:WENN.com
Despite 16 nominations, Snoop Dogg has always come up empty. He holds the record for third most Grammy nominations ever without a win across all genres.
8. Ice Cube
Source:WENN.com
O’Shea Jackson has been nominated just one time. Think about that.
9. Wu-Tang Clan
Source:Hip-Hop Wired
Despite being for the children, the Wu-Tang Clan has managed to snag only one Grammy nomination.
10. DMX
Source:WENN.com
DMX once dropped two critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums in one year. Nevertheless, he’s 0-3 in Grammy Awards.
11. Busta Rhymes
Source:Getty
The Dungeon Dragon has a dozen nominations to his name.
12. Redman
Source:Getty
Redman will go down in history as a GOAT, but he only has two Grammy nomination to his name. His buddy Method Man has one Grammy, though.
13. Mobb Deep
Source:Getty
The speakers of the Dunn Language. Rest in power Prodigy.
14. Tupac Shakur
Source:Getty
The legendary life of Tupac Shakur was cut short, but a posthumous award is way past due.
15. Public Enemy
Source:WENN.com
This is just disrespectful.
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Donald Trump sat down with Elon Musk for an exclusive chat on the X platform’s Spaces section in support of his presidential campaign. In the chat, Donald Trump appeared to display slurred speech with listeners on X reacting to the meandering conversation in kind.
Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk didn’t begin their planned conversation on Monday (August 12) as expected with well over 800,000 attendees having to wait 40 minutes before the conversation started. As some observers on X noted, this was not the first time Musk has been met with a technical glitch using the Spaces feature with a presidential candidate. Musk claimed that there was a cyberattack on his platform leading to the delay.
The environment was certainly friendly to Donald Trump with Elon Musk asking safe questions that allowed the candidate to freely riff as he’s known to do without facing much in the way of pushback. Trump, displaying a familiar campaign talking point of being tough on immigration, promised at one point to enact the largest deportation in U.S. history. Trump is seizing on the fears of voters who have been sold an idea that illegal immigrants are funneling in drugs committing crime, and taking jobs from Americans.
Musk, a former critic of Trump, praised the business mogul at several intervals in the discussion. Trump also gushed over Musk supporting his reelection bid, saying that Musk’s “endorsement meant a lot.”
It was also a moment for Musk to cozy up further to Trump, suggesting at one point that a presidential commission is formed with a focus on government efficiency while boldly asking to be appointed to the commission. Trump seemed pleased by the idea.
Although his campaign heads are denying what others heard, there have been several replies on X noticing that the former president routinely slurred his speech. The same X users are noting that few major news outlets are pointing out the deficiencies in Trump’s speaking, an opposite position those outlets took when discussing President Joe Biden’s speech during the debate he held with Trump.
We did not hear the whole discussion in full as we only heard clips shared by users on X. However, what we did hear does confirm that Trump was struggling to speak clearly at points but the reasons are unknown to us.
Check out the reactions to Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s chat below,
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Photo: Getty
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Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to announce that Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota will join her on the campaign trail as her running mate, according to campaign insiders. Analysts and observers alike positioned Gov. Tim Walz and Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania as the front runners, and now the hard work begins ahead of the November elections if the chatter remains true.
Vice President Kamala Harris has made a meteoric shift from supporting President Joe Biden in his reelection bid to now running her presidential campaign with tons of momentum. In recent weeks, Walz has made the rounds on several cable news shows appealing to the Democratic Party base, some who felt President Biden was no longer up to the task. Walz staunchly defended Biden on his record while dressing down his Republican Party opponent, Donald Trump.
With the base energized behind Harris, the potential Walz announcement thus far has gained wide appeal among pundits and it gives stability to the campaign despite it coming together fairly swiftly. According to CNN, the news is all but confirmed and Harris has promised that she will announce her pick on Tuesday (June 6).
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A former educator, Walz is currently in his second term as Minnesota governor and chairs the Democratic Governors Association. He previously served 12 years in Congress, representing a conservative-leaning rural district that, both before and after his tenure, has been mostly dominated by Republicans.
In the time leading up to his selection as Harris’ running mate, Walz had first been an outspoken defender of Joe Biden following his disastrous debate performance as calls for the president to end his reelection bid escalated. When Biden did drop out, Walz endorsed Harris the next day and has since emerged as a reliable, energetic and cutting advocate for the presumptive Democratic nominee.
While some felt that Gov. Shapiro was a lock considering his time rising the ranks in Pennsylvania politics, Walz presents a different sort of energy in a campaign that will need all the firepower it can gain against the widely popular Trump.
That said, Walz has already introduced talking points that appeal to swing voters, progressive voters, and those who feel the Democratic Party has been too passive in countering the vitriol that emerged from the Trump campaign.
One of Walz’s most significant contributions to the Harris campaign came when he labeled Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio “weird dudes” and the tag has stuck much to the chagrin of conservative pundits and the GOP alike.
On X, formerly Twitter, the reaction to the news regarding Gov. Tim Walz has gone viral. We’ve got the best reactions below.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: @nabj / x
The National Association of Black Journalists, widely known as the NABJ, is having its annual convention in Chicago this week but the longstanding organization is contending with a larger matter at the moment. After it was announced that Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump would be in attendance for a Q&A session with Black journalists, observers on X lashed out at the NABJ in outrage.
On Monday (July 29), NABJ officials confirmed that Donald Trump would be attending the opening day of the convention and job fair event, which will not be open to the public but will air online via streaming. Trump did not attend the convention during his four years as president so his inclusion this year raised concerns among some.
The decision to give Trump a platform for his policy messaging ahead of the November elections was seen as an affront to Black women journalists and Black people in general considering Trump’s public record of pointed attacks at Black members of the press.
Tia Mitchell, the Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and member of the NABJ’s Political Task Force, defended the inclusion of Trump via X after the organization received heavy pushback.
“I helped make this call. And it’s in line with invitations NABJ has sent to every presidential candidate for decades, Mitchell wrote in response to one user decrying the Trump session. “But continue to go off on your feed. I’ll continue to work to create opportunities for journalists to interview the potential next President.”
Mitchell has since made her X account private after a deluge of comments under her reply.
The issue has developed into a public relations disaster for the association, but NABJ President Ken Lemon did clear up any confusion surrounding chatter that Vice President Kamala Harris was not invited.
Yes we did ask both candidates. Every presidential election year we ask the nominees to attend, Lemon wrote to someone asking a question on X, pinning the reply at the top of his feed.
Part of the fallout includes journalist Karen Attiah resigning as co-chair of NABJ, though still plans to attend.
On X, the decision to give Donald Trump a political platform is being widely discussed. We’ve got the best reactions from all sides below.
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1. April Ryan has been going on.
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Donald Trump, the Republican Party nominee for the upcoming presidential election, has had his character called into question several times while in the White House and after his ouster. On X, the trending hashtag #TrumpIsWeird grew legs and the comments from the social media platform have been relentless in their attacks.
Donald Trump, who turned 78 this past June, was long seen as the Republican Party favorite before his official nomination, as evidenced by his well-attended, if thinly organized, rallies and public speeches. With the Democratic Party positioning Vice President Kamala Harris as his prospective opponent, both sides are ramping up their efforts to get in front of cameras and crowds before the all-important election.
In the midst of this, Trump and his supporters have made especially targeted attacks towards Vice President Harris, but it appears to be backfiring as the mudslinging has inspired observers in the land of X to create the #TrumpIsWeird hashtag while pointing out some uncomfortable points.
It appears that the hashtag got started a couple of days ago and isn’t letting up on putting the business mogul through the wringer. There have been some pushback from the MAGA faithful, notably from businessman and failed Republican Party presidential nominee Vivek Ramaswamy.
“This whole “they’re weird” argument from the Democrats is dumb & juvenile. This is a presidential election, not a high school prom queen contest. It’s also a tad ironic coming from the party that preaches “diversity & inclusion.” Win on policy if you can, but cut the crap please,” Ramaswamy wrote on X over the weekend. This inspired people to turn up their attacks Ramaswamy caught more than a few strays himself.
We’ve got reactions to Donald Trump, the #TrumpIsWeird hashtag, and more below.
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Photo: Getty
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A few weeks ago a random white girl named Hailey Welch had social media on fire when she described how to pleasure a man when she “spit on that thang” with a “hauk tuah!” And with all the memes that one moment spawned, Plies has decided to take some of that momentum and create a whole song around that sexual sentiment.
In his new visuals for “Hawk Tuah,” Plies shows just how he likes his women to give him that “hawk tuah!” by getting his “mic checked” in a public bathroom before getting some more of the same treatment in the comfort of his own home. The man didn’t waste any time banking off that hawk tuah hype.
Elsewhere Fat Trel and Millyz make a D.C. to Boston connection happen and in their clip for “Airplane Mode,” the two artists take to the rooftops of the buildings of Bean Town before hopping on a boat with some thick and exotic young women.
Check out the rest of today’s drops including work from Honey Baby featuring Fivio Foreign, RJmrLA, and more.
PLIES – “HAWK TUAH”
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FAT TREL & MILLYZ – “AIRPLANE MODE”
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HONEY BABY FT. FIVIO FOREIGN – “BONNIE & CLYDE”
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RJMRLA – “RJ TALK”
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ARRDEE FT. THE SHAPESHIFTER – “DIFFERENT”
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OGEE L’Z – “WE SOLDIERS”
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CORY GUNZ FT. REALLY JAEWON – “RICK OWENS & NIKE TECH”
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BECKY HILL – “MULTIPLY”
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HALEY SMALLS – “WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU”
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Political commentator Van Jones has been offering heavy praise of the Republican National Convention, earning him heavy pushback from social media users.
The Republican National Convention came to a close in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. on Thursday night (July 18). While some political commentators pointed out the various missteps made by GOP politicians, Van Jones has been steadily praising the energy at the convention.
“I wanna say something. This spirit that this guy has, you guys think that’s because he’s drunk. He’s not,” he said during a discussion on Wednesday (July 17), pointing at the convention crowd. “This whole thing is like this. The last time I was in a convention that felt like this was Obama 2008. There’s something happening.”The declaration led one of the other panelists to remark, “You just wrote a headline, by the way.”
That was prefaced by other gushing remarks made by Jones about some of the speeches given during the convention, beginning with his view of Amber Rose after her speech on Monday night (July 16).
“That was probably the most dangerous speech for the Democratic coalition,” Jones said. “That is a young woman of color. She is describing the experience that a lot of people have — feeling that maybe, if you’re around too many liberals, you might get criticized too much or you might not be able to speak your mind, and she spoke to it really well. And she’s way more famous than any of us up here — I’m going to tell you that — way more famous.”
Van Jones would also gush over Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ speech, saying her remarks were “incredibly compelling…extremely powerful.”
The praise would come to a halt after Donald Trump’s speech on Thursday.
“If Biden had given a speech that incoherent, that rambling, that undisciplined, Democrats would’ve hit Biden with a tranquilizer dart and drug him off,” he said. “Trump was boring … undisciplined … he basically was the worst part of his own convention.”
The pattern of praise from Jones left a sour taste in the mouths of many on social media. D.L. Hughley was among those criticizing how much the CNN commentator seemed to be all for the Republicans and pointedly criticized him for thinking the convention had any resemblance to the effect of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Below are some of the best responses to Van Jones’ remarks on social media.
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Photo:: PATRICK T. FALLON / Getty
1. Roland Martin
2. Humanity Critic
3. Solomon Missouri
4. 2RawTooReal
5. D.L. Hughley
6. BenDavid Grabinksi
7. Travon Free
8. Stephen Crockett, Jr.
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Cardi B and Joe Budden have what appears to be a contentious connection after the famed podcast host mentioned the rapper and entertainer on a recent episode of his eponymously named podcast. After saying that Cardi B will only release singles from this point on, the Bronx star fired shots at Joe Budden in an X Spaces rant.
On episode 742 of The Joe Budden Podcast, a discussion surrounding Rob49’s new “On Dat Money” single and video featuring Cardi B cropped up with the cast pondering if a sophomore album was coming from the “Bodak Yellow” rapper. Budden quipped that Cardi won’t release an album, a refrain he has uttered in previous episodes, stating that she’s now becoming a “singles” artist.
The comments made their way to Cardi, who hopped on Spaces Thursday night (July 18) and unleashed a fiery tirade of words towards the retired lyricist and popular media personality.
“Bro I gave you a lap dance two times in Starlets,” Cardi says in leaked audio of the Spaces event. “You was high as f*ck. High as f*ck on coke, n*gga. I don’t give a f*ck when people talk sh*t about me. It’s the fact you always talk sh*t about me, Joe Budden. Out of nowhere, you would think I did something to this n*gga. For the past two years, this n*gga has only talked bad things about me.”
Starlets is a popular strip club in Queens that Budden and his castmates are known to frequent.
While it is true that Budden has been a tough critic of Cardi, he’s also heaped heavy praise and even hailed her debut album Invasion Of Privacy one of his favorite projects of the modern era along with other positive commentary.
On X, Budden fired off a string of replies stating that he’ll no longer mention Cardi on his program.
“I promise you and can assure you, i will not cover a single thing this girl does for the remainder of her career… Peace & love,” began the thread. “I have also never gotten a lap dance from this lady. I also have never done coke.”
Cardi also took to X and shared a message with her fans regarding her passionate response to Budden.
I wanna say this to Bardi gang or anybody who’s just a fan of my music or even my craziness… I have my good days and my bad days but you know what, whether it’s good or bad I couldn’t be happier with the obvious anticipation for my album..Sometimes I get a little aggressive because yall know I don’t like to be told what to do but I promise you it’s coming THIS YEAR. Thank you for the love and anticipation and always holding me down
On X, the reactions to Cardi B firing shots at Joe Budden are coming in fast. We’ve got reactions below.
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Photo: Johnny Nunez / Getty