News
Page: 357
Wendy Williams and her niece called in to The Breakfast Club recently to speak with her old protĂŠgĂŠ Charlamagne on her health, the conservatorship sheâs apparently in and her thoughts on Diddy, who is currently awaiting trial on multiple charges which includes sex trafficking. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts […]

HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Starz / Starz
Itâs been a minute since weâve heard anyone refer to Method Man as Johnny Blaze and while he hasnât used that moniker in a minute, someone else has picked up the mantle and decided to breathe new life into the name with the help of the Wu-Tang OG.
Linking up with the Ticallion Stallion for her visuals to âDonât Break My Heart,â Jhonni Blaze and, well, Johnny Blaze (Method Man) kick it on a couch while Ms. JB sings about her relationship woes and Mr. Meth pours his heart out through his raps and weed smoke. Is it us or has Method Manâs rhymes gotten better over the years? Just sayin.â
Back on the block, G MiMs and Dave East hold down the hood and in their clip to âLuv Me 2 Lifeâ the two rappers hit the Chinese takeout spot before kicking it at Daveâs clothing store in Harlem to spit their bars and get things litty.
With a title like that you wouldâve thought they were talking about relationship ish too. Noap!
Check out the rest of todayâs drops including work from 38 Spesh, R2R Moe, and more.
JHONNI BLAZE FT. METHOD MAN â âDONâT BREAK MY HEARTâ
G MIMS FT. DAVE EAST â âLUVE ME 2 LIFEâ
38 SPESH â âBURN MARKSâ
R2R MOE â âPROGRESSIONâ
PACO PANAMA â âRIDING SPINNERSâ
YOUNG DRO & ZAYTOVEN â âPUT IT ONâ
BAY SWAG FT. 42 DUGG â âDRANKâ
MICK JENKINS â âWARS & RUMORS OF WARSâ

Like a bandage for the heart, Argentine singer-songwriter Yami Safdie teams up with multi-award-winning Colombian artist Camilo to release her new single âQuerida Yo,â a sweet pop ballad loaded with incredible performance.
The new ballad is a tribute to personal empowerment and the hope of releasing the vulnerabilities we face by choosing to become our greatest strength, conveying the true message of the meaning of faith.
âItâs like a letter to myself,â Yami Safdie tells Billboard EspaĂąol during an interview in Miami. âI do this a lot of spoiling songs on TikTok when I donât even have them finished or recorded.â If I wrote something that I liked, I uploaded it, and that video went quite viral, many people connected.â
Trending on Billboard
Safdie continues, âThen I uploaded a story, and Cami saw it and told me: âWhat a beautiful song.â And Iâve been following him for a long time; I admire him a lot; it was like, âWell, letâs do it together! Itâs for you. âI invited him, and we finished it together.â
As a manifestation, the Argentine singer-songwriter visualized this collaboration in a certain way. For his part, Camilo tells how he connected to join this collaboration. âI found it to be a sincere, unpretentious way to have a conversation with yourself. I saw myself in that song, more than singing it, and as an artist, I was part of the song,â Camilo reveals. âI saw myself, my story, and my life in that song. I saw myself reflected. It is the power of the song, and it is very nice to see how it happened to me.â
For Yami, this collaboration is another dream come true in his career. Camilo also remembers some of the collaborations that he dreamed of at some point and that have occurred in his career. âI remember, for example, when I was in the pandemic, there was one day when Pablo AlborĂĄn uploaded a video, and he was singing a song of mine, and he told me, âLetâs make this song together,â says Camilo. âAnd I was like, âWow, I canât believe it.â Or when Shakira sent me a message and said, âI love this song,â to see if I wanted to join in. Suddenly, those kinds of things donât happen if you plan them. âItâs very nice when things happen in a real way.â
âBut if I tell you the truth, my favorite moment in my life and career is this,â the Colombian singer-songwriter confesses. âI love doing this with Yami because it is also very important to see [the] perspective. âI see the future, and I see someone as talented as Yami.â

Justin Baldoni filed a bombshell $400 million lawsuit against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds Thursday (Jan. 16), and he appears to have referenced Taylor Swift in the filing.
In a 179-page suit obtained by Billboard, the actor-director accused the Gossip Girl actress â who starred in It Ends With Us, which Baldoni directed â and her famous husband of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy, alleging the couple hijacked his vision for their film before trying to destroy his image with false allegations of sexual harassment. In one of several complaints raised in the filing, Baldoni implies that Lively at one point attempted to use the influence of a âmegacelebrity friendâ to pressure him to comply with Livelyâs ideas for the It Ends With Us script.
A screenshot of text messages between Baldoni and Lively also included in the filing appears to confirm that the famous friend is Swift. âWas working on rooftop scene today, I really love what you did,â Baldoni at one point texted Lively. âMakes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor).â
Trending on Billboard
In other screenshots, Lively refers to Reynolds and her famous friend as âmy most trusted partnersâ who have âestablished themselves as absolute titans as writers and storytellers outside of their primary gig â just singing or just acting.â
Billboard has reached out to reps for Baldoni, Swift, Lively and Reynolds for comment.
Also on the topic of the megacelebrity friend, Baldoniâs attorneys wrote that Lively at one point summoned him to her New York penthouse to talk about her version of the script.
âBaldoni was greeted by Ryan Reynolds, who launched into enthusiastic praise for Livelyâs version of the scene,â the filing says of the meeting. âHours later, as the meeting was ending, a famous, and famously close, friend of Reynolds and Lively, walked into the room and similarly began praising Livelyâs script. Baldoni understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Livelyâs direction for the script.â
âLater, Baldoni felt obliged to text Lively to say that he had liked her pages and hadnât needed Reynolds and her megacelebrity friend to pressure him,â the suit continues. âThe message could not have been clearer. Baldoni was not just dealing with Lively. He was also facing ⌠two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world, who were not afraid to make things very difficult for him.â
Baldoni is seeking $400 million from Lively and Reynolds for âdeploying their enormous power to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio.â His lawsuit comes about a month after Lively filed her own lawsuit against Baldoni, accusing the director of harassment on set and coordinating a smear campaign against her after the film was finished.
In December, Baldoni sued The New York Times for $250 million over its coverage of the fallout between him and Lively.
Selena Gomez is giving back amid the devastating Los Angeles wildfires. In a series of Instagram Stories she posted on Thursday (Jan. 16), Gomez is seen volunteering by helping separate and distribute sandwiches to those who have been displaced by the tragedy. âGrateful for these individuals,â she wrote over one of the clips, which featured […]
Method Man has denied allegations of assault at a gym in Staten Island as reported by the New York Post on Thursday (Jan. 16). A rep for Meth â born Clifford Smith â tells Billboard: âMr. Smith categorically denies the allegations as reported and has not been the subject of an arrest by any law […]

It was the morning of Jan. 8, and Los Angeles was burning.Â
As wildfires decimated the cityâs Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods, many evacuees from those areas posted urgent updates on social media saying they and their families had just fled homes that, for many, no longer existed. Â
Angelenos living outside areas where fires were actively burning watched with dread as dark smoke blotted out the sun in areas across town, wondering how they could help their friends and if they might be next. As many took action to help, one longtime music publicist started doing what she does best: organizing information. Â
âI was literally in shock and horror,â says the publicist, whoâs requested anonymity. âI saw a lot of names who I knew that had lost their homes, so I just opened a spreadsheet and labeled it âfire victims.â I started putting the names down, and then I put a post online saying, âLetâs keep track of the music and musician community, especially for fundraising.ââ Â
A list that started with 10 names now â as of publication on Thursday (Jan. 16) â contains 365, nearly all of them listed with corresponding GoFundMe links. The list has helped raise a collective $13 million in donations in the eight days since its creation, the publicist says. Â
The spreadsheet was originally an open-source document anyone could add to, but when the publicist woke up on the morning of Jan. 9 and opened it, she saw that âevery single personâs name was missing and everything was sorted incorrectly, and that just wasnât going to work.â There were also a few hours when every name on the list was accidentally deleted, after which the document was made read-only. Â
At this point, the publicist thought about creating a submission page but then reconsidered, thinking people reaching out to add their names âneeded more of a human interaction.â Instead, she directed people to reach out to her directly and was soon receiving new names â along with other data like the number of people and pets living in the house, their affiliation to the music business and their needs â via email, text and across social accounts.
âI started typing them in by hand and working on it pretty much all day over the weekend,â she says. (Editorâs note: A submission page was ultimately added. If you or someone you know has been affected by the fires and would like a name added to the list, submit the info here.)Â
Then Zac Matthews, chairman of the music department at Pasadena City College, reached out and offered to help. Matthews is not only helping manage the list but adding names from the broader musical community. Â
âWhen I first saw the growing list, it became an invaluable source of information about friends and colleagues in need,â Matthews says. âI implemented a few improvements to make it quicker and easier to add people and have been working on keeping it up-to-date and gradually more functional. While itâs gratifying to feel like Iâm contributing in some way during this time, it still feels small in the face of such an immense tragedy â but itâs something⌠I hope our efforts have played some part in inspiring this remarkable outpouring of generosity.âÂ
The list is now being run by a small team, with assistance from Los Angeles NPR affiliate KCRW, which is hosting additional tabs that include a benefit concert calendar and forms to contribute or find equipment donations and pro-bono studio time.
GoFundMe itself also reached out to assist with vetting the GoFundMes and making sure none of them were fraudulent. (As far as the publicist knows, none were, although one was removed at the request of the recipient as they felt their need wasnât as great as others.) The company is also developing a column for the list that will automatically update how much money each individual GoFundMe has raised, along with the collective amount. Â
âAt GoFundMe, we continue to be inspired by our communityâs kindness, generosity and empathy, especially in moments like this,â a representative for the company tells Billboard. âThese grassroots organizers compiling lists for communities have helped create a ripple effect of good by further amplifying fundraisers to help provide even more support for people in need.âÂ
As the list has grown, itâs also expanded to include information regarding the possibility of FEMA and insurance companies monitoring the fundraisers and the potential of this affecting eventual payouts from these entities, with the list offering recommended wording to avoid this. It also contains links to similar spreadsheets for Black families, Latino families and Filipino families displaced by the fire, along with one listing domestic workers whoâve lost their employment. Â
âItâs so hard to leave thousands of people off this [music business] list,â says the publicist. âBut it lets everyone start with their community. The mutual aid is so strong in L.A.âÂ
The publicist has heard some criticism from people whoâve argued that the list contains names of âall the privileged people,â which she stresses is not true. âThere are so many musicians of various stripes, colors and ages on this, from every genre,â she says. âYes, there are some people of more privilege here, but by and large, a lot of these people are just families getting by. Theyâre music teachers, cellists, piano teachers, composers. Itâs such a wide swath of the music business.âÂ
Matthew Willems, a producer and label owner who, along with his girlfriend, lost everything after their one-bedroom apartment burned down in the Altadena fire, and whose name is on the list, says that in terms of immediate financial aid, âThe only thing thatâs really working is my GoFundMe.âÂ
The publicist also notes that some of the particularly affluent people whoâve lost everything in the fires are not doing GoFundMes given that theyâre able to deal with the situation with the financial resources they already have. Â
But, she says, âI think we have to have a lot of empathy for even the richest people that lost everything they loved and worked for â family photos, mementos, jewelry that their grandmother passed down. So much is gone from people, both rich and poor, that we have to have empathy for everybody. But we have to have monetary empathy for the working class.âÂ
The willingness to help thus far is unabated. During the listâs eight days of existence, thereâs always been between 20 and 150 people looking in the document at any given moment. Â
âYou canât even use the [updating] tools,â the publicist says, âbecause thereâs too much traffic.âÂ
Wendy Williams denies being cognitively impaired and speaks further about her guardianship, while Diddyâs lawyers claim âFreak-Offâ videos appear to be âconsensual.â Keep watching for the updates on Diddy & Wendy Williams. Tetris Kelly: Diddyâs lawyers are claiming the âFreak-Offâ tapes arenât criminal, and Wendy Williams is back saying sheâs being imprisoned. Wendy Williams: I […]

HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: Eva Marie Uzcategui / Getty / Elon Musk
Elon Musk claims to be a top-tier gamer, but gamers arenât so sure about that based on his Path of Exile 2 streaming footage.
Musk somehow found a way to squeeze in a lot of time to play Path of Exile 2 despite spending most of his time kissing Donald Trumpâs ass t Mar-a-Lago and supposedly pushing to make America efficient again.
While streaming himself playing the game with two extremely high-ranking builds on hardcore mode, which features a permadeath mechanic permanently killing your character if you die, gamers noticed something very peculiar: his lack of skill.
Watching Musk clumsily navigate the game despite having a high-ranking character raised gamersâ eyebrows, leading many to question whether he is a gaming god.
After some investigation, the answer is a resounding no. Gamers, including popular Twitch streamer Asmongold, have called him a âfake gamerâ and accused him of paying someone to grind the game for him or as one YouTube commenter called it, âfraudmaxing.â
Per Vulture:
The key evidence that Musk doesnât know what heâs doing is as follows: Musk burns past the high-value items while picking up the worthless ones; Musk seemingly does not know which icon to click on to enter a map; Musk doesnât seem to realize that he needs to replenish his mana (essentially his magic levels) in order to deal effective damage against a boss (it is unfathomable that he should not know how to do this if heâs played even an hour of any RPG); worst of all, and certainly the most painful to watch for a seasoned Path of Exile 2 player, is the way Musk â supposed veteran PC gamer â inefficiently drags and drops loot into his inventory.
Musk, being the man-child he is, also unfollowed Asmongold, stripped him of his verified status and shared the DMs they exchanged with each other.
Elon Musk removed Asmongoldâs check mark and leaked private DMs after POE criticism pic.twitter.com/upC4M0jWuD
â yeet (@Awk20000) January 16, 2025
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Leaking my DMâs is one thing but this is absolutely uncalled for https://t.co/I4eRo2QPKF
â Zack (@Asmongold) January 16, 2025
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
What a loser.
Now you see why we call him Phony Stark.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
Brianna LaPaglia may not have gotten the love story she thought she would with Zach Bryan, but sheâs still thankful for their breakup as it led her to Taylor Swiftâs discography.
In a cover story interview with Sports Illustrated published Wednesday (Jan. 15), the 25-year-old influencer â known to many by her nickname, Brianna Chickenfry â opened up about turning to the pop superstarâs music following her messy split from the country musician. âItâs unfortunate that it took this circumstance to get to be a Swiftie, but at the end of the day, Iâm very grateful that I have found Taylor,â she told the publication.
âNow Iâm not just listening to pop music, Iâm listening to the diary of someone who experienced something completely the same as me,â LaPaglia added. âI can listen to it and be like, âWow, how the hell does she have a song for everything?â And I mean, everything. For what Iâm going through now, thereâs a song, thereâs an era, thereâs something for everything in Taylor Swiftâs music.â
Trending on Billboard
The podcaster and Bryan broke up in October after over a year of dating. LaPaglia soon opened up about the issues she faced in the relationship, accusing the âI Remember Everythingâ artist of emotionally abusing her and claiming that she refused his offer of $12 million and a New York apartment to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) following their split.
While speaking to SI, LaPaglia revealed that sheâs opened up more emotionally now that sheâs single again. âWhen I walk into a room, I want to talk to everyone,â she reflected to the publication. âWhen the relationship first started, that became a problem for him; I was talking too much or I was being too much, and maybe the spotlight was not on him enough. Thatâs how he made me feel: Oh, I need to dim myself down.â
As for Bryanâs history with Swift, the former previously found himself in hot water with Swifties after tweeting, âeagles > chiefs / Kanye > Taylorâ and adding, âwhoâs with me.â
He quickly apologized, writing on X in September, âI was drunkenly comparing two records and it came out wrong. I know thereâs a lot of stuff that clouds around Ye and I was speaking purely musically. I love Taylorâs music and pray you guys know Iâm human and tweet stupid things often. Hope one day I can explain this to her.â