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The first week of February concludes with a smattering of new music, featuring releases from LISA, Doja Cat and Raye, Anitta and more. To start with what is already one of the biggest team-ups of the year, the BLACKPINK star has released her latest single, “Born Again,” featuring a heavy lift from two all-star collaborators. […]
The streaming partners of FireAid, the mega-concert that has so far raised more than $100 million for LA wildfire victims, have extended on-demand access to the Jan. 30 concert for a year, with donations made during the streams matched dollar for dollar. Those streaming partners include Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, iHeart, KTLA+, Max, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock/NBCNewsNow, SiriusXM, TikTok, Veeps and YouTube.
Fans of Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Green Day or any of the dozens of other acts that performed at the five-hour-long concert can also still donate to wildfire relief through FireAidLA.org. Billionaire ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife Connie extended their commitment to match every streaming donation, thereby doubling the fundraising effort.
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The concert, which featured performances from 30 artists at two Los Angeles venues, the Intuit Dome and the Kia Forum, attracted 50 million viewers across 28 streaming platforms on Jan. 30. Organizers of the event said proceeds raised by the shows will go to support the L.A. region’s immediate needs and long-term recovery from a series of wind-whipped wildfires that killed 29 people and destroyed more than 16,000 homes and other structures.
FireAid’s grants advisory committee, led by the Annenberg Foundation and other experienced regional philanthropic individuals, is charged with distributing the aid, and they expect the first phase of grants to be awarded by mid-February, according to a press release.
“The committee has been listening daily to affected communities, assessing local resource gaps to ensure aid reaches those most in need, and researching the handling of other fire disasters, such as those in Maui and Northern California,” according to the statement.
FireAid was organized by Shelli and Irving Azoff and the Azoff family, Live Nation, and the Los Angeles Clippers, with Joel Gallen of Tenth Planet serving as executive producer and Rick Krim as talent producer.
MTV owner Viacom has filed a lawsuit claiming that Nick Cannon’s new comedy battle rap game show — called Bad vs. Wild — is a “flagrant” copycat of his long-running series Wild ’N Out.
In a case filed Monday (Feb. 7) against the streaming service Zeus Network, the cable giant claimed that the new show “goes far beyond mere imitation” and instead steals “each and every” element of Wild ’N Out, a popular hip-hop comedy show that’s aired for more than 20 seasons on MTV and VH1.
The lawsuit doesn’t name Cannon as a defendant but instead accuses Zeus of essentially poaching him. It says the new show is “cosplaying” as a Wild ‘N Out “successor,” profiting from Viacom’s years-long investment “without having to do the work of creating original content itself.”
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“In an era where original content is at a premium, Zeus has chosen the path of least resistance: stealing the fruits of Viacom’s goodwill and decades of labor and innovation, and pawning it off as its own original idea for its own financial gain,” Viacom’s lawyers wrote.
Worse yet, the lawsuit says, episodes of Bad vs. Wild (which debuted in March) have repeatedly featured “offensive and inappropriate content that glorifies violence, objectifies women, and perpetuates insidious stereotypes,” threatening to tarnish the legacy of Wild ‘N Out.
“The potential damage to Viacom and Wild ‘N Out cannot be overstated,” the company’s lawyers continued. “This blatant copying and association with offensive content threaten to erode two decades of Viacom’s carefully built reputation and goodwill. It is an attack not just on Viacom’s intellectual property, but on its very brand identity.”
The lawsuit accuses Zeus of infringing both Viacom’s copyrights to the show and also its trademarks, saying that consumers have been duped into thinking the two shows are somehow connected. The filing cites a press release that explicitly referred to the show as “Wild ‘N Out on steroids.”
Wild ’N Out, which debuted on MTV in 2005, features teams of comedy and hip-hop stars battling in a series of competitions, capped off by a freestyle battle and then a musical performance. Over the years — the show has run for 21 seasons — it has boasted guests including Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, A$AP Rocky and Lil Wayne.
In this week’s lawsuit, Viacom claimed that Zeus had stolen almost all of the show’s core elements when it created Bad v. Wild. The two names are “extremely similar”; the new logo “copies the look, typeface, and arrangement”; the format and stage design of the two shows are “nearly identical”; and, of course, they feature the same host.
“Zeus enlists Mr. Cannon as host of a show that maliciously infringes upon the intellectual property of Wild ‘N Out … and has tainted Mr. Cannon’s image as on-camera talent for Wild ‘N Out,” Viacom’s lawyers wrote.
Though it doesn’t name him as defendant, the lawsuit does accuse Cannon of wrongdoing.
Viacom’s lawyers say he’s currently subject to his contract from Wild, which prohibits him from doing anything that that would “tarnish” his image as the show’s host and bans him from using “any characters or materials” from the show in other projects. By producing and hosting Bad v. Wild, the lawsuit says Cannon has violated that agreement.
But rather than sue Cannon directly for that alleged breach of contract, the lawsuit instead pins the legal blame entirely on Zeus — accusing the network of “intentional interference” with Viacom’s deal with Cannon by “inducing” him to break it. And the company claims it’s not the first time.
“Zeus — having previously violated exclusivity provisions when working with Viacom talent, and having knowledge of industry custom and practice — was aware that Mr. Cannon is under contract,” the company’s lawyers wrote. “The damage caused by Zeus’s interference with Mr. Cannon’s contract is magnified by the wave of negative publicity which emanated from Zeus’s unoriginal content and colorist and sizeist stereotyping.”
Reps for both Zeus and Cannon did not immediately return requests for comment.
Read the entire complaint here:
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A 19-year-old teen engineer with a dubious nickname has access to highly sensitive government information, thanks to Elon Musk, and online observers are outraged.
As tech billionaire Elon Musk has directed his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Team to gain access to sensitive federal servers under the premise of cutting government waste, the identities of six prominent technologists have been revealed, among them a 19-year-old high school graduate named Edward Coristine. Coristine has gained attention due to his nickname, “Big Balls,” and also for having a background that officials state would not have allowed him the clearance to obtain security clearance under normal circumstances.
Coristine, a former student at Northeastern University, was revealed to have worked for the Path Network in 2022, a firm known for hiring reformed blackhat hackers. Blackhat hackers specialize in cyberwarfare and other computer-based forms of malice. Coristine was also linked to a Telegram account that solicited a cyberattack-for-hire job that year. In addition, he has been linked to the ownership of at least five different companies in the last four years, including one named Tesla.Sexy LLC. The company, according to WIRED, controls dozens of web domains which include two registered in Russia. One of those is still active under the name of Helfie, operating an AI bot targeting Discord servers in the Russian market.
Coristine’s presence on the DOGE team adds more chaos and uncertainty to a situation that has been brewing since last week, with Democratic lawmakers and others expressing concern and outrage over Musk and his team’s unfettered access to information at the US Treasury, USAID, the Social Security Administration, and others. “It’s highly likely they’re improperly accessing, transferring and storing highly sensitive data outside of the environments it was intended to be contained within,” said British cybersecurity expert and hacker Marcus Hutchins in an interview. “If I were a nation like China, Russia, or Iran, I’d be having a field day with a bunch of college kids running around with sensitive federal government data on unencrypted hard drives.” Musk has threatened to shut down the accounts of those on X, formerly Twitter, disclosing more information about him and the other five. This was highlighted in a post by X user Kiera Golden.
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We called it! After Kanye West started off the New Year by posting pics of himself and his wife, Bianca Censori, we said that it could be an indication that Kanye was ready to make a splash on the social media scene in 2025, and boy did he ever.
Earlier today (Feb. 7) Kanye West took to X and rehashed his beef with the Jewish community by once again unapologetically going on an antisemitic rant that drew much condemnation but didn’t really shock anyone since people tend to be their worst selves both on social media and in public (thanks Trump).
According to Raw Story Ye began his MAGA morning by taking aim at the Jewish community for reasons unknown in an early morning rant that read “AINT NOBODY RAMPED UP EITHER IM CALM AS ICE THIS HOW I REALLY FEEL HOW I REALLY FELT AND HOW I WILL ALWAYS FEEL F— ALL OF YOUR F— A– UNFAIR BUSINESS DEALS AMY JEWISH PERSON THAT DOES BUSINESS WITH ME NEEDS TO KNOW I DONT LIKE OR TRUST ANY JEWISH PERSON AMD THIS IS COMPLETELY SOBER WITH NO HENNESY.”
The tweet had many pondering whether Ye was off his meds or on some other “meds,” but before that conversation could gain any traction, Ye followed up his previous statement with, “IM NEVER APOLOGIZING FOR MY JEWISH COMMENTS.”
The tweets have since been deleted. Whether it was by Ye himself or the “good” folks over at X is anyone’s guess, but best believe millions of people read them before they magically disappeared.
But it didn’t stop there!
Continuing to rage against humanity, Kanye once again stated that slavery is a choice (Christ on crutches) and that he could care less about being canceled in today’s modern culture saying, “WHAT YALL GONE DO CANCEL MY SNEAKER DEAL CANCEL MY RECORD DEAL FREEZE MY ACCOUNTS FUCK ALL YALL NIGGAS SLAVERY IS A CHOICE IM SPEAKING MY MIND NOW I AINT EDITING SHIT AGAIN EVER.”
Notice how all his words are typed in all caps. Rather Trumpian of him. Even Trump’s boss, Elon Musk doesn’t go this route when going on his own rants.
But wair, there’s more!
After posting “F*CK DIAGEO,” Kanye once again threw another shot at the Jewish community and included white people for good measure as he stated “ALL YOU PLEEEEEASE COME AT ME THATS HOW WE SPOT THE KOONS LET THESE WHITE PEOPLE AND JEWISH PEOPLE TELL YOU WHAT TO DO AND SAY FUCK DIAGEO AND FUCK ALL YALL NIGGAS IN ADVANCE.”
Oh, you thought he was done?! No sir, the “Black Skinhead” rapper then went on to say “Hitler was sooooo fresh” in an apparent attempt to buddy up to the Nazis because, well, who the hell knows?
He then followed that up with “CALL ME YAYDOLF YITLER AND YOUR BITCH STILL WANTS TO FUCK.”
Kanye then seemingly calmed down for a moment and analyzed not what he has said, but the responses he’s garnered in his posts writing, “Has anyone ever wanted to get it all off they chest Everything you felt Everything they told you not to say think or feel Then broke niggas in the comments turn into doctors and give their dumb twitter diagnosis.”
Kanye then took aim at the “woke” community saying he “used to be woke too” and posted a picture of his teenage self wearing a “Say no to Nazis” shirt. Apparently Kanye feels being against racism, xenophobia and Nazis is a bad thing in 2025.
Continuing to rail against the “woke” people of the world, Kanye decided to pile on the big boned women of the world saying “My favorite tweet tonight was about woke fat bitches Nobody wanna see that shit.”
We don’t know what he’s talking about cause we love our plus sized women round these parts. Just sayin.
The wild tweets come after Kanye called for Donald Trump to free P. Diddy for whatever reason. Maybe there’s a shortage on pink cocaine or something. Either way, expect more Tom foolery from Kanye West in the coming days and even the rest of the year as the man clearly has a bone to pick with everyone except Nazis.
What do y’all think about Kanye West’s latest rant? Let us know in the comments section below. And we trust those Ye tweets will disappear, but nothing ever leaves the Internets.
Contemporary Christian music stars Matthew West, Jeremy Camp, Mac Powell and Bart Millard are set to host the 12th annual K-LOVE Fan Awards on May 25 at the iconic Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. West and Camp, both 47, have each had six No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart. Powell and […]
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Ye, largely known to most as Kanye West, made a bombastic return to social media recently and the barrage continues after giving a strong salute to the imprisoned Sean “Diddy” Combs. In his most recent rant, Kanye West asked President Donald Trump to free Diddy from jail and the pair also announced a merchandise line.
Kanye West has been on an hours-long rant that mentions his rifts with Jewish people, the styling choices of rappers, and any other thoughts he chooses to express. While we have no opinion to offer on his replies on X, plenty online are shocked at some of his word choices, including those seemingly favorable of Adolf Hitler, the infamous Nazi leader. At one point, Ye refers to Hitler as being “fresh.”
Over on Instagram, Ye shared a video of him FaceTiming Christian Combs, Diddy’s son with the caption of the post reading “A SON TO HIS DAD FOR EVERY SON WHO DAD IS LOCKED UP WRITE OR WRONG I WANT YALL TO LISTEN TO DAVE CHAPELLES JOKES VERY CLOSE THIS TIME LETS SEE HOW FUNNY IT GETS WHEN FAMILIES ARE SEPARATED ESPECIALLY BLACK FAMILIES.”
It appears that Ye FKA Kanye West has done a lot of posting and deleting so the train of thought was lost but he did announce a partnership with Sean John, even sharing some of the potential merch items on his Instagram page, writing in one caption, “YEEZY SEAN JOHN COLLAB AVAILABLE @ YEEZY.COM ME AND PUFF SPLITTING THIS 50/50 LIKE WE DISCUSSED BEFORE THEY LOCKED HIM UP.”
Combs, or someone manning his Instagram account, shared the same announcement and wrote in the caption, “Thank you to my brother @Ye” along with a link to Ye’s Yeezy website where fans can collect the fashion line. We weren’t able to locate the exact comment but many online say that he also asked President Trump to release his good friend, who is serving time in connection to an explosive sexual assault matter.
Ye continued to rail against broke people, defending his wife’s Grammy Awards nude pop-out, calling himself a Nazi, and much more. Ye is also addressing his critics on X, although he’s spent more time just shouting into the void and framing his words as channeling Andrew Tate. To capture the full scope of thoughts, swing by Ye’s X page.
On X, fans are reacting to Ye FKA Kanye West’s latest rant. We’ve got reactions from all sides below.
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Bad Bunny can’t help but flash his pearly white smile in new Super Bowl ad for Ritz Crackers that also features Aubrey Plaza and Michael Shannon. But his positivity and happy-go-lucky attitude make him an outsider at the Ritz Salty Club, a lounge located in Utah’s salt flats where everyone is … salty. The ad […]
Sarah Barthel of Phantogram is glad the band got its start before short-form video apps became the de facto route to break new music. “It’s really hard for me to understand TikTok,” she tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast ahead of a headlining tour supporting the album Memory of a Day that runs through Feb. […]
CCM artist Brandon Lake and country artist Jelly Roll have teamed up for a collaborative version of Lake’s hit song “Hard Fought Hallelujah,” which arrived Friday (Feb. 7).
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Lake first released the song last year, and it quickly hit No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot Christian Songs chart. The Jelly Roll/Lake version infuses the song with an extra shot of soul and angst, as the two artists blend their voices around lyrics that detail how facing trials and battles can result in a strengthened resolve.
Lake takes the first verse and chorus, singing, “There’s days when a praise comes out easy/ And days when it takes all the strength I got.” Jelly Roll soon joins in, adding his point of view on the value struggle revealing the depth of truth of a personal faith: “‘Case faith isn’t proven like gold ’til it’s been through the fire.”
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Together, they sing of finding the fortitude to lift their hands higher in praise and gratitude, even when it is hard to do. Jelly Roll feels like a natural collaborator on this song, given his own track record of tunes that blend heartache, struggle and faith, such as “Son of a Sinner” and “Halfway to Hell.”
Jelly Roll previously took to social media to discuss being part of the song. “This is so hard to talk about, because I’ve been called a ‘lukewarm’, a ‘fence-rider’, I’ve been called a ‘cussing Christian’. You know, I’ve had all these people, and I know that God’s got a lot more to do with me. I know that,” he shared aon Feb. 6. “I know I got a long way to go, and I know that my heart was only to share the faith that changed my life.”
“I might wear it a little different than other people, I might say things that other Christians don’t think are right to say,” he added, “but ultimately, I have a heart for God and I have a heart for Jesus.”
Lake responded, “You are thinking so dangerously outside of the box, even with me, dude, you could have called anybody else in this town, and something a little less controversial”. Endearingly, Lake immediately explains why he chose Jelly: “Because I got his heart.”
Lake has earned four No. 1 Christian Airplay hits, including the nine-week chart-topper “That’s Who I Praise.” Last year, he picked up GMA Dove Award wins for songwriter of the year-artist, and pop/contemporary album of the year for his project Coat of Many Colors.
Meanwhile, Jelly Roll has steadily continued his collaborative ways in the past several months, including releasing collabs with Kane Brown (“Haunted”) and MGK (“Lonely Road”), while his 2024 album Beautifully Broken earned the star his first No. 1 debut on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart.
Hear “Hard Fought Hallelujah” below: