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HipHopWired Featured Video

Source: JD Barnes / for Cassius
Method Man, born Clifford Smith, 53, is being accused of assaulting a man at a Crunch Fitness gymnasium in Staten Island. The kicker is that the alleged receiver of the Wu-Tang Clan rapper and actor’s flying fists of Shaolin was his daughter’s ex-boyfriend.

Details are still scant, but the New York Post first reported about an assault on what the rag described as a “family friend” that occurred on Thursday, January 16. Reportedly, Method Man, allegedly struck Patrick Sokoya, 28, seven times in the face “with a closed fist” according to the cops.

Reportedly, the fisticuffs stemmed from a past relationship Sokoya had with the Iron Lung’s daughter (who is a rapper herself), which was over 10 years ago. Sokoya told the police that he felt dizzy but he passed on medical attention. Although a complaint was filed with NYPD, Method Man was not arrested.
We’re thinking there is a lot more to this story—but don’t expect Meth to give up the goods and you can bet this will be quietly settled, out of court. A rep for Method Man did tell the Post, “Mr. Smith categorically denies the allegations as reported and has not been the subject of an arrest by any law enforcement agency.”
Method Man being at a Crunch gym shouldn’t be a surprise since over the past years he has taken his health seriously and has spoken about heading to the gym early to get his workouts in to various outlets, including CassiusLife.com.
Considering what details we do have, we hope Method Man’s hand is okay. Respectfully.

Dave Chappelle is set to host Saturday Night Live for the fourth time this weekend (Jan. 18), with GloRilla making her musical guest debut.
In a promotional clip for the upcoming episode posted on Thursday (Jan. 16), SNL fan-favorite cast member Marcello Hernández says, “Man, what a chaotic time in the world. I’m so glad that you’re here to bring us together and remind us of what makes us human.”

When Chappelle goes to thank him, Hernández hilariously clarifies, “I was actually talking to GloRilla.” An immediately flattered Glo then tells the comedian, “Thanks, BB!”

Explore

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See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

Elsewhere in the promo, Hernández tells GloRilla how much he loves her 2024 hit, “Yeah, Glo!,” explaining to the rapper that “if it was in Spanish, it would be like ‘Si, Glo!’”

“Oh, I like that. You gonna keep going?” Glo asks, wondering if he’ll deliver the expletive-filled hook in Spanish as well. “I don’t know, I gotta translate,” a flustered Hernández replies with a laugh.

Trending on Billboard

GloRilla’s SNL debut comes three months after the release of the Memphis rapper’s debut solo album, Glorious, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200. The project spawned the single “TGIF,” which peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100, Glo’s highest-reaching unaccompanied entry on the chart.

Watch the promo below, and catch the full episode of Saturday Night Live on Jan. 18 at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC, before it begins streaming on Peacock.

Wendy Williams and her niece called in to The Breakfast Club recently to speak with her old protégé Charlamagne on her health, the conservatorship she’s 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
It’s been a minute since we’ve heard anyone refer to Method Man as Johnny Blaze and while he hasn’t 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 “Don’t Break My Heart,” 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 Man’s rhymes gotten better over the years? Just sayin.’

Back on the block, G MiMs and Dave East hold down the hood and in their clip to “Luv Me 2 Life” the two rappers hit the Chinese takeout spot before kicking it at Dave’s clothing store in Harlem to spit their bars and get things litty.
With a title like that you would’ve thought they were talking about relationship ish too. Noap!
Check out the rest of today’s drops including work from 38 Spesh, R2R Moe, and more.
JHONNI BLAZE FT. METHOD MAN – “DON’T BREAK MY HEART”

G MIMS FT. DAVE EAST – “LUVE ME 2 LIFE”

38 SPESH – “BURN MARKS”

R2R MOE – “PROGRESSION”

PACO PANAMA – “RIDING SPINNERS”

YOUNG DRO & ZAYTOVEN – “PUT IT ON”

BAY SWAG FT. 42 DUGG – “DRANK”

MICK JENKINS – “WARS & RUMORS OF WARS”

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 “Querida Yo,” 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.

“It’s like a letter to myself,” Yami Safdie tells Billboard Español during an interview in Miami. “I do this a lot of spoiling songs on TikTok when I don’t even have them finished or recorded.” If I wrote something that I liked, I uploaded it, and that video went quite viral, many people connected.”

Trending on Billboard

Safdie continues, “Then I uploaded a story, and Cami saw it and told me: ‘What a beautiful song.’ And I’ve been following him for a long time; I admire him a lot; it was like, ‘Well, let’s do it together! It’s for you. “I invited him, and we finished it together.”

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. “I 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,” Camilo reveals. “I 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.”

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. “I remember, for example, when I was in the pandemic, there was one day when Pablo Alborán uploaded a video, and he was singing a song of mine, and he told me, ‘Let’s make this song together,’ says Camilo. “And I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe it.’ Or when Shakira sent me a message and said, ‘I love this song,’ to see if I wanted to join in. Suddenly, those kinds of things don’t happen if you plan them. “It’s very nice when things happen in a real way.”

“But if I tell you the truth, my favorite moment in my life and career is this,” the Colombian singer-songwriter confesses. “I love doing this with Yami because it is also very important to see [the] perspective. “I see the future, and I see someone as talented as Yami.”

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 — who starred in It Ends With Us, which Baldoni directed — 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 “megacelebrity friend” to pressure him to comply with Lively’s 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. “Was working on rooftop scene today, I really love what you did,” Baldoni at one point texted Lively. “Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor).”

Trending on Billboard

In other screenshots, Lively refers to Reynolds and her famous friend as “my most trusted partners” who have “established themselves as absolute titans as writers and storytellers outside of their primary gig — just singing or just acting.”

Billboard has reached out to reps for Baldoni, Swift, Lively and Reynolds for comment.

Also on the topic of the megacelebrity friend, Baldoni’s attorneys wrote that Lively at one point summoned him to her New York penthouse to talk about her version of the script.

“Baldoni was greeted by Ryan Reynolds, who launched into enthusiastic praise for Lively’s version of the scene,” the filing says of the meeting. “Hours later, as the meeting was ending, a famous, and famously close, friend of Reynolds and Lively, walked into the room and similarly began praising Lively’s script. Baldoni understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Lively’s direction for the script.”

“Later, Baldoni felt obliged to text Lively to say that he had liked her pages and hadn’t needed Reynolds and her megacelebrity friend to pressure him,” the suit continues. “The 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.”

Baldoni is seeking $400 million from Lively and Reynolds for “deploying their enormous power to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio.” 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. “Grateful for these individuals,” 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 — born Clifford Smith — tells Billboard: “Mr. 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. 

As wildfires decimated the city’s 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.  

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.  

“I was literally in shock and horror,” says the publicist, who’s requested anonymity. “I saw a lot of names who I knew that had lost their homes, so I just opened a spreadsheet and labeled it ‘fire victims.’ I started putting the names down, and then I put a post online saying, ‘Let’s keep track of the music and musician community, especially for fundraising.’”  

A list that started with 10 names now — as of publication on Thursday (Jan. 16) — 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.  

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 “every single person’s name was missing and everything was sorted incorrectly, and that just wasn’t going to work.” There were also a few hours when every name on the list was accidentally deleted, after which the document was made read-only.  

At this point, the publicist thought about creating a submission page but then reconsidered, thinking people reaching out to add their names “needed more of a human interaction.” Instead, she directed people to reach out to her directly and was soon receiving new names — along with other data like the number of people and pets living in the house, their affiliation to the music business and their needs — via email, text and across social accounts.

“I started typing them in by hand and working on it pretty much all day over the weekend,” she says. (Editor‘s 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.) 

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.  

“When I first saw the growing list, it became an invaluable source of information about friends and colleagues in need,” Matthews says. “I 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 it’s gratifying to feel like I’m contributing in some way during this time, it still feels small in the face of such an immense tragedy — but it’s something… I hope our efforts have played some part in inspiring this remarkable outpouring of generosity.” 

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 wasn’t 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.  

“At GoFundMe, we continue to be inspired by our community’s kindness, generosity and empathy, especially in moments like this,” a representative for the company tells Billboard. “These 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.” 

As the list has grown, it’s 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 who’ve lost their employment.  

“It’s so hard to leave thousands of people off this [music business] list,” says the publicist. “But it lets everyone start with their community. The mutual aid is so strong in L.A.” 

The publicist has heard some criticism from people who’ve argued that the list contains names of “all the privileged people,” which she stresses is not true. “There are so many musicians of various stripes, colors and ages on this, from every genre,” she says. “Yes, there are some people of more privilege here, but by and large, a lot of these people are just families getting by. They’re music teachers, cellists, piano teachers, composers. It’s such a wide swath of the music business.” 

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, “The only thing that’s really working is my GoFundMe.” 

The publicist also notes that some of the particularly affluent people who’ve lost everything in the fires are not doing GoFundMes given that they’re able to deal with the situation with the financial resources they already have.  

But, she says, “I think we have to have a lot of empathy for even the richest people that lost everything they loved and worked for — 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.” 

The willingness to help thus far is unabated. During the list’s eight days of existence, there’s always been between 20 and 150 people looking in the document at any given moment.  

“You can’t even use the [updating] tools,” the publicist says, “because there’s too much traffic.” 

Wendy Williams denies being cognitively impaired and speaks further about her guardianship, while Diddy’s lawyers claim ‘Freak-Off’ videos appear to be “consensual.” Keep watching for the updates on Diddy & Wendy Williams. Tetris Kelly: Diddy’s lawyers are claiming the ‘Freak-Off’ tapes aren’t criminal, and Wendy Williams is back saying she’s being imprisoned.  Wendy Williams: I […]