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Source: Wirestock / Getty / NYC / Earthquake
No, you were not bugging; that was an earthquake you felt this morning.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the East Coast was seriously shaking this morning after a 4.8-magnitude earthquake centered near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, 40 miles west of New York City.
It was the largest in the area since 1973, local news affiliate ABC7NY reports.
Per CBS News, the earthquake hit around approximately 10:20 a.m.
The website reports there are no signs of damage.
The quake could be felt throughout the entire tri-state area, from Philadelphia and as far as Baltimore. The immediate reactions of buildings shaking began pouring in from New Jersey, New York, and Long Island.
This quake is not the first to rattle the East Coast and New York. However, the last earthquake of that magnitude felt in New York City was in 1887, when a 5.0-magnitude quake rocked the city.
“A 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit west of Manhattan and has been felt throughout New York. My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“Our preliminary reports do not indicate major life safety or infrastructure issues from the earthquake. We are performing thorough inspections of critical areas,” NYC Mayor Eric Adams said on X, while also giving guidance in case of aftershocks.
New Yorkers Are Shook
As expected, New Yorkers are still reacting to the 4.8 earthquake on social media, which is extremely rare on the East Coast.
As expected, there is plenty of shock from New Yorkers, who are not about the earthquake life like those on the West Coast, but with folks on X, no one takes anything seriously cause there is humor involved.
Lol, we can’t front, that’s very arrucate.
We hope everyone is good. You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
1. This is extremely accurate
2. We are foreign to these types of things B!
3. Listen, we do come together during events like this.
4. Wait a minute…
6. There was nothing “small” about that to us.
7. Here comes the folks on the west coast.
8. We gotta during a natural disaster, just saying.
10. Hey, we get it, they ain’t used to this sh*t either
12. Good question?
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Source: Janette Beckman / Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery via AMNH
A new exhibition focusing on the role of jewelry in Hip-Hop culture and global culture overall will be hosted at the American Museum of Natural History.
An undeniable facet of Hip-Hop culture lies in the way that its stars have worn custom-made jewelry pieces. Now, the public will get to gain an appreciation of that up close as the American Museum of Natural History has announced that they will play host to a new exhibit on the topic. Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry will open at the institution May 9.
The exhibit will be a continuation of New York City’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop and gains its inspiration from the recent book of the same name released by the German publisher, Taschen. Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry will be housed in the Melissa and Keith Meister Gallery in the Museum’s Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals.
The exhibition will feature such items as the gold “Jesus piece” worn by The Notorious B.I.G., the diamond-studded Roc-A-Fella medallion inspired by the label co-founded by Jay-Z, Slick Rick’s noted crown encrusted with gems, and Nicki Minaj’s unique diamond “Barbie” pendant among numerous other pieces. Visitors can check out the exhibit with general admission to the museum.
“Ice Cold will truly spark a sense of excitement and curiosity into our world of jewelry and baubles as an extended form of hip-hop culture which has inspired the global stage as an extension of our art,” said Hip-Hop icon and Ice Cold senior advisor Slick Rick in a statement. “This collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History is a harmonious blend of creativity and cultural significance. I’m very honored to be a part of creating a unique and immersive experience for the Museum’s visitors in such a renowned space in the mecca of New York City.”
The advisory board also includes Roc Nation executive curator Lenny S. Santiago, Pete Nice, television host Bevy Smith, and author Tanisha Ford.
“Jewelry is a cornerstone of hip-hop culture and you can see the evolution of jewelry alongside the rise of hip-hop itself,” said Ice Cold guest curator (and author of the Taschen book), Vikki Tobak. “From being a culture formed in communities and neighborhoods, and then stepping into its power and starting to impact global pop culture, hip-hop, and its jewelry tell a bigger story.”
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New York City has been struggling with rising crime rates for a few years now, and though the rate has been dropping across the city in recent months, crime inside the subway system has still proven to be problematic.
Looking to tackle the growing problem, Governor Kathy Hochul has decided to take things up a notch and is now deploying the National Guard to patrol New York City subways to help curb criminal activity.
According to Raw Story, Governor Hochul announced Wednesday (March 6), that she has called on the National Guard to provide 750 troops to help the NYPD maintain peace and order in the crime-ridden subway system throughout the five boroughs of New York City along with 1,000 members of state personnel. Just last week, a train conductor was inexplicably slashed on his neck when he peaked out the window of his train car to check the platform. That act might’ve been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Naturally, many New Yorkers took issue with the decision as it will have New Yorkers feeling like they’re living in a police state (in the subway at least), but the outcry doesn’t seem like it’ll have Hochul backtracking anytime soon.
Per Raw Story:
“The service members of the New York National Guard are always ready to assist our partners as they ensure the safety and security of our fellow citizens,” said the force’s commander Major General Ray Shields in Hochul’s statement.
Hochul, who is responsible for the state-run authority that runs New York City public transit, highlighted the weekend case of a man kicked onto the tracks at New York’s busy intercity Penn railway station.
“Three people rushed to save him, pull him back into safety,” she said in a briefing. “These brazen, heinous attacks on our subway system will not be tolerated. People worry they could be next, anxiety takes hold. (Passengers) shouldn’t worry the person sitting next to them is carrying a knife… that’s what we’re going to do with these checkpoints.”
People will be randomly chosen for bag checks in subway stations and violent passengers will even be banned via a new program. How they’ll go about enforcing that ban is anyone’s guess. Will they use face recognition technology or something? Should be interesting to see how that plays out.
No word on how long this new extreme measure will last but this has the potential to end badly as New Yorkers are known for their “f*ck off” attitudes.
Be safe out there, y’all.
What do y’all think of Kathy Hochul’s decision to deploy the National Guard in the New York City subway system? Let us know in the comments section below.
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New York City is taking a hard line against social media. The mayor has filed a lawsuit claiming TikTok, Instagram and more are responsible for the mental health crisis with kids.
As reported by Digital Music News, the current mayor of The Big Apple is taking social media to task with claims that their apps are causing the youth issues with their mental health. On Wednesday, Feb. 14 Mayor Eric Adams held a press conference alongside New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan, NYC Health + Hospitals President Dr. Michell Katz, and New York City Department of Education Chancellor David C. Banks. During the presentation, the politician announced the filing of a lawsuit against TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and Facebook, citing that each of these platforms are fueling a nationwide mental health crisis.
“Over the past decade, we have seen just how addictive and overwhelming the online world can be, exposing our children to a non-stop stream of harmful content and fueling our national youth mental health crisis,” he explained. “Our city is built on innovation and technology, but many social media platforms end up endangering our children’s mental health, promoting addiction, and encouraging unsafe behavior. Today, we’re taking bold action on behalf of millions of New Yorkers to hold these companies accountable for their role in this crisis, and we’re building on our work to address this public health hazard. This lawsuit and action plan are part of a larger reckoning that will shape the lives of our young people, our city, and our society for years to come.”
According to NYC.gov, the filing allege that the platforms “intentionally designed their platforms to purposefully manipulate and addict children and teens to social media.” Some of the features that the officials say create these conditions include “using algorithms to generate feeds that keep users on the platforms longer and encourage compulsive use” and “mechanics akin to gambling in the design of apps, which allow for anticipation and craving for likes and hearts.”
The Daily News reports a representative from Meta says that Facebook and Instagram have “over 30 tools and features” to assist parents in making social media safe for their children. Jose Castañeda, a spokesman for Google, says that YouTube also offers “parents robust controls” and says that “The allegations in this complaint are simply not true.”
You can view the press conference below.
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Jay-Z may know New York City like the back of his hand, but his wife, Beyoncé and their daughter, Blue Ivy probably don’t. So big daddy Hova decided to give them a tour of his hometown in the most tourist way possible.
According to TMZ, Jay and Bey rented out a Tea Around Town tour bus in New York on Wednesday (Dec. 20), and with their family and friends accompanying them on the trip, the group toured the Big Apple like first-time visitors because, well, why not? Might as well have fun when visiting the city that never sleeps.
Per TMZ:
The famous family also stopped by the Saks 5th Avenue holiday window display, cruised by Rockefeller Center to see the massive Christmas tree from all angles and even had time to make a stop at Bryant Park.
It’s pretty incredible to see Beyonce and Jay-Z on a freaking tour bus in his hometown … but hey, this must be their idea of an “Empire State of Mind.”
Of course, there were a lot of little kiddos on the bus too … so this may have been tailored to some out-of-town relatives visiting for the holidays.
Can’t say we’d ever see Jay-Z and Beyoncé getting a tour of New York like us common folk, but hey, we love it.
You have to wonder if Jay took the time to take his family to visit his old Brooklyn stomping grounds of Marcy Projects while they were at it. It would be cool for them to see the environment that shaped the man of the house into the icon that he is today. Could’ve shown them the corner that made him hood rich and everything. Just sayin’.
What do y’all think of Jay-Z and Beyoncé taking their family and friends on a bus tour of New York City? Let us know in the comments section below.
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The Wu-Tang Clan will now have their own official day in New York City in honor of its contributions to Hip-Hop and popular culture.
On Wednesday (November 8), New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued a proclamation that Thursday (November 9) will officially be Wu-Tang Clan Day. The proclamation coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Staten Island group’s iconic debut album, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). The members of the Clan will also be on hand at the Empire State Building as it will be lit in black and yellow as night falls.
In addition to the proclamation, Legacy Recordings announced that they would be releasing a special edition 7-inch box set version of Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in collaboration with GetOnDown at noon EST on their website. The box set includes the full debut album of the Wu-Tang Clan on six split black & yellow vinyl, a 60-page book titled “The Shaolinothology” containing liner notes, rare photos, and interviews with the RZA along with trading cards commemorating the anniversary.
For The RZA, he describes being “very excited” along with the rest of the Clan in an interview with the New York Daily News. “I will say some of these accolades that’s coming this year, this lighting for instance. I’m telling you, me and the crew have been looking at each other like, ‘Hmm, we’re living out the words that we said: Wu-Tang Forever.’ And that’s the aspiration and I’m thankful. There’s nothing better than leaving a footprint for someone else to figure out this path.”
The honor for the Wu-Tang Clan also comes as its members are deep into their own endeavors. The RZA is concluding his three-night series at the Gramercy Theatre which features Enter The Wu-Tang being performed with an orchestra. There will also be a pop-up activation run by RZA’s 36 Chambers companies in the East Village where RZA will be signing copies of his graphic novel, Bobby Digital and The Pit Of Snakes. Other Wu-related items will also be available for purchase at the shop. Lastly, a new Ghostface Killah action figure has been released by Super7, and a new podcast, ODB: A Son Unique chronicling the life of the late Ol Dirty Bastard was released this week with the first three episodes now streaming.
Organizers behind the Electric Zoo festival on Randalls Island in New York canceled the Friday (Sept. 1) opening day because Department of Parks & Recreation officials would not issue the permits needed to stage the city’s largest EDM festival, promoters behind the event have confirmed with Billboard.
On Friday, when event organizers with Brooklyn venue company and concert promoter Avant Gardner canceled the festival’s first day, they blamed “global supply chain disruptions” in a statement, saying, “These unexpected delays have prevented us from completing the construction of the main stage in time for Day 1.” Organizers did not provide further specifics. A rep for the festival told Billboard on Tuesday (Sept. 5) that the application for the permits had been made well in advance, adding that the permit issue was resolved when the festival finally opened on Saturday.
Touring industry sources, however, say it was due to organizers’ failure to pay vendors from last year’s festival that led to a shortage of experienced concert professionals willing to work at this year’s event. Specifically, the main festival stage caused the most issues early Friday during an inspection of the site hours before the event was scheduled to open. City officials demanded the festival staff fix several safety and security issues before the festival could open. It took organizers more than 24 hours to fix the issues, leading to the festival opening two hours late on Saturday.
The problems did not stop there, though. Making matters worse, many fans did not receive their festival wristbands and tickets in the mail as promised, forcing attendees to queue up for hours to retrieve their tickets. And then on Sunday, organizers were forced to shut down access to the festival after the site reached maximum capacity. Some fans who reached the festival site after the gates were closed decided to jump fences or run through security checkpoints as a group, joining other ticket-holding fans in mad dashes past security staff. Hoping to deter fans from boarding ferries to Randalls Island, festival organizers announced on X (formerly Twitter) that the event had reached maximum capacity for “unknown reasons” and promised “everyone denied entry today will be issued a refund.”
The problems experienced at Electric Zoo mirror ongoing issues at the Avante Gardner venue. Created by owner and creative director Jürgen “Billy” Bildstein in 2017, Avante Gardner is known as a favorite for fans and acts because of its size and flexible space. To state regulators however, the 6,000-capacity venue has been the subject of ongoing legal disputes and investigations by agencies like the New York State Liquor Authority over overcrowding and drug use since 2016, according to court records. On Aug. 22, liquor authority chair and commissioner Lily Fan testified that Avant Gardner “couldn’t care less what people do in their establishment so long as they made money.”
The price tag for this year’s chaotic festival — including refund costs to fans who didn’t make it in, as well as paying Friday night performers The Chainsmokers, Excision and Kx5 their full fees — could total $25 million, according to former insiders at SFX Entertainment, which owned the festival from 2013 to 2022.
Electric Zoo was originally launched in 2009 by founders Mike Bindra and Laura De Palma and grew to be the East Coast’s biggest electronic festival, always taking place over Labor Day weekend. In June 2022, Bildstein led the purchase of Electric Zoo from LiveStyle, a holding company created in the aftermath of SFX Entertainment’s bankruptcy in 2015. Bildstein agreed to pay $15 million for the festival property, Billboard reported at the time, paying about half the money in cash and while agreeing to a convertible debt note to cover the unpaid portion of the purchase.
Avant Gardner staged the 2022 festival and racked up debt with a number of talent agencies and vendors, sources tell Billboard, leading to delays building out the festival site in 2023 that were partially to blame for the permit delays.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams suggested the city will launch an investigation into Electric Zoo’s organizers for going beyond the festival’s approved capacity. The New York Police Department estimated event organizers oversold the festival’s 42,500-person capacity limit by 7,000 tickets on Sunday.
“It’s unfortunate that the organizers wanted to turn our city into a zoo, and we were not going to allow that to happen,” Adams said during an NYPD briefing on Tuesday. “And we will be dealing with them in the next few days based on their behavior and actions.”
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New York City is throwing Hip-Hop a huge birthday bash throughout its five boroughs, as Mayor Eric Adams announced a series of block parties that will be held next month.
On Thursday, Mayor Adams held a press conference at City Hall to announce the 5×5 Block Party Series, which will be held in each of the city’s five boroughs. They will be thrown by the city in conjunction with ITSALLBLACKMUSIC PRESENTS. Each will feature a lineup of DJs as well as food vendors, artists, and educational and entertainment talks in prime locations essential to the history of the culture.
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Mayor Adams was joined at the press conference by Eric B and Boogie Down Productions founder and MC, KRS-One. The icon “will collaborate with the city as well to help curate and perform at the block parties,” as expressed in a statement released later by the city. The “Outta Here” artist even kicked a freestyle for the gathered crowd at the behest of Adams.
The first of the block parties will take place on August 5th at Fulton Street and Washington Avenue in Brooklyn. The location is known for being a block away from the house where rapper The Notorious B.I.G. grew up. The second will be in Queens on August 6th, at Vernon Boulevard and 41st Avenue near the Queensbridge Houses where Nas and Mobb Deep grew up. The birthplace of Hip-Hop, 1520 Sedgwick in The Bronx, will have its own celebration on Aug. 12th. Dates and locations for Manhattan and Staten Island are expected to be announced soon.
The lineups for each block party haven’t been announced yet, but This comes on the heels of the city announcing that there will be 50 murals created across the city in collaboration with LISA Project NYC. The city is also working with Pixis Drones to create light shows with “iconic Hip-Hop imagery” at each party, which will run until 9:30 PM.
“New York should be celebrating a genre that we created,” Adams, who calls himself “the Hip-Hop Mayor”, said. “We raised it on the streets of New York, and it has gone out to cascade throughout the entire globe.” He continued, “This summer we’re going to do more than reminisce on hip-hop, we’re going to celebrate it and elevate it. So I encourage New Yorkers to step into the world where hip-hop is on our blocks this summer.”
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New York City has agreed to pay out over $13 million in a settlement with protesters over their treatment during arrests by police in 2020.
On Wednesday (July 19th), the settlement amount of $13.7 million was agreed to by city officials. The settlement is in response to a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of 1,300 individuals who were arrested and/or beaten by members of the New York Police Department during protests over the killing of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Once approved by a judge, the settlement would rank among the most expensive ever recorded. Other cities are in the process of negotiating their own settlements with those who filled streets across the country in outrage.
“Today’s settlement is historic, and I’m very proud that it will bring some sense of justice to nearly 1,400 people who took to the streets and put their bodies on the line against police brutality,” attorney Wylie Stecklow said with other attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild representing the plaintiffs in a press conference at Foley Square in lower Manhattan afterward. Plaintiffs described their treatment in testimony during the two years of litigation to the press, including “kettling” or forcibly boxing people into a tight space and having zip ties placed on them until their hands turned purple as described by Adam Sow. “It was so disorganized but so intentional,” they said. “They seemed set on traumatizing everyone.”
If approved, each plaintiff in the suit would be slated to receive $9,950. There is another class action settlement that was announced in March which would award over $21,000 to those who were arrested by the NYPD at one protest in the Bronx. Over 600 other people have filed suits against the city, costing over $12 million to date. The city has denied any unconstitutional practices. “There is no history — or present or future — of unconstitutional policing,” Georgia Pestana, an attorney for the city, wrote in a legal filing. “There is no frequent deprivation of constitutional rights.” The Law Department of the city released a statement saying, “The NYPD has improved numerous practices to address the challenges it faced at protests during the pandemic. This settlement was in the best interests of all parties.”
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of the Exonerated Five has been declared the winner of his New York City Council election, capping off a surging campaign.
On Wednesday (July 5th), the city’s Board of Elections released the results of its completed ranked-choice voting tally which began after general voting ended last Tuesday. The tally showed that Salaam won 64 percent of the vote, an overwhelming amount compared to the 36 percent of the vote for the veteran state assembly member Inez Dickens. Another state assembly member, Al Taylor, was eliminated in the third round of the voting count.
“This is a victory for justice, dignity, and decency for the Harlem community we love,” Mr. Salaam said in a statement after the results were posted. “It’s a victory in support of not turning our backs on those in need, for saying we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers and for saying the only way for all of us to thrive is to believe in the promise we all have.”
Salaam’s win assures him of a seat on the City Council, replacing incumbent Kristin Richardson Jordan. The politician, whose democratic socialist policies brought her high scrutiny, dropped out in mid-May. Dickens, who represented the district for years before taking an assembly seat, had received far more institutional support for her campaign, even getting the only endorsement in the primary election season from Mayor Eric Adams.
The 49-year-old New York native spoke out about his experience being one of five Black and Brown teens wrongly convicted in the assault and rape of a woman jogger in Central Park in 1989. The case grabbed national attention, with future former President Donald Trump excoriating the teens asking for the death penalty to be given to the teens. Salaam would be released in 1997 and the Exonerated Five would be cleared of wrongdoing in 2002 after DNA tests confirmed another man was the assailant.
Salaam is expected to pursue moderate agenda plans during his time in office, focusing on issues of the lack of social services and affordable housing. “The problem that we are experiencing in Harlem right now is that we are being pushed out,” Mr. Salaam said to the New York Times. “They’re saying that we’re leaving, but the truth of the matter is that we are being priced out and therefore we are being pushed out.”
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