State Champ Radio Hip Hop News
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Young Thug is calling out a police officer’s claim that he’s a snitch, as his lawyers try to get the testimony thrown out before his trial.
Attorneys for the “Metro Spider” rapper filed two motions Thursday (June 29) and Friday (June 23) with the former arguing that a witness in the case who is a police detective is falsely claiming that Jeffrey Williams, aka Young Thug, confessed details of an unrelated homicide case to that detective.
In the motion, lead attorney Brian Steel argues that Judge Ural Glanville should throw out the testimony of Detective Quinn stating that it is “not accurate, places Mr. Williams’ character at issue, and is irrelevant to the trial of the above-referenced case.” Steel also states that Young Thug’s “right to a fair trial” needs to be preserved by the court and that Judge Glanville should also toss out any records of 911 calls allegedly made by the rapper in relation to this unrelated homicide.
Steel’s previous motion June 23, asked Judge Glanville to dismiss the RICO charges brought against Young Thug and his YSL co-defendants, citing the statute of limitations for the state in RICO cases has been exceeded. “In order to satisfy the crime of RICO conspiracy, the prosecution must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that at least one (1) overt act was committed in furtherance of the conspiracy within the Statute of Limitations,” the motion says. “To satisfy the Statute of Limitations, the overt act must have occurred within five (5) years of the filing of the Bill of Indictment with the Clerk of Court.”
That motion continues: “Approximately overt act numbers 62 through 191 are alleged to have occurred on a date within five (5) years of May 9, 2022, the date of the original Bill of Indictment as well as the re-Indictment. The re-indictment was filed with the Fulton County Clerk of Court on August 5, 2022.”
The motions come as jury selection in the trial has been halted and scheduled to resume July 10. The high-profile case has run into several stumbling blocks from Young Thug’s brother having his probation revoked and going to prison to a Fulton County deputy being arrested on charges of inappropriate contact with one of the defendants. Young Thug also underwent a medical evaluation in May over concerns about his well-being while in custody.
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So, yeah—we should probably all be really worried about Hip-Hop veteran Keith Murray.
Earlier this year Black Twitter was speculating that Murray was as high as the most beautifullest kite when he went full TMI (and that’s putting it mildly) during an appearance on The Art Of Dialogue.
But recently, a video has surfaced that shows the Enigma MCwandering in a circle while appearing to be on drugs and/or experiencing a serious mental health episode. The video was so unsettling that his fellow “Live Wires Connect” artist, Lord Jamar, posted it on Instagram with a message of concern for Murray, who he indicated he had past friction with.
“Our brother @keithmurrayrap obviously needs serious help,” the Brand Nubian rapper captioned the post. “I don’t have to see this man do drugs in front of me to know he’s on drugs. Dude crossed a line with me, that I believe if he wasn’t on drugs he wouldn’t have crossed, so I forgive him. We need to get our brother clean, cause this is a horrible look.”
This isn’t the first time notable artists in the Hip Hop world, including Jamar, have implored Murray to get help for whatever is harming him.
From Hip Hop DX:
Prior to his IG post, Lord Jamar implored Murray to get help on his podcast on Thursday (June 22). Jamar was addressing Murray’s prior appearance on another podcast, in which Murray allegedly threated to “slap the shit out of [Lord Jamar]” when he saw him again.
But rather than feed into the taunts, Jamar addressed the larger, underlying issue. “At the end of the day, I just want to say that addiction something that is serious,” he said. “You know, many of us had people in our families that have suffered from addiction, and although we may not like some of the things that they do … we still love them at the end of the day. So hey, Keith — still love you, brother.”
Murray’s precarious mental state is something that was also recently alluded to by N.O.R.E., who addressed why he reneged on having Murray on an episode of Drink Champs back in March.
“We love Keith Murray, but let’s also be upfront,” he said. “We’re concerned. His mental health doesn’t seem that we could put him in this environment and smoke and drink. Now, if he can we gon’ do it. If he can sit, he can smoke, he can drink, we gon’ do it.”
He continued: “Or he doesn’t have to smoke or drink. We don’t wanna — the thing is we have responsibilities. We know there’s a certain amount of people that watch us every week, every month, every muthafuckin’ year, but why would we put a rap legend in jeopardy? And that’s what it’s feeling like.”
Doodlebug of Digable Planets and legendary Hip Hop producers 9th Wonder and Immortal Technique were among those who commented in support of the Def Squad rapper Jamar’s IG post.
Worth noting is that Keith Murray performed during last night’s BET Awards and did a fine enough job.
We all hope Keith Murray is OK, and that he’s getting the help he clearly needs. Damn, this is getting scary.
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The 2023 BET Awards was a jam-packed night, with Beyonce, Drake, and SZA standing out among those taking home trophies. Also, Busta Rhymes received a long overdue Lifetime Achievement Award.
The annual awards night was Sunday night (June 25th) at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. It was made more so by the fact that the night was focused on the celebration of 50 years of Hip-Hop, which saw numerous tributes take place and key wins by some of the most popular artists today including Quavo & Offset of the Migos honoring their late member, Takeoff.
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Beyoncé and SZA reigned supreme as the biggest winners of the evening with three awards each. In a surprise, both songstresses would tie for Album of The Year with Renaissance and SOS, respectively. “Break My Soul” won the Viewer’s Choice Award and the BET HER Award as well. As for SZA, she would also win Video of The Year for her stylish “Kill Bill” video and Best Female R&B/Pop Artist, beating out a stacked field of artists including Beyoncé, Lizzo, Ari Lennox, Tems, H.E.R., and Coco Jones.
Drake followed behind with two wins on the night for Best Collaboration for his appearance on “Wait For U” by Future featuring Nigerian singer Tems, and Best Group for his team-up with 21 Savage for the hit album Her Loss. The win was his second in the category – he previously won the award seven years ago with Future. Kendrick Lamar won Best Male Hip-Hop Artist, his record-setting sixth win in the category. He was the leader in nominations for the evening with seven. Latto would take home the award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, and show love to other women rappers in her acceptance speech.
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The heartwarming moment of the night came as veteran MC Busta Rhymes was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and he delivered an emotional speech detailing his journey while admonishing other rappers to stop fighting among themselves.
“Y’all messing up the bag. Y’all messing up the energy. I don’t like when I talk to these dudes that run these streaming platforms and they talking about, ‘You know, we turning the consumer off because there’s so much little this and little that going on with you rappers.’ We’re gonna stop that. We’re gonna love each other, and we gonna get to this money,” he said.
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A new documentary series hosted by LL Cool J and Ice T follows them on the hunt for the most sought-after items in Hip-Hop culture.
The two rap icons and television stars are the hosts of Hip Hop Treasures, a new documentary series that will air on A&E. The premise of the series will follow the pair along with museum curators and field experts as they track down memorabilia from the glory days of the culture such as the jersey The Notorious B.I.G. wore in the “Juicy” video to DMX’s Aaliyah car to the clocks that Flavor Flav of Public Enemy wore. Items procured during the episodes will be sent to the Universal Hip Hop Museum, which boasts the largest collection of Hip-Hop memorabilia in the world.
Major stars of the culture will be present in each episode, which include DMC, CeeLo Green, Fat Joe, Master P, Soulja Boy, Naughty by Nature’s Treach as well as Coolio in his final on-screen appearance before his death last year. Hip Hop Treasures will also feature tributes to Biz Markie, DMX, and The Notorious B.I.G. The field experts assisting the two will be Cipha Sounds and veteran MC and actress Yo-Yo, and Paradise Gray and Pete Nice will be representing the Universal Hip Hop Museum which is currently being constructed and will open next year. Hip Hop Treasures is slated to premiere on Saturday, August 12th at 10 P.M. ET, coinciding with the weekend celebrating the official 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop.
Hip Hop Treasures is produced by Pulse Films and Rock The Bells, with Erica Hanson, Tracey Baker-Simmons, Andrena Hale, Mira King, Elaine Frontain Bryant, Shelly Tatro, and Jonathan Partridge on board as executive producers for Pulse Films and A&E Networks. Paradise Gray and Pete Nice are also executive producers of the series.
Check out the trailer for Hip Hop Treasures below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-QFdx_UuNg
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A healthcare clinic in Georgia will remain open after being on the brink of closing, thanks to a generous donation from Rick Ross.
On Monday (June 19), the Maybach Music Group mogul and rapper presented a check for $30,179 to the team of women running the Fayette C.A.R.E. Clinic in Fayette County, Georgia. The clinic enables poorer families to have access to the premium healthcare they need including affordable medication and doctors. “The patients that come to this clinic, all of them, their income level is 200% below the poverty level. The national poverty level,” said Geneva Weaver, the clinic’s executive director.
Ross is a resident of Fayette County and got word of the clinic’s potential closing through his lawyer, Steve Sadow. Before his donation, the C.A.R.E. Clinic had raised $19,000 with a goal of $50,000. “A clinic like this means a lot to me. I lost my father at an early age and I felt like one of the reasons I lost him so early was his lack of healthcare,” the artist said at the ceremony where the check was presented. “I look forward to continuing to help out as much as possible. I consider you family, friends, and of course, neighbors.”
Local network WSB-TV was present as Weaver thanked Ross along with other executives from the clinic. She said that the check was the largest donation from an individual donor that they’ve had since opening their doors in 2005. The “Aston Martin Music” rapper was humble about the donation on his social media profiles, opting to share information on Juneteenth with his fans along with photos from his recent car and bike show held on his sprawling estate. That event didn’t go over well with some in the county, as some attendees of that show trashed a plaza in South Fulton three miles away from his Promised Land estate. Local authorities believe they resorted to that behavior after not gaining entry to the event.
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HOT 97 has announced a new star-studded concert in honor of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary, which will be held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
On Monday (June 12), the iconic radio network announced the Hip-Hop Forever concert to celebrate the anniversary of the culture. The show is organized in partnership with WBLS. The one-day event will be curated by veteran DJ Funk Flex with the Wu-Tang Clan as the headliners. Other artists set to perform are Mary J. Blige, EPMD, Tyrese and Sean Paul. Mariah Carey and Maxwell are also on the bill as special guests, but there is no word yet on if they’ll be performing as well. The Wu-Tang Clan will begin the North American leg of their N.Y. State of Mind Tour with Nas and De La Soul the next evening.
The show is notable as the Wu-Tang Clan and HOT 97 have repaired a once highly-publicized rift that began in 1997 over the group being asked to headline Summer Jam for free. As detailed in the 2019 documentary series Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mice and Men, they were also asked to come to the event without the network paying for it. Ghostface Killah took the stage at that Summer Jam concert, shouting “F**k 97!!” and prompting fans to repeat the message, which resulted in the station banning their music being played for a number of years. Funk Flex also personally apologized to the group, posting a message on his Instagram account earlier this year.
HOT 97’s show marks yet another activation in honor of the birthday of Hip-Hop culture, Aug. 11, 1973. The events include the Hip-Hop 50 Live concert by MassAppeal, which will take place on the actual date at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The concert will feature Run DMC in their final concert appearance ever, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, T.I., Lupe Fiasco and others. The concert will be held at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Sept. 15th Pre-sale tickets are through Ticketmaster at this link on Thursday (June 15). The general public will be able to obtain tickets on Friday (June 16).
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Joe Budden’s recent comments about being at Summer Jam apparently rubbed some the wrong way, prompting Ebro Darden to call him out online.
The rapper and media personality spoke about being at the recent HOT97 Summer Jam concert at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York on the latest episode of The Joe Budden Podcast. Attending as a guest, Budden spoke about meeting an “older lady” as part of the event staff at the arena.
While making good-natured jokes about the vibe, he recalls: “But anyway, I get there, the girl says, ‘Are you a seat filler?’” He continued: “So I said, ‘No, I am not a seat filler.’ And she said, ‘Alright, who are you with?’ And I said, ‘Me.’ And then she said, ‘No, what I’m saying is what organization are you with?’ And then I said, ‘Ma’am, I don’t think you understand what I’m saying to you. I’m the organization. Please direct me to my f*cking tickets.’”
Ebro Darden found out about Budden’s comments through a fan’s now-deleted tweet, responding: “U think a concert that only makes $$ on sponsors would pay people to be in seats? Ya’ll a wild bunch,” which was accompanied by crying face emojis. The former program director for HOT97 then alerted the team overseeing Summer Jam – which includes Funkmaster Flex and TT Torrez – about the Slaughterhouse MC’s remarks via Twitter and shared screenshots of their responses.
Budden was perplexed in his response, asking, “what’s this about?” Ebro replied, “Tweets. Play along. Say something controversial.” In a separate tweet, he responded to someone who told him that the furor was in response to his podcast comments. “That lady didn’t even work for Hot… non story here,” he replied, taking the time to clarify that his “seat filler” reference wasn’t meant as a shot towards the radio network.
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Lawmakers in New York have introduced a new bill that will prohibit the use of rap lyrics in criminal trials as evidence by prosecutors – an issue recently highlighted across the nation.
In January of this year, New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Catalina Cruz brought forth S1738, known as the “Rap Music on Trial” bill. The goal of the bill is to prevent prosecutors in criminal trials from using lyrics from songs by the defendant in those trials as proof of guilt for the crimes they’re charged with. “Protecting artistic freedom and expression is paramount for our country, but in particular New York City, where we are the cultural capital of the world,” Hoylman-Sigal said to the press. “Rap music has been targeted by prosecutors, mainly because it would seem that there’s racial bias.”
The bill wouldn’t be isolated to only rap music, but the music genre has been the most targeted by prosecutors in cases across the country as social media has made sharing rap videos easier with a farther reach. An essay in the New York Times last year detailed the timeline for the increase of rap lyrics being used since 2005. The RICO case brought against Young Thug in Georgia is currently the most prominent example as lyrics from nine of his songs were cited in the indictment.
Governor Gavin Newsom of California signed the Decriminalizing Artistic Expression Act into law last September. Congressman Jamaal Bowman of New York and Hank Johnson of Georgia re-introduced the Restoring Artistic Protection, or RAP Act to the House of Representatives in April. That bill has not gone beyond a referral to the House Judiciary Committee.
An earlier version of New York’s state bill was introduced in 2021 with heavy support from artists including Jay-Z, Big Sean, and Meek Mill among others. But it didn’t advance to being passed in the Assembly. The hope is that the current bill will pass this current session, which ends on Thursday (June 8th). The state Senate did approve S1738 on May 15th, which Hoylman-Sigal said gives a “boost of confidence and momentum” that it will make it to Governor Kathy Hochul to be signed into law.
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Over two decades after the murder of Run-D.M.C.’s Jam Master Jay, a third man has been charged for his role in the crime that shook up the Hip-Hop world.
On Tuesday (May 30), federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced charges against Jay Bryant of Queens, New York for the 2002 murder. Bryant is currently being detained on an unrelated separate indictment related to drugs. According to the court documents in the unsealed indictment, the charges include murder while engaged in narcotics trafficking.
When contacted for comment, Bryant’s lawyer César de Castro said that his client would plead not guilty to the new charges. “Securing an indictment in a secret grand jury, applying an extremely low burden of proof, is one thing,” Castro stated. “Proving it at trial is another matter.” Bryant’s arraignment for the new indictment has not been scheduled.
Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr. are the two other men who’ve been charged with the death of Jam Master Jay, also known as Jason Mizell. Both had murder charges brought against them by prosecutors in August 2020, with authorities blaming the October 2002 shooting in the Hip-Hop icon’s studio on his apparent exclusion of the two from “a multi-kilogram, multistate narcotics transaction” after a dispute in July of that year. Both men are now expected to go to trial in January 2024.
Bryant was spotted entering the building after the shooting according to the indictment, and his DNA was also found at the scene of the crime. The documents go on to detail how the 49-year-old confessed to being there later on and claimed that he was the one who shot Jam Master Jay, a claim that prosecutors feel is false as they believe Jordan is the one who fired the two fatal shots.
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Big Freedia is set to retake the stage as she announces her first album in nine years, accompanied by a brand new single from the project.
The “Queen of Bounce” announced the new album Central City, last Friday (May 26), also releasing the latest single from the album, “Bigfoot”. “Bounce has been through many iterations—from Triggerman to Sissy to Cash Money Bounce—but my new album is something I call Bigga Bounce,” she said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “Welcome to Central City, y’all, where I pay homage to my city, my roots, hip-hop, and to the art of creating a new sound.” The album will be released on June 23rd.
“Bigfoot” comes in as the third single from what is now the New Orleans native’s first full-length album since Just Be Free which was released in 2014. She describes it as “a powerful anthem of empowerment and motivation,” with the opening lines booming forth. “Call me Bigfoot stepping on these b—–s necks,” Freedia declares in the first lines of the track in her signature cadence, “I got a big foot but I’m getting bigger checks/They don’t see what’s coming next.” The first two singles were “Central City Freestyle” and “$100 Bill”, featuring Ciara. Central City will have sixteen tracks in total, with Lil Wayne, Kelly Price, and Faith Evans in addition to other artists making guest appearances.
Big Freedia will also be hitting the road this summer on tour beginning in Stanford, California on June 2nd as part of the Re: Set Festival with LCD Soundsystem, Jamie XX, and other artists. The nationwide tour will have Big Freedia be a headline performer at Pride concert events in Denver, Colorado, and Charlotte, North Carolina, and conclude at the Wonderbus Music and Arts Festival on August 25th in Columbus, Ohio. Tickets for the festival are available here.
Check out the single “Bigfoot” below.
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