nsfs
Page: 28
When Gracie Abrams took the stage at a Kamala Harris rally at Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, on Wednesday night (Oct. 30), the 25-year-old singer/songwriter urged young voters to support the Harris/Walz campaign so there’s still a democracy left to “fix it when it is our turn.”
“I know everybody who has been onstage tonight and will be onstage tonight wouldn’t be anywhere else for anyone else except … for the next president of the United States: the amazing, compassionate and brilliant Kamala Harris,” Abrams said. “For many of us here onstage and in this crowd tonight, this is either the first or second time that we’ve had the privilege of voting in a presidential election. As we know, we’ve inherited a world that is struggling and it’s easy to feel disconnected and disillusioned. Between the advent of social media in our childhoods and COVID and relentlessly targeted disinformation, we’ve been through some things. It’s easy to be discouraged, but we know better. We know that unless we vote and keep our democracy intact, there is nothing we will be able to do to fix it when it is our turn.”
Abrams wrapped her speech by declaring of Harris: “She is the right leader at a very tricky time and we could not be luckier.”
.@gracieabrams: It’s easy to be discouraged, but we know better. We know that unless we vote for Kamala Harris and keep our democracy intact, there is nothing we will be able to do to fix it when it is our turn💙 pic.twitter.com/9YH77IhX1D— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 31, 2024
In addition to her speech, Abrams and her band — who are currently opening up for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour on its final North American leg — also performed “I Love You, I’m Sorry” (which just peaked in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 this month) and “Free Now”; both are from her most recent album, The Secret of Us, which debuted at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart over the summer.
Mumford & Sons also performed at the rally, playing “Little Lion Man,” “Awake My Soul” and “I Will Wait” — their highest-charting hit, peaking at No. 12 on the Hot 100 in 2013. In 2021, the group’s guitarist-banjo player Winston Marshall left the band after a controversial social media post calling right-wing provocateur Andy Ngo a “brave man” for his book Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy.
Remi Wolf hit the stage too, performing “Cinderella” and saying in a speech that America should feel like “a place where we feel safe, accepted and free. That is why I’m here today to support our future president, Kamala Harris, in her efforts to create this safe space for us again. She understands that the right to make decisions about our own bodies is fundamental. She’s committed to tackling big issues like climate change and, like me, she’s a girl from the Bay Area who loves to laugh and have fun.”
Also at the music-heavy rally, Aaron Dessner and Matt Berninger from The National dedicated their song “I Need a Girl” to Harris.
Two more of Young Thug’s co-defendants are taking plea deals in the long-running Atlanta racketeering case against the rapper’s alleged YSL gang, leaving Thug facing trial with just two other defendants.
A week after improper testimony from a state’s witness threw the trial into chaos and sparked talk of a mistrial, prosecutors and defense attorneys continued to show a willingness Wednesday (Oct. 30) to strike deals rather than risk starting the massive trial over from scratch.
At the hearing, Marquavius “Qua” Huey pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, robbery and several other counts, with prosecutors agreeing to drop a slew of others. Under the deal, Huey received a sentence of 25 years, but with just nine to be served in prison — a sharp decrease from the life sentences he was facing if convicted on all the charges.
Another defendant, Rodalius “Lil Rod” Ryan, pled guilty to a single racketeering conspiracy charge and was sentenced to 10 years, which was commuted to time served since he is already serving a life sentence for a 2019 murder.
The two new pleas came a day after Quamarvious Nichols agreed to plead guilty to a single racketeering charge in exchange for prosecutors dropping all other charges against him, including murder and illegal firearms possession. Under the deal, Nichols was sentenced to 20 years, but will only serve seven in prison and the rest on probation.
The flurry of deals follows an incident last week in which a government witness accidentally revealed sensitive information to the jury, prompting defense attorneys to demand a mistrial. Judge Paige Reese Whitaker, who chided prosecutors for “sloppiness” and has repeatedly criticized their handling of the case, said she would consider such a ruling.
Since then, testimony has been halted as prosecutors and defense attorneys have negotiated plea deals behind closed doors. Both sides seem willing to consider compromise rather than a costly redo of the trial, which has stretched across 10 months of jury selection and 11 months of testimony to become the longest-ever in state history.
Whether Thug himself, a Grammy-winning superstar who prosecutors claim was the leader of the gang, will also reach such a deal remains to be seen. The trial is scheduled to resume on Thursday morning (Oct. 31).
Thug was indicted in May 2022 along with dozens of others over allegations that his “YSL” group was not really a record label called “Young Stoner Life” but rather a violent Atlanta gang called “Young Slime Life.” The case, built around Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, claims the group committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade.
The pleas struck Tuesday (Oct. 29) and Wednesday mean that Thug (Jeffery Williams) is now facing the remainder of the trial with just two other defendants, Deamonte “Yak Gotti” Kendrick and Shannon Stillwell. Kendrick and Stillwell stand accused of carrying out the 2015 murder of rival gang leader Donovan Thomas, a crime that figures prominently in the prosecution’s case.
Stevie Nicks has been using her platform to encourage political activism in her fans, but she explained that she wasn’t always an active voter.
In a new interview with MSNBC, the 76-year-old “Edge of Seventeen” icon opened up about not voting util six years ago. “I never voted until I was 70, but I regret that. I’ve told everybody that onstage for the last two years,” she said. “I regret that and I don’t have very many regrets. There’s so many reasons. You can say, ‘Oh, I didn’t have time. I was this and that.’ In the long run, you didn’t have an hour? You didn’t have an hour of your time that you could have gone and voted.”
She also discussed the inspiration behind her recently released track, “The Lighthouse,” a song inspired by the fight for abortion access following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. “We have to find a way to bring back Roe vs. Wade,” she explained, noting that musicians should speak out more about causes in their music. “In the end of the 50s and 60s and into the 70s, everyone was writing protest songs. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills — it was lots and lots and lots. I would say to all my musical poets that write songs to write some songs about what’s happening like I did.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Nicks added, “Whoever wins, the lighthouse needs to keep shining its light and keep those ships from crashing into the rocks. That’s my idea of the lighthouse being a protector, protecting all those boats and ships that are coming in.”
Watch the full interview here.
In September, the Fleetwood Mac singer followed in Taylor Swift’s footsteps to endorse Kamala Harris for the presidential election. “As my friend @taylorswift so eloquently stated, now is the time to research and choose the candidate that speaks to you and your beliefs,” Nicks wrote on Instagram, sharing a photo of herself with her tiny canine.
“Only 54 days left until the election,” she continued. “Make sure you are registered to vote! Your vote in this election may be one of the most important things you ever do.”
Nicky Jam is no longer supporting Donald Trump for president, the reggaetón hitmaker announced on Wednesday (Oct. 30) in a video he uploaded to his Instagram page. The message comes a month after the Massachusetts-born singer-songwriter had endorsed the Republican candidate and even spoke at one of his rallies in Las Vegas back in September. […]
Superstar producer Metro Boomin is facing a civil lawsuit over allegations that he raped and impregnated a woman in 2016, then referenced the incident in one of his songs.
In a complaint filed Tuesday (Oct. 29) in Los Angeles court, attorneys for Vanessa LeMaistre say she blacked out after ingesting a Xanax and a shot of alcohol in his recording studio during the September 2016 session, then awoke to find herself being sexually assaulted by Metro (Leland Wayne).
“The next thing Ms. LeMaistre can recall is waking up on a bed in a different location with Wayne raping her and being completely unable to move or make a sound,” her lawyers write. “At no point during this encounter was Ms. LeMaistre able to consent to any sexual activity, and Wayne’s conduct without question constituted rape and sexual assault.”
In a response statement, Metro Boomin’s attorney Lawrence Hinkle II called the lawsuit “a pure shakedown” against his client: “These are false accusations. Mr. Wayne refused to pay her months ago, and he refuses to pay her now. Mr. Wayne will defend himself in court. He will file a claim for malicious prosecution once he prevails.”
The lawsuit claims Metro exploited the death of LeMaistre’s infant son to gain her trust, and that she believed they had “bonded over the ability of music to help people in their darkest moments.” But it says that belief was “shattered” after he invited her to the studio for the September 2016 session.
“Meeting Wayne resulted in Ms. LeMaistre suffering from the second worst thing that ever happened to her — being raped by someone who pretended to be her friend for months,” her lawyers write. “Ms. LeMaistre is still working to put herself back together after experiencing such an extraordinary amount of trauma at the hands of Wayne — someone she truly believed to be her friend but turned out to be her worst nightmare.”
Weeks after the alleged assault, LeMaistre says she learned she was pregnant. She says she did not have sex with anyone else other than Metro and that the pregnancy was the result of the alleged rape. Due to the “recent loss of her son and the traumatic cause of her pregnancy,” her lawyers say she could not continue the pregnancy and had an abortion in November 2016.
Notably, the lawsuit claims the alleged attack is referenced in the 2017 song “Rap Saved Me,” released by 21 Savage, Offset and Metro on their collaborative studio album Without Warning. The lyrics in question are: “She took a Xanny, then she fainted/ I’m from the gutter, ain’t no changing/ From the gutter, rap saved me/ She drive me crazy, have my baby.”
“The lyrics were horrifying for Ms. LeMaistre to hear over and over again, as they recounted the situation that happened to her and caused further trauma,” her lawyers write.
LeMaistre is represented by lawyers from Wigdor, the same law firm that filed a high-profile civil lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs last year on behalf of his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura — a case that was then followed by a flood of other allegations and eventual federal criminal charges.
In a statement, the Wigdor attorneys referenced the alleged connection between the lyrics to “Rap Saved Me” and LeMaistre’s accusations.
“Metro Boomin has built a successful career with lyrics and social media that are not only offensive but also explicitly outline his intentions to harm women,” the firm wrote in a joint statement with LeMaistre’s co-counsel from the law firm Gerard Bengali. “These are more than mere words, and it’s time for him to be held accountable for his manipulative tactics and unacceptable behavior.”
Read the entire lawsuit against Metro here:
Election Day is less than a week away, and viral comedian Randy Rainbow is making one last pitch against former president Donald Trump in his latest parody video.
On Tuesday (Oct. 29), Rainbow sat down for one more fake interview with the twice-impeached former president, checking in on him as the businessman-turned-politican heads into the final stretch of his campaign (“You look like s–t, how are you feeling?” Rainbow asked with a smile), before wondering aloud why the polls were so close. “I can’t sleep nights,” Rainbow declared. “I keep imagining the dark, hate-filled, Orwellian, deep-fried, comb-over, fever dream hellscape this country will become if your crazy a– wins!”
With the premise set, Rainbow launched into his latest parody track, “Magadu.” Lifting the melody of Olivia Newton-John and the Electric Light Orchestra’s 1980 hit “Xanadu” from the film of the same name, Rainbow immediately takes the song’s premise of a mythical, heavenly place in the track’s title and flips it on its head.
“A place where nobody wants to go/ A country so lame and low/ They call it Magadu,” he sings. “But if you vote for this bag of d–ks/ As soon as Nov. 6/ We’ll be in Magadu!”
As Rainbow speculated about the “dark dystopia of absurd extremes” that would occur under a second Trump presidency, the singer made sure to point to Project 2025, the much-discussed 900-page document outlining a plan for Trump to consolidate power in his second presidency and help impose ultra-conservative policies around the country.
“In the year of Project 2025/ Those creeps gonna kick their creepy plans into overdrive/ No more protections or kindness or joy/ And guess who’s gonna be their poster boy?” Rainbow sings on the bridge. “When Planet Earth dries up and demagogues thrive/ No education and nobody’s free/ They’re gonna set us back a century.”
Closing out his song, Rainbow made his choice in the 2024 election clear as a clip of Vice President Kamala Harris saying “we will not go back” played alongside his final plea: “Let’s no go there, there’s no clean air/ Don’t wanna go, girl, just say no to Magadu!”
Watch the full video above.
Give Joni Mitchell an assist on Hillary Clinton’s new book.
Appearing at the Detroit Opera House on Monday (Oct. 28) to promote Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty, the former First Lady, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State told her interviewer, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, that her eighth book (fifth as the sole author) was inspired by watching Mitchell sing “Both Sides Now” — the hit song that gave Clinton’s book its title — at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in February.
“I saw her and she sang ‘Both Sides Now,’ which is one of my all-time favorite songs,” said Clinton, who suggested the “young people” in the crowd Google it. “It’s about life and love and I listened to her sing it. She’d had a cerebral aneurysm [in 2015] and there she was back on stage singing that incredible anthem about what you think of life, what you think of love at different points of your own journey. I heard that song in my twenties. Obviously I’ve heard it in every decade of my life, and I wanted to take a moment to write some essays about where I see my life now, and particularly about my family, about my friends, about some of these experiences I’ve had, like being First Lady of our country, but also politics, which I care deeply about.”
Clinton added that while some early interviews about the book — whose title was taken from a “Both Sides Now” lyric — were about politics and elections, “I was really thinking more about the people who have been important in my life, the relationships…. It was more a reflection of, ‘OK, I’m this age. At this point in my life, what’s really important?’”
While the nearly 90-minute conversation hit on expected political topics — Clinton’s support of Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her disdain for former President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement — she also spoke about her recent work in the arts, including co-producing the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Suffs (which is about the women’s suffrage movement in the U.S. that led to the 19th Amendment, which provided women with the right to vote), and her HiddenLight Productions company with daughter Chelsea, whose releases include the Emmy Award-winning documentary In Her Hands and the new doc Zurawski V. Texas about abortion bans in that state. She said Suffs, which is slated to close Jan. 5 on Broadway, has been “absolutely thrilling” and will be heading out on a national tour in the near future.
Clinton also has a Grammy Award in the best spoken word album category, which led Benson to point out that she’s only an Oscar away from being an EGOT. “I don’t know when or if there’s an Academy Award in the future,” Clinton responded, “but I just am so committed to storytelling…. We want to tell stories, we want to be part of the truth-telling part of America… and tell stories about what’s going on in America, in our lives, and particularly women’s lives.”
Clinton did say we should not hold our collective breath for a future Grammy in a musical category.
“I love to sing, but nobody loves to listen,” she confessed, noting that she would sing to Chelsea when she was a baby, with “Moon River” a particular favorite. “This went on for 14, 15, 16 months, something like that. I’d sing to her. Then when she learned to talk…Y’know, people think the trauma of my life is the 2016 election [Clinton won the popular vote but lost to Trump in the Electoral College]. There is that. But (Chelsea) took her little finger and put it on my mouth and said, ‘No sing, mommy.’”
She has, however, continued to sing to her three grandchildren – “When my daughter’s not around.”
Bad Bunny has released a stirring video tribute to Puerto Rico after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe referred to the U.S. commonwealth as a “floating island of garbage” during Donald Trump’s Oct. 27 rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden. The racist statement sparked widespread criticism, prompting Bad Bunny to respond not with words, but with a […]
Donald Trump apparently wanted 50 Cent in da club. The Grammy-winning rapper appeared on The Breakfast Club on Tuesday (Oct. 29), and shared that he was offered $3 million to appear at Trump’s recent New York City rally held at Madison Square Garden.
During their chat, DJ Envy asked 50, “Is it true Donald Trump tried to give you money to endorse him one time?”
The rapper told his hosts that he got a call from the twice-impeached former president about “Sunday” (Oct. 27), with Jess Hilarious clarifying by asking whether he was talking about MSG, which 50 confirmed.
“They wanted you to perform ‘Many Men’ at the RNC too, right?” Charlamagne Tha God then asked. (The Get Rich or Die Tryin’ track soundtracked Trump’s entrance to Adin Ross’ stream in August.)
“Yeah. They offered me $3 million!” the “In Da Club” rapper shared. A surprised Charlamagne then asked if it was for the event at Madison Square Garden or the RNC, with 50 replying that it was indeed for the MSG rally. He also replied in the affirmative when Charlamagne asked whether he was offered payment as well for the Republican National Convention.
50 — who did not appear at the RNC in July nor at Trump’s NYC rally — went on to explain why he rejected the offers. “I didn’t even go far,” he told the three hosts of the offers. “I’m afraid of politics, you understand? I do not like it. … It’s because when you do get involved in it, no matter how you feel, somebody passionately disagrees with you. Look, if you say ‘I stay away from religion,’ I stay away from politics. Religion, that’s the formula for the confusion that it sent Kanye to Japan. He said something about both of those things and now he can only go to Japan. So you know I’m like I don’t want to get in that, man.”
Billboard has reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment.
In recent years, Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) has supported Trump, before declaring on July 4, 2020, that he was running for president as well. (He did not get far in his efforts, missing South Carolina’s July 20 deadline that year to get on the ballot.) Then beginning in October 2022, the rapper repeatedly made antisemitic hate speech, which resulted in him facing consequences that included losing brand deals, declines of airplay of his music catalog and more.
In 2020, 50 Cent supported Trump — who in May was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — before retracting his endorsement after former girlfriend Chelsea Handler called him out. “F–k Donald Trump, I never liked him,” the rapper later said when retweeting a video of the comedian — who preveriously referred the rapper as her favorite ex — on The Tonight Show in which she criticized her ex for his support of the business mogul.
Watch 50’s interview on The Breakfast Club below:
Bob Weir is voting for Kamala Harris and her vice presidential pick, Tim Walz, in the upcoming election. The Grateful Dead rocker took to Instagram on Monday (Oct. 28) to share a photo of himself wearing a Dead-inspired Harris-Walz 2024 shirt, alongside a snap of Walz holding the tee and another with his wife, Natascha […]