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After being criticized by Elliott Wilson for avoiding rap media to only speak with âoutsidersâ, 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.
âLol 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,â he wrote, also adding laughing emojis. âJust admit the youth took over big dog.â The former Editor-In-Chief of XXL didnât 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, âOh, itâs go time? Cool.â
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. âMoment of clarity: No disrespect to Lil Boat,â he wrote in a tweet thatâs since been deleted. âYachtyâs 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 ainât me.â
Drake last appeared on the Rap Radar Podcast with Wilson and Brian âB Dotâ Miller in 2019, shedding some light on his artistic journey in a two-hour discussion. Wilsonâs 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 Gambinoâs hit âThis Is Americaâ during a show on his current tour while not speaking on issues.Â
âDrake doesnât have to,â Ebro wrote on Twitter. âNor should he if he doesnât feel it. But to say âThis Is Americaâ is overrated and over awarded when that song came at a time when people needed someone to say something. And he doesnât feel the need to. Thatâs all.â
UPDATE: 2 Dope Boyz founder MekDot has been dragged into this feud, or whatever you want to call it.
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Source: SOPA Images / Getty / Threads
Is it a wrap for Twitter? Instagramâs Threads swiftly surpassed the 100 million users milestone.
Spotted on The Verge via Mark Zuckerbergâs 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 OpenAIâs chatbot, ChatGPT, which accomplished the feat in two months. It only took Instragramâs 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 âway beyond our expectations,â CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday.
On Monday, Zuckerberg said in a Threads post confirming the milestone that the growth was âmostly organic:â
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 âorganicallyâ 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 âbeen more than 95 million posts and 190 million likes shared on the app.â
Threads Accomplishing A Goal Adam Mosseri Claims It Doesnât 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 canât 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, Twitterâs traffic is reportedly âtanking,â 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 usersâ timelines, that it has â535 million monetizable monthly active users,â according to The Wall Street Journal.Â
Princeâs claims say otherwise.
Right now, itâs looking like Twitter is dying a slow death. Twitter better hope that the lawsuit bears fruit. But we are here for anything hurting Elon Muskâs pockets.
â
Photo: SOPA Images / Getty / Threads
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Wednesday, Instagram decided to âshock dropâ 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 coâs decision to hit the launch button was brilliant and is paying off.
Spotted on Engadget, Threads, Metaâs 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 platformâs 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 wasnât done egging on his rival, Elon Musk, whom he could fight in a cage match. No, weâre 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 platformâs 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 Threadsâ Issues
In a Threads post, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said that a following-only feature, post-editing, and account switching are âon the list,â and hashtags will be tappable âin time.â
In a recent update from his Broadcast channel, Mosseri admits things are âhecticâ behind the scenes.
âThings 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 weâre finding it,â Mosseri begins. âIt feels a little bit like what working at this company felt like ten years ago, everyoneâs rolling up their sleeves, hustling and trying to help the best they can.â
He continues, âWe didnât expect 10s of millions of people to sign up in less than a day, but supporting that is the definition of a champagne problem.â
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.
â
Photo: NurPhoto / Getty
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Meta is poised to unveil a new app that appears to mimic Twitter â a direct challenge to the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.
A listing for the app, called Threads, appeared on Appleâs App Store, indicating it would debut as early as Thursday. It is billed as a âtext-based conversation appâ that is linked to Instagram, with the listing teasing a Twitter-like microblogging experience.
âThreads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to whatâll be trending tomorrow,â 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 âyeahâ to a tweet from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey saying, âAll your Threads are belong to us,â along with a screenshot from the App Storeâs 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 Muskâs changes and looking for a viable alternative, said Matt Navarra, a social media consultant.
Threads presents the âopportunity 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,â 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 Muskâs changes.
TweetDeck is popular with companies and news organizations, allowing users to manage multiple Twitter accounts.
It comes after outcry over Muskâs announcement this weekend that Twitter has limited the number of tweets users can view each day â 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 Metaâs data privacy track record, Navarra said. And would-be Twitter challengers like Mastodon have found it a challenge to sign up users.
âItâs 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,â Navarra said.
Muskâs 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 itâs unclear if they will actually make it to the ring.
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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 weâre honored to feature her in our latest Baes & Baddies feature.
Briana Brown hasnât 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. Sheâs 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 & Iâm finally at a point where Iâm starting to love all of me & wear what I think is beautiful despite what others may think. There are struggles at times, but Iâm currently in my âeff itâ era so if you donât like itâŚkeep it pushing bc I love me some me!
To stay connected with Briana Brown, we suggest following her TikTok page here. Weâll share images from Instagram in the gallery below.
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Photo: @briana.aileen_b / Instagram
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Source: MANDEL NGAN / Getty / Mark Zuckerberg / Elon Musk
I donât think anyone had this possible PPV event on their digital bingo cards.
Twitterâs incompetent owner, Elon Musk, and Metaâs 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 weâre not talking virtually either.
This all stemmed from Twitter users and Musk responding to a report about Instagramâs âTwitter-likeâ platform, Threads.Â
âIâm sure Earth canât wait to be exclusively under Zuckâs thumb with no other options,â Musk cheekily tweeted.
In response to Muskâs tweet, a user warned the Tesla chief that Zuckerberg is trained in Ju Jitsu, with Musk responding, âIâm up for a cage match if he is, lol.â
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, âSend me the location.â
Musk continued to egg on the situation by tweeting out a possible venue for the match, the âVegas Octagon,â of course, and letting off a fire emoji when someone suggested that UFCâs Joe Rogan could be a referee.
He also claims he has a great move called âthe walrus,â whatever the hell that means.
Tale of The Tape
Elon Musk, on paper, is the bigger person, but he also admits he âalmost neverâ goes to the gym, and the only exercise he gets is âpicking up my kids and throwing them in the air.â
Itâs 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:
âHeâs amazing. He is an extremely hard worker, as everybody knows. But a lot of people have a business, and theyâre 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.â
Twitter, of course, has thoughts about this possible fight between the tech titans. You can see them in the gallery below.
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Photo: MANDEL NGAN / Getty
1. LOL, accurate
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Tyler James Williams had more than a few words for those speculating about his sexuality, addressing the matter through social media.
The Abbott Elementary star sent out a message celebrating Pride Month on Sunday (June 4) through his Instagram Stories, taking the time to address the rampant questions about his own sexuality.
âUsually I wouldnât address stuff like this, but I feel like it as a conversation is bigger than me. Iâm not gay, but I think the culture of trying to âfindâ some kind of hidden trait or behavior that a closed person âlet slipâ is very dangerous,â the Golden Globes winner began.
âOveranalyzing someoneâs behavior in an attempt to âcatchâ them directly contributes to the anxiety a lot of queer and queer-questioning people feel when they fear living in their truth,â he continued. âIt makes the most pedestrian of conversations and interactions in spaces feel less safe for our gay brothers and sisters and those who may be questioning.â
The former child star of Everybody Hates Chris also pointed out how such speculation can be harmful in reinforcing stereotypes about what straight men are supposed to be.
âBeing straight doesnât look one way. Being gay doesnât look one way,â he wrote. âAnd what may seem like harmless fun and conversation may actually be sending a dangerous message to those struggling with real issues,â he wrote. âI refuse to inadvertently contribute to that message.â
The 30-year-old star has been pivotal as teacher Gregory Eddie in the success of the ABC sitcom helmed by Quinta Brunson with Emmy Award-winning actress Sheryl Lee Ralph as part of the cast. Abbott Elementary was renewed for a third season by the network in January of this year, and the previous two seasons are now available to watch on Hulu.
Williams concluded his message by saying âHappy Pride to all of my queer and questioning brothers, sisters, and individuals. I pray that you feel seen in ways that make you feel safe in the celebration that is this month. As an ally, I continue to be committed to assisting in that where I can and helping to cultivate a future where we are all accepted and given permission to be ourselves,â he said, signing off his message with a white heart emoji.
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Source: Prince Williams / ATLPics.Net
Offset doesnât mince his words when it comes to his wife. He recently shared a clip of him appreciating Cardi Bâs ample backside.
As spotted on Page Six the âRic Flair Dripâ rapper missed his better half in a major way. This week he reunited with her and made it clear that he is a very lucky man. He shared a not safe for work clip of her laying down on a bed while his hand went to her backside. He proceeded to pull down her pants and massage her signature assets in all their glory. Naturally Bardi felt the love and responded âYou happy to see me?â to which he responded âYes, I miss you so much.â
As expected Offsetâs share drew both support and criticism with some questioning his respect for Cardi. âI donât get sât like this at all, u want the whole world to see ur lady like that??????â one user commented. Another follower called out that the move was in poor taste given they have kids saying âWhat happened to dignity & self-respect?â. While Cardi and Offset seem to be on great terms it seems his relationship with his recording home Quality Control Music is not. Recently it was revealed that he has been in a legal battle to retain his masters.
On Monday, April 3 he took to social media to preview a new untitled song which seemed to address his challenges with his recording home. âThey canât be too upset / I could of kept it to myself, they canât be too upset / I done broke bread, cut checks, they canât be too upset / I took that rope off my neck, they couldnât be too upset / N****s still bite my style, they canât be too upset / I done laid low for a while, they canât be that upset / N****s lost all my respect, they canât be that upsetâ he rapped.
You can see Offset worship Cardiâs cakes below.
Instagramâs director of music partnerships, Perry Bashkoff, was one of the about 6,000 Meta employees whose roles were eliminated by Meta leadership on Wednesday (May 24). âYes, I was one of them,â Bashkoff confirmed on Thursday in a LinkedIn post. As Bashkoff noted, he was âpart of the team that brought music to the Meta […]
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Source: SOPA Images / Getty / Instagram
With Twitter still on a path to self-destruction thanks to Elon Musk, Instagram is looking to offer people a substitute.
The Verge reports Instagram is working on its own text-based social media component that aims to be a direct competitor to Twitter, according to Social and Influencer Marketing teacher Lia Haberman. Via her ICYMI Substack newsletter, she shared a screenshot of a marketing slide detailing the new app.
According to the slide, the new app has no name and is just âInstagramâs new text-based app for conversations.â Haberman reports it is codenamed P92 and Barcelona.
Users can sign in using their current Instagram username and password, and their bio, IG handle, followers, and verification status will transfer over.
Per The Verge:
In the app, youâll see a feed, and you can make text posts up to 500 characters long with attached links, photos, and videos.
The app looks pretty much like if you mixed Instagram and Twitter together, based on two screenshots included in the leaked marketing slide. And Meta will apparently have some good moderation controls from the start, âequipping you with settings to control who can reply to you and mention your account,â the slide says. Any accounts youâve blocked on Instagram will apparently carry over.
Per the slide, the new Instagram App will feature some form of decentralization, noting, âSoon, our app will be compatible with certain other apps like Mastodon.â
Instagram Suffered A Serious Service Outage
No one asked for this new app, but okay. But it would also be nice if Meta made sure Instagram works appropriately. On Sunday, the popular photo-sharing app turned TikTok clone was down âfor a couple of hours,â according to The Verge.
Timelines did not refresh, and users were receiving error messages when refreshing them. If you hit Instagram via the website, it only loads a blank page.
âEarlier today, a technical issue caused some people to have trouble accessing Instagram. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and weâre sorry for any disruption this has caused,â Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold told The Verge in an email following the service outage.
Like any time Instagram is down, social media (Twitter) has plenty of jokes because nothing is serious on that app.
You can see the jokes in the gallery below.
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Photo: SOPA Images / Getty
2. Howling