Page: 5
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: @liltay / Instagram
Lil Tay, the young Internet rapper and influencer thought to be dead a day ago, confirmed she’s alive after what appears to be a hoax.
On Thursday (Aug. 10), the family provided a statement to TMZ from the rapper debunking previous reports that spread Wednesday (Aug. 9) citing an Instagram post claiming that Lil Tay and her brother had died. “I want to make it clear that my brother and I are safe and alive, but I’m completely heartbroken, and struggling to even find the right words to say,” her alleged statement read.
Related Stories
“It’s been a very traumatizing 24 hours. All day yesterday, I was bombarded with endless heartbreaking and tearful phone calls from loved ones all while trying to sort out this mess.” The family also claims that her Instagram account “was compromised by a 3rd party and used to spread jarring misinformation and rumors,” especially concerning her name. My legal name is Tay Tian, not ‘Claire Hope.’”
The since-deleted Instagram post was published with the statement reading: “It is with a heavy heart that we share the devastating news of our beloved Claire’s sudden and tragic passing. This outcome was entirely unexpected, and has left us all in shock. Her brother’s passing adds an even more unimaginable depth to our grief. During this time of immense sorrow, we kindly ask for privacy as we grieve this overwhelming loss, as the circumstances surrounding Claire and her brother’s passing are still under investigation.”
The announcement caused some confusion as the Vancouver Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department and its county medical examiner stated that they had no information on Lil Tay’s death and that there was no current investigation. Adding to that, her father Christopher Hope said to Insider that he couldn’t comment on the post and declined to comment on whether she was alive.
Lil Tay shot to fame as a social media influencer at the age of 9, dubbing herself “youngest flexer of the century,” while creating foul-mouthed Instagram videos boasting of a luxurious Hip-Hop lifestyle. One video showed her purchasing a $200,000 sports car despite not knowing how to drive. It led her to be associated with Chief Keef and XXXTentacion, the latter whom she dubbed a “father figure.” She received heavy backlash for using the N-word, later apologizing for it in another post.
HipHopWired Radio
Our staff has picked their favorite stations, take a listen…
Olivia Rodrigo officially dropped her second Guts single, “Bad Idea Right?,” first thing Friday (Aug. 11), and the 20-year-old star had some fun launching Instagram’s new music feature to celebrate the release. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news She launched the “music in carousels” feature by sharing […]
Lenny Kravitz is showing off his summer bod! The rocker took to Instagram on Thursday (Aug. 10) to share a series of snaps in which seen strutting down a city street wearing a pair of brown bell bottom pants, white boots and an open button-down shirt with his abs on full display. “6:56pm,” he captioned […]
Britney Spears has once again deactivated her Instagram. While it’s not known why the pop superstar decided to take a break from her social media platform of choice, she’s been known to deactivate her page every few months. Most recently, Spears’ Instagram disappeared in December, with her husband Sam Asghari asking fans to ease up […]
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Arturo Holmes / Getty
After being criticized by Elliott Wilson for avoiding rap media to only speak with “outsiders”, Drake clapped back on social media.
On Monday (July 24th), DJ Akademiks shared a clip of the Rap Radar Podcast host doing an interview with Trippie Redd at the Rolling Loud Miami festival over the weekend. The Certified Lover Boy rapper seized the opportunity to hop into the comments of the post, which was shared on Instagram, to add a little shade to the situation.
“Lol man shits on not coming to his platform for a second time and now Elliott 10 toes doing Yes Julz run up interviews at Rolling Loud,” he wrote, also adding laughing emojis. “Just admit the youth took over big dog.” The former Editor-In-Chief of XXL didn’t take long to acknowledge the comment, and to hint at a possible retort in line with his reputation for being outspoken with his perspective as one of the leaders in the field. He shared a screenshot of the comment on his Twitter account with the caption, “Oh, it’s go time? Cool.”
The Honestly, Nevermind rapper has been upset at Wilson since the 52-year-old journalist called him out for pointedly avoiding Hip-Hop media outlets in the wake of his interviews with Caleb Presley of Barstool Sports and TikTok personality Bobbi Althoff. “Moment of clarity: No disrespect to Lil Boat,” he wrote in a tweet that’s since been deleted. “Yachty’s convo with The Boy was comfy and had some cool moments. I was more so clowning the comedy shenanigans with outsiders to our culture. It would be great to hear Drake speak to us again. Even if it ain’t me.”
Drake last appeared on the Rap Radar Podcast with Wilson and Brian “B Dot” Miller in 2019, shedding some light on his artistic journey in a two-hour discussion. Wilson’s critique comes as the Toronto artist has also drawn criticism from Ebro Darden of HOT97 and Apple Music 1, who chided Drake for throwing shade at Childish Gambino’s hit “This Is America” during a show on his current tour while not speaking on issues.
“Drake doesn’t have to,” Ebro wrote on Twitter. “Nor should he if he doesn’t feel it. But to say “This Is America” is overrated and over awarded when that song came at a time when people needed someone to say something. And he doesn’t feel the need to. That’s all.”
UPDATE: 2 Dope Boyz founder MekDot has been dragged into this feud, or whatever you want to call it.
HipHopWired Radio
Our staff has picked their favorite stations, take a listen…
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: SOPA Images / Getty / Threads
Is it a wrap for Twitter? Instagram’s Threads swiftly surpassed the 100 million users milestone.
Spotted on The Verge via Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads profile, the platform explicitly created to rival Twitter looks like a massive success for Meta.
The Threads app surpassed 100 million users faster than OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT, which accomplished the feat in two months. It only took Instragram’s Threads mere days to reach that goal in a matter of days following its early Wednesday launch last week.
Per The Verge:
Threads proved to be an early hit almost immediately. In the first two hours, it hit 2 million users and steadily climbed from there to 5 million, 10 million, 30 million, and then 70 million. The launch has been “way beyond our expectations,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday.
On Monday, Zuckerberg said in a Threads post confirming the milestone that the growth was “mostly organic:”
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, followed Zuckerberg, noting that it only took five days to reach the staggering number of users.
Now, whether that was achieved “organically” is another story. Before its launch, Threads was heavily pushed to the over 1 billion people using Instagram, allowing them to transfer their IG accounts quickly to the new platform. So we are sure that also significantly increased the number of people signing up to use Threads.
Users are also threading it up. According to The Verge, there have “been more than 95 million posts and 190 million likes shared on the app.”
Threads Accomplishing A Goal Adam Mosseri Claims It Doesn’t Want To Do
Despite these impressive numbers, Mosseri stated in a Threads post that his platform is not trying to replace Twitter and will not actively push politics or hard news. But you can’t stop users from talking about what they want to, and hard news is finding its way onto Threads.
Also, if its mission is not to replace Twitter, it seems to be failing at that mission. With some help from Elon Musk, Twitter’s traffic is reportedly “tanking,” according to CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince.
Twitter has been telling whatever advertisers it has left, probably Cheech and Chong, whose gummy ads are flooding Twitter users’ timelines, that it has “535 million monetizable monthly active users,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
Prince’s claims say otherwise.
Right now, it’s looking like Twitter is dying a slow death. Twitter better hope that the lawsuit bears fruit. But we are here for anything hurting Elon Musk’s pockets.
—
Photo: SOPA Images / Getty / Threads
HipHopWired Radio
Our staff has picked their favorite stations, take a listen…
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Instagram Threads
Wednesday, Instagram decided to “shock drop” its answer to Twitter to strike while the iron is still hot as the mass exodus from Elon Musk is underway. So far, Mark Zuckerberg and co’s decision to hit the launch button was brilliant and is paying off.
Spotted on Engadget, Threads, Meta’s rival to Twitter is off to an impressive start and has already exceeded ten million signups in just seven hours after going live, according to a Thread from CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The massive signup number was a testament to the platform’s ability to handle the rapid signup rate, which could also be a direct result of Instagram successfully luring some of its 2 billion users over to Threads.
Zuckerberg wasn’t done egging on his rival, Elon Musk, whom he could fight in a cage match. No, we’re not kidding about that. In his first tweet in over a decade, the Meta chief used the classic Spider-Man meme signaling a standoff between the two billionaires.
While this is a solid start for Threads, the platform’s launch is not without issues. Users are enjoying their time with Threads, but complaints are coming in. One of the main issues is the lack of chronological or following-only feed options, which both Twitter and Instagram are still dealing with to some extent.
Current Threads users are stuck with the current algorithm throwing random users on their feeds, directly resulting from seeing posts other users are replying to.
Threads also lack a post-editing feature, something both Facebook and IG users enjoy, hashtags, account switching, a dedicated button to insert GIFS, and more.
Adam Mosseri Spoke About Instagram Threads’ Issues
In a Threads post, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said that a following-only feature, post-editing, and account switching are “on the list,” and hashtags will be tappable “in time.”
In a recent update from his Broadcast channel, Mosseri admits things are “hectic” behind the scenes.
“Things have been hectic behind the scenes this week, most of the Threads team is focused on keeping the app up and fixing all the bugs we’re finding it,” Mosseri begins. “It feels a little bit like what working at this company felt like ten years ago, everyone’s rolling up their sleeves, hustling and trying to help the best they can.”
He continues, “We didn’t expect 10s of millions of people to sign up in less than a day, but supporting that is the definition of a champagne problem.”
Well, Rome was not built in a day. We only expect Threads to come into form over time. Plus, you can still spend time on Spill as Threads continues to figure things out.
—
Photo: NurPhoto / Getty
HipHopWired Radio
Our staff has picked their favorite stations, take a listen…
Meta is poised to unveil a new app that appears to mimic Twitter — a direct challenge to the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.
A listing for the app, called Threads, appeared on Apple’s App Store, indicating it would debut as early as Thursday. It is billed as a “text-based conversation app” that is linked to Instagram, with the listing teasing a Twitter-like microblogging experience.
“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” it said.
Instagram users will be able to keep their user names and follow the same accounts on the new app, according to screenshots displayed on the App Store listing. Meta declined to comment on the app.
Musk replied “yeah” to a tweet from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey saying, “All your Threads are belong to us,” along with a screenshot from the App Store’s privacy section showing what personal information might be collected by the new Meta app.
Threads could be the latest headache for Musk, who acquired Twitter last year for $44 billion and has been making changes that have unnerved advertisers and turned off users, including new daily limits on the number of tweets people can view.
Meta has good timing because Twitter users are growing frustrated with Musk’s changes and looking for a viable alternative, said Matt Navarra, a social media consultant.
Threads presents the “opportunity to jump to a platform that can give them many of the things that they want Twitter to continue to be that it no longer is,” he said.
Allowing Instagram users to port their profile to Threads could give the new app more traction with potential users by providing a ready-made set of accounts for them to follow, said Navarra, former director of social media at tech news site The Next Web and digital communications adviser for the British government.
Twitter has rolled out a series of unpopular changes in recent days, including a requirement for users to be verified to use the online dashboard TweetDeck. The policy announced Monday takes effect in 30 days and appears to be aimed at raising extra revenue because users need to pay have their accounts verified under Musk’s changes.
TweetDeck is popular with companies and news organizations, allowing users to manage multiple Twitter accounts.
It comes after outcry over Musk’s announcement this weekend that Twitter has limited the number of tweets users can view each day — restrictions that the billionaire Tesla CEO described as an attempt to stop unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data.
Still, some users might be put off by Meta’s data privacy track record, Navarra said. And would-be Twitter challengers like Mastodon have found it a challenge to sign up users.
“It’s hard to tell whether the upset and discontent is strong enough to make a mass exodus or whether it will be somewhat of a slow erosion,” Navarra said.
Musk’s rivalry with Meta Platforms also could end up spilling over into real life. In an online exchange between Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to a cage match face-off, though it’s unclear if they will actually make it to the ring.
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Briana Brown makes her living as a licensed aesthetician and MUA, which is evident in her stunning looks. The Tennessee native also enjoys a robust social media following via her growing presence on TikTok and Instagram, and we’re honored to feature her in our latest Baes & Baddies feature.
Briana Brown hasn’t revealed much about herself online, but she has managed to amass over 45,000 followers on TikTok and over 27,000 followers on Instagram. One thing we truly enjoy about Ms. Brown is that she has tons of personality, which shows in her dances and looks. She’s also known to shout out fashion brands like Fashion Nova.
Brown is also someone coming into her own and embracing her curves, something she recently spoke about on Facebook. As is the case for many women of her physical stature, growing into accepting what nature gave her is a journey, and she is inspiring others out there to own their beauty on terms that fit them.
From Facebook:
I use to be extremely self-conscious of my body, especially as a young girl. Picked on in elementary & middle school bc I was the only girl that was developing quickly. Older men hitting on me, etc. It has taken awhile for me to gain the confidence to walk in this body & I’m finally at a point where I’m starting to love all of me & wear what I think is beautiful despite what others may think. There are struggles at times, but I’m currently in my “eff it” era so if you don’t like it…keep it pushing bc I love me some me!
To stay connected with Briana Brown, we suggest following her TikTok page here. We’ll share images from Instagram in the gallery below.
—
Photo: @briana.aileen_b / Instagram
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: MANDEL NGAN / Getty / Mark Zuckerberg / Elon Musk
I don’t think anyone had this possible PPV event on their digital bingo cards.
Twitter’s incompetent owner, Elon Musk, and Meta’s chief, Mark Zuckerberg, have been virtually jabbing each other for months. Now it seems the two tech giants could square off in a cage match, and we’re not talking virtually either.
This all stemmed from Twitter users and Musk responding to a report about Instagram’s “Twitter-like” platform, Threads.
“I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options,” Musk cheekily tweeted.
In response to Musk’s tweet, a user warned the Tesla chief that Zuckerberg is trained in Ju Jitsu, with Musk responding, “I’m up for a cage match if he is, lol.”
Musk might have been joking with his comment, but apparently, Zuckerberg is not, and he let the Phony Stark know he wants all the smoke by responding via his Instagram Stories, “Send me the location.”
Musk continued to egg on the situation by tweeting out a possible venue for the match, the “Vegas Octagon,” of course, and letting off a fire emoji when someone suggested that UFC’s Joe Rogan could be a referee.
He also claims he has a great move called “the walrus,” whatever the hell that means.
Tale of The Tape
Elon Musk, on paper, is the bigger person, but he also admits he “almost never” goes to the gym, and the only exercise he gets is “picking up my kids and throwing them in the air.”
It’s an entirely different story for Zuckerberg. Per ESPN, he won a no-gi white belt in the 149-pound division at a Silicon Valley tournament and placed second in a gi category on the same day.
The Zuck has also trained BJJ for about a year under Dave Camarillo who has also mentored former UFC titleholders like Cain Velasquez, Jon Fitch, and Josh Koscheck.
Camarillo had high praise for the Meta CEO, telling ESPN:
“He’s amazing. He is an extremely hard worker, as everybody knows. But a lot of people have a business, and they’re successful, and they have that side of their life, and rarely do they dip into the physical side, especially with something like jiu-jitsu and MMA, and have the same amount of success or even go past Day 1 or Month 1.”
Twitter, of course, has thoughts about this possible fight between the tech titans. You can see them in the gallery below.
—
Photo: MANDEL NGAN / Getty
1. LOL, accurate