News

30 Mar 2023

Jason Isbell, Questlove & More React to Donald Trump Indictment

Donald Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on Thursday (March 30) on charges stemming from 2016 payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal to silence claims of extramarital sexual encounters.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

The historic event marks the first criminal case against a former U.S. president. The news comes as Trump is also facing investigations into his alleged involvement in 2020 election interference by his supporters and the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, in addition to his handling of classified documents after he was no longer in office.

“He did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this this political prosecution in Court,” lawyers Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina said in a statement, according to Associated Press.

At press time, the New York grand jury’s exact charges toward Trump are unknown.

In late 2016, amid Trump’s presidential campaign, his former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her silent about an incident a decade earlier after they met at a celebrity gold tournament. Earlier that year, Cohen had also arranged for the National Enquirer‘s publisher to pay McDougal $150,000 to stop her story of a Trump affair. Trump was implicated in court filings as knowing of the arrangements.

Trump reacted to the indictment in a statement, calling the situation “Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” as well as a “Witch-Hunt” led by “Radical Left Democrats.”

“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable — indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference,” he wrote.

A number of stars have taken to social media to react to the news, including Questlove, Jason Isbell and more. See below.

30 Mar 2023

Ex-Fugees Rapper Pras’ Multimillion-Dollar Politics Conspiracy Trial Opens

A founding member of the 1990s hip-hop group the Fugees was enmeshed in political conspiracies involving millions of dollars in foreign money under two different U.S. presidents, federal prosecutors said as his trial got underway with opening statements Thursday (March 30).

Prakazrel “Pras” Michel is accused of funneling money from a fugitive Malaysian financer through straw donors to Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Five years later, prosecutors say he tried to squelch an investigation into the financier and persuade then-President Donald Trump’s administration to return to China a “vocal critic of the government.”

“This is a case about foreign money, foreign influence and concealment,” said prosecutor Nicole Rae Lockhart. Michel pocketed over $100 million in the saga involving “political intrigue, backroom dealing … burner phones and lies,” she said.

Michel’s lawyers have previously said he is innocent and “extremely disappointed” in the charges, but the defense decided to wait to give its opening statement in the trial that’s expected to last weeks.

The Department of Justice says Michel conspired with Low Taek Jho, usually known as Jho Low. The fugitive financier is accused of masterminding a money-laundering and bribery scheme that pilfered billions from the Malaysian state investment fund known as 1MDB.

Looted money paid for jewelry and luxury art and helped finance Hollywood films like The Wolf of Wall Street.

Low was once known for his business and social ties to American celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Leonardo DiCaprio, a possible witness in the case. During the 2012 presidential campaign, prosecutors allege Low directed more than $20 million to Michel, who concealed its origin by giving the money to straw donors to give to the Obama campaign. He later tried to lean on the donors to keep them from talking to investigators, Lockhart said.

In 2017, prosecutors say, the Grammy-winning rapper worked with a Republican “fixer” to try and shut down a U.S. investigation into Low and embezzlement from the Malaysian fund. He’s also accused of pushing the Trump administration to send a Chinese person who had fled to the U.S. back to China.

“It almost worked,” Lockhart said. “The defendant wanted money and was willing to break any laws necessary to get paid.”

The Justice Department last year announced charges against Low and two former Goldman Sachs bankers in the money laundering and bribery scheme that pilfered money from the fund, which was created to spur economic development projects in Malaysia. Low is a fugitive but has maintained his innocence.

One of the bankers, Roger Ng, was sentenced to 10 years in prison this month for his role in the scheme.

30 Mar 2023

Lamborghini Unveils Its Hybrid Supercar The Revuelto

HipHopWired Featured Video

LAMBORGHINI REVUELTO

Source: LAMBORGHINI / Lamborghini

One of the most coveted automobile brands is looking to up the stakes yet again. Lamborghini has unveiled their newest supercar The Revuelto.

LAMBORGHINI REVUELTO

Source: LAMBORGHINI / Lamborghini

As spotted on Hype Beast the Italian manufacturer is closing the story on their iconic Aventador model. This week they peeled back the curtains on their long rumored first entry to the hybrid category. The Revuelto is being billed as “a super sports V12 hybrid plug-in high performance electrified vehicle” that delivers 1001 in horsepower. To no surprise the car keeps to the brand’s exotic lines and signature silhouette.

The Revuelto offers a completely new Human Machine Interface (HMI) system consisting of three displays: a 12.3′ instrument cluster, 8.4′ central display, and in addition a 9.1′ display. The system has a fresh look and feel, with 3D graphics, animations, widgets and styling. The three displays are managed by one technological ‘brain’ within a unified design, ensuring both a consistent user interface in terms of colors and graphics, as well as coherent interaction across all displays.

As expected Lamborghini leadership is excited about the launch. “The new Revuelto is a milestone in the history of Lamborghini, and an important pillar in our Direzione Cor Tauri electrification strategy,” said Stephan Winkelmann, Lamborghini Chairman and CEO in a press release. “It is a unique and innovative car but at the same time faithful to our DNA: the V12 is an iconic symbol of our super sports heritage and history. Revuelto was born to break the mold, combining a new 12-cylinder engine with hybrid technology, creating the perfect balance between delivering the emotion that our clients want with the necessity to reduce emissions.”

The Lamborghini Revuelto is currently not for sale and will be released later this year. At this time the price has not been confirmed.

Photo: Lamborghini

30 Mar 2023

BTS Stays Busy, Charlie & Sabrina’s Short Film, Taylor’s Chart Reign & More | Billboard News

Taylor Swift has an uninterrupted 18-year run of debuts on the Hot 100 and marks the longest active streak among all acts. Charlie Puth dropped a short film for his new track ‘That’s Not How This Works’ featuring Sabrina Carpenter. Zara Larsson stopped by Billboard News to talk about meeting Beyoncé, which artists she really wants to work with, and her least favorite TikTok trend. Eladio Carrión chatted with Billboard’s Leila Cobo at SXSW and gave her all the details about making his new album ‘3MEN2 KBRN’, working with his favorite artists, his upcoming Sauce Boyz Festival and more!

30 Mar 2023

Arrest The President: Manhattan Grand Jury Indicts Donald Trump, Twitter Celebrates #TrumpIndictment

HipHopWired Featured Video

CLOSE

Trump Iowa

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

In news that everyone expected, but that no one quite knew of the exact timing—on Thursday, March 30, a Manhattan Grand Jury voted to indict former POTUS Donald Trump. The indictment remains under seal, for now, but they do reference a felony.

Previously, Trump claimed that he would be indicted on Tuesday, March 21, which the moments he shared on social media was clearly something he pulled out of his ass. A grand jury works in secret, with only people who may have participated leading to the press knowing what transpired. Nevertheless, mainstream media ran with the date as if it was fact.

However, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg did not waiver, going about his business and ever curving pressure and potential interference from Congress. But the hammer has finally dropped, more like “initially,” on Individual One. The charged will be tied to the hush money he paid sex worker Stormy Daniels while he was campaigning to be come President.

Reports the New York Times:

A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Donald J. Trump on Thursday for his role in paying hush money to a porn star, according to five people with knowledge of the matter, a historic development that will shake up the 2024 presidential race and forever mark him as the nation’s first former president to face criminal charges.

In the coming days, prosecutors working for the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, will likely ask Mr. Trump to surrender and to face arraignment. The specific charges will be announced when he is arraigned.

Read: Donald Trump is going to be getting mugshot, just like any other citizen who gets indicted.

It goes without saying that Twitter is having a field day, and celebrating. Of course the MAGA wing of Twitter is having a fit, but that’s every day for that team.

2. FOX News gonna FOX News.

30 Mar 2023

Publishing Briefs: Tash Sultana Expands Kobalt Deal, WCM Extends Deal With Bad Bunny-Collaborator MAG

Warner Chappell Music has renewed its publishing agreement with Grammy-winning producer MAG, a frequent collaborator of Bad Bunny. In 2022, MAG earned the No. 5 spot on Billboard’s all-genre Year-End Hot 100 Producers chart.

Australian musician Tash Sultana has renewed their publishing agreement with Kobalt. Sultana’s working relationship with Kobalt began in 2017, and the new deal will see Kobalt acting as Sultana’s publishing administrator, including global sync and creative services for future songs.

Wise Music Group has signed a co-publishing deal with influential Indian composer Ravi Shankar. The music company has also acquired Shankar’s archives, including many unreleased recordings and control of his record label East Meets West Music.

Position Music has launched a joint venture with Big Noise Music. Their partnership begins with first signee John “Feldy” Feldmann, a Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter best known for his work with Avicii, Blink-182, 5 Seconds of Summer, Panic at the Disco! and more. Position Music will also now represent Big Noise Music’s publishing catalog for synchronization, including Mod Sun, The Used, The Wrecks, The Veronicas, girlfriends, Goldfinger, Escape the Fate, Arrested Youth among others.

Music rights investment company MusicBird has announced the new acquisition of Midge Ure‘s catalog. MusicBird now owns the writer’s share of publishing plus master recording and neighboring rights income on over 300 songs across his solo career as well as his work with Ultravox, Visage and more.

Jimmy Robbins has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Boom Music Group in partnership with Cinq Music Group. Robbins already 10 No. 1 songs under his belt as a songwriter, including hits with Kelsea Ballerini, Kenny Chesney, Maren Morris, Thomas Rhett, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert and more.

SILO: Music hosted its first Pop & Industry event MIND THE GAP on March 23rd in Los Angeles. The event featured performances from SILO: Music artists like Dan Caplen, Drew Love, Bernhoft, Kelsy Karter (who filled in for Paloma Faith) and Thutmose, who both performed songs curated by the music company for sync use.

IMPF has added Vistex, a company which offers a system to capture all contracts, metadata and royalty activity in a single place, to its “Friends and Supporters” category. Launched in 2021, this category was aimed at commercial companies that work to create transparency with the independent music publishing community worldwide.

Salt, a company which built a high-tech SaaS platform for processing and distributing rights holder royalties, has inked a 10-year deal with Dutch music society BumaStemra. Along with the announcement of the decade-long agreement, Salt has also announced its acquisition of Session, an app which “supports music creators from idea to release,” and has added ABBA member Björn Ulvaeus, who co-founded Session, to Salt’s board of directors.

Concord Music Publishing has signed Colony House vocalist Caleb Chapman to handle publishing for his future works worldwide.

30 Mar 2023

US Army Cuts Jonathan Majors From Ad Campaign

HipHopWired Featured Video

Jonathan Majors2023 Sundance Film Festival - The Big Conversation 2

Source: Momodu Mansaray / Getty

The Army is proceeding with the exclusion of Jonathan Majors from its upcoming slate of new ads after his recent arrest for alleged assault.

Sources have confirmed that the Army is close to releasing new advertisements in its recent campaign that exclude the actor in time for them to air during the NCAA’s Final Four men’s and women’s games this weekend. The ads were also set up to appear online and through social media platforms along with being displayed on digital and physical billboards. The purchase is estimated at $117 million.

Jonathan Majors, who currently stars in Creed III and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, was brought on to feature in the advertisements due to his high appeal, especially with a younger demographic. The Army’s aim of enlisting 60,000 recruits last year fell woefully under its goal by 25%. The new campaign, a revitalization of the “Be All You Can Be” slogan, first debuted in 1981 and was the hallmark of the armed force for two decades.

Congressional lawmakers did note the situation in a meeting held by the House of Representatives Appropriation defense subcommittee. “I see you had a bit of bad luck on your ‘Be All You Can Be’ commercial,” said Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., the chairman of the committee to Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Gen. James McConville, the Army’s chief of staff. “Hopefully you’re cutting a new commercial and getting it online as quickly as possible.”

“A majority of that content did not contain our main narrator. … So we have a ton of content to go back to, to create basically new commercials new ads, if we need to,” U.S. Army marketing head Major General Alex Fink said in a statement to the press issued Wednesday (March 30). “The campaign is full steam ahead.”

The 33-year-old actor was arrested Saturday (March 25), in New York City and charged with strangulation, assault and harassment. Representatives for the New York Police Department state he was involved in a domestic dispute with a 30-year-old woman. Majors’ lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, has stated that there’s evidence clearing Majors whom she states is “the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows.” Majors is expected back in court May 8.

30 Mar 2023

Songtradr Completes 7Digital Acquisition

Songtradr has completed its acquisition of U.K. digital music company 7digital, the company announced on Thursday (March 30).

When the deal was first announced on Feb. 8 prior to being finalized, 7digital said it planned to accept a bid worth 19.4 million pounds ($23.4 million), with its shareholders set to receive 0.695 pence ($0.84) per share in cash, a 114% premium over the prior day’s closing price.

Songtradr is a music licensing marketplace and distribution platform that matches rights holders with brands via a searchable database. 7digital offers a range of digital music services for businesses, including licensing, tracking, reporting and paying rights holders. It has integrated with over 300,000 labels and publishers and boasts a catalog of over 80 million tracks.

In a release, Songtradr states that the acquisition “solidifies” it “as a key leader in the business-to-business music industry, establishing the company as the only one-stop music solution for digital platforms and brands worldwide.” Among other benefits, Songtradr says the acquisition will expand its ability “to power user experiences” on digital platforms including social media, lifestyle apps and video games while “extending its reach into new markets” — all thanks to 7digital’s “highly scalable” music delivery platform and “comprehensive” music catalog. 7digital’s list of clients includes global brands like Pinterest, Barry’s and Triller.

In a statement, Songtradr CEO Paul Wiltshire said the 7digital acquisition will help it achieve its goal “to remove the friction and help deliver scalable solutions for the music industry while simplifying music use for enterprise brands and digital platforms.”

Added 7digital CEO Paul Langworthy, “Together, we will have an unparalleled combination of catalog, technology, and capabilities, allowing us to better serve our current clients and offer new enterprise clients an exceptional range of data, services, and opportunities.”

Since the company’s launch in 2014, Santa Monica, Calif.-based Songtradr has raised over $100 million to build a company focused on solving many of the inefficiencies in music licensing. It acquired AI metadata and music search company Musicube in 2022, music licensing agency Massive Music in 2021 and licensing agency Big Synch Music in 2019. In 2021, Songtradr established a global creative division headed up by industry veteran Amanda Schupf. The company currently has teams in 16 countries.

As announced last month, Langworthy and the rest of 7digital’s senior leadership team will join Songtradr, though interim chairman Mark Foster, CFO Michael Juskiewicz and all nonexecutive directors will step down. Songtradr will also repay 7digital’s £2 million ($2.14 million) revolving credit facility as well as two £500,000 ($536,000) loans. The company will continue operating 7digital’s London office for now.

The acquisition by Songtradr closes out an unstable period for 7digital, which in July 2019 faced the possibility of entering administration — or the U.K. equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy — unless it managed to raise £4.5 million ($5.5 million) in additional funds by the end of that month.

30 Mar 2023

Megan Thee Stallion Could Star in Safdie Brothers’ Next Movie With Adam Sandler

News broke Thursday (March 30) that Megan Thee Stallion is in talks to join the cast of Josh and Benny Safdie’s new Netflix movie.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the rapper — whose legal name is Megan Pete — will appear opposite headlining star Adam Sandler, who last teamed with the Safdies for the acclaimed 2019 crime drama Uncut Gems.

Should Meg nail down a role in the yet-untitled film, it will follow her upcoming big-screen debut in F—ing Identical Twins. Based on the stage production of the same name and directed by Larry Charles, the musical romp from A24 will also star Aaron Jackson, Josh Sharp, Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally and Bowen Yang. Megan previously made a one-off cameo on an episode of Marvel’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, appeared as her alter ego Tina Snow in season 2 of the Starz drama P-Valley, and spent two seasons judging HBO’s ballroom voguing competition series Legendary.

A further pivot into acting adds yet another layer to the Grammy winner’s ever-dynamic career. At the Vanity Fair Oscar party earlier this month, she teased that she’s started working on new music as a follow-up to her sophomore album Traumazine. The 2022 release featured the singles “Sweetest Pie” with Dua Lipa, “Plan B,” “Pressurelicious” featuring Future, “Her” and the Key Glock-assisted “Ungrateful.”

Meanwhile, Tory Lanez has attempted to reignite the legal drama between himself and the female rapper by requesting a new trial after being found guilty last year of shooting her in 2020.

30 Mar 2023

HHW Gaming: E3 2023 Has Been Canceled, Gamers Say RIP To The Iconic Gaming Convention

HipHopWired Featured Video

CLOSE

E3 2023 Canceled, Gamers Say RIP To Video Game Convention

Source: ESA / E3 2023

Welp, E3 2023 has been put on ice…again.

IGN broke the news that two sources confirmed with the website that the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) is canceling this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.

The sad news comes after multiple video game companies like Ubisoft, Sega, and Tencent pulled out of the event, giving the gaming industry and gamers the vibe that E3 2023 was not happening.

Per IGN:

Two sources have confirmed to IGN that the organization announced the cancellation via an email sent out to its members today. The email said that while E3 “remains a beloved event and brand,” that the 2023 version “simply did not garner the sustained interest necessary to execute it in a way that would showcase the size, strength, and impact of our industry.”

The ESA concludes the email by reiterating its commitment to advocacy work. It does not mention undertaking the show again in future years.

The ESA did confirm IGN’s reporting with a statement from Kyle Marsden-Kish, Global VP of Gaming, ReedPop:

This was a difficult decision because of all the effort we and our partners put toward making this event happen, but we had to do what’s right for the industry and what’s right for E3. We appreciate and understand that interested companies wouldn’t have playable demos ready and that resourcing challenges made being at E3 this summer an obstacle they couldn’t overcome. For those who did commit to E3 2023, we’re sorry we can’t put on the showcase you deserve and that you’ve come to expect from ReedPop’s event experiences.

The statement also claims that ReedPop and the ESA will continue to work on “future E3 events.” We shall see about that.

Twitter Says RIP To E3

Reactions to the news immediately began to hit Twitter timelines, with some users congratulating Summer Game Fest’s creator Geoff Keighley for officially owning the summer.

Keighley didn’t waste any time plugging his event after the news broke about E3 2023.

RIP E3 became a trending topic immediately, with gamers and members of video game media sharing fond memories of past E3 conventions.

You can see those tweets in the gallery below.

—

Photo: ESA / E3 2023

3. Classic

5. Interesting