nsfs
Page: 73
As allegations about Sean “Diddy” Combs’ behavior over the years continue to come to light, ABC News Studios’ IMPACT x Nightline will release a new special chronicling the producer’s dramatic fall from grace on Hulu Thursday (June 6). And in a new clip from Diddy’s Downfall shared exclusively with Billboard, Tiffany Red, a friend of […]
Radiohead‘s Jonny Greenwood posted a lengthy note on Tuesday (June 4) in response to renewed criticism for his long-running collaboration with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa after the pair played a show in Israel on May 26 in the midst of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Greenwood wrote that he’s playing festivals across Europe this summer with the band Dudu Tassa and the Kuwaitis, noting that people are asking him why.
The guitarist has been collaborating with Tassa and releasing music with him since 2008, saying that he thinks an artistic collaboration that combines Arab and Jewish musicians is “worthwhile… And one that reminds everyone that the Jewish cultural roots in countries like Iraq and Yemen go back for thousands of years.”
The letter posted on X came after the pair played a show at the Barby Club in Tel Aviv last week, where they performed songs from their 2023 album Jarak Qaribak (Your Neighbor Is Your Friend), which features collaborations with artists from Beirut, Cairo and Ramallah. After the gig, the Jewish Chronicle reported that the BDS movement threatened to boycott Radiohead.
The movement, whose initial stand for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, is a Palestinian-led effort to pressure Israel to withdraw from occupied territories and offer full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens while applying pressure to end investments in Israeli businesses and encourage sanctions against the Jewish state.
The BDS movement posted a message on Twitter after the show that read: “We call for peaceful, creative pressure on @radiohead to convincingly distance itself from this blatant complicity in the crime of crimes, or face grassroots measures.”
Greenwood reacted in his letter by noting that Tassa’s grandfather was one of the most famous Iraqi composers as part of the Al Kuwaity brothers, whose songs he said are still staples on Arab radio stations. “Others choose to believe this kind of project is unjustifiable, and are urging the silencing of this — or any — artistic effort made by Israeli Jews,” Greenwood wrote.
“But I can’t join that call: the silencing of Israeli filmmakers/musicians/dancers when their work tour abroad — especially when it’s at the urging of their fellow Western film makers/musicians/artists — feels unprogressive to me. Not least because it’s these people that are invariably the most progressive members of any society,” he continued.
The Tel Aviv show came after Greenwood was spotted at a protest in Israel calling for the release of the remaining 120 hostages being held by Hamas after the militant group’s murderous surprise Oct. 7 assault on Israel in which more than 1,200 Israeli men, women and children were murdered, sexually assaulted and attacked and more than 250 hostages were taken according to Israeli authorities. Israel launched a counter-attack aimed at eradicating Hamas that has now lasted eight months and resulted in the deaths of more than 36,000 Palestinians and injuries to more than 86,000 according to Palestinian authorities, as well as the destruction of much of the infrastructure in Gaza.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Greenwood is married to Israeli artist Sharona Katan, whose family lost a nephew who was called up to military service after the war began. Three days after Hamas’ attack, Greenwood tweeted, “Condolences to the families of the innocent concert goers, children and civilians of all ages murdered, raped or abducted in these massacres. It’s impossible not to despair.”
The Post reported that during the gig Tassa said, “there are musicians here, not politicians… music has always worked wonders, may we know better days and may everyone return safely.”
Greenwood wrote that he was grateful to be working with the many musicians he’s met while working on the collaborative project, “all of whom strike me as much braver — and taking far more of a principled risk — than those who are trying to shut us down, or who are now attempting to ascribe a sinister ulterior motivation to the band’s existence. There isn’t one: we are musicians honouring a shared culture, and I’ve been involved in this for nearly 20 years now.”
President Biden has been pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire proposal to end the war that has displaced more than a million Palestinians, with the U.S. commander in chief telling Time magazine this week that there is “every reason” for people to draw the conclusion that Netanyahu is prolonging the war for his own political self-preservation as he faces calls for new elections. A number of artists have also urgently called for an immediate ceasefire, including Paramore, Dua Lipa and Renée Rapp.
Greenwood ended the note by stressing that no art is as “‘important’ as stopping all the death and suffering around us. How can it be? But doing nothing seems a worse option. And silencing Israeli artists for being born Jewish in Israel doesn’t seem like any way to reach an understanding between the two sides of this apparently endless conflict.”
He said that the latter is why he’s making music with this band, welcoming listeners to disagree with or ignore what they’re doing. “But I hope you now understand what the true motivation is, and can react to the music without suspicion or hate,” he said.
See Greenwood’s full letter below.
The-Dream, a singer and producer who has worked with Beyoncé, Rihanna and others, was hit with a sex trafficking lawsuit Tuesday (June 4) that accuses him of subjecting a young songwriter to an “abusive, violent, and manipulative relationship” that included an alleged incident of rape.
In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, Chanaaz Mangroe claims the producer (Terius Gesteelde-Diamant) used promises of career advancement to lure a “young and vulnerable artist” into “a prolonged nightmare” filled with “violent sexual acts.”
“Over more than a year, Ms. Mangroe experienced trauma that she has still not recovered from—she is broken as an artist, constantly afraid for her physical safety, and plagued by reminders of the violence and control she experienced at the hands of Dream, who has continued his successful career unscathed by his horrific acts,” her attorneys write.
In addition to numerous allegations of violent sex, the lawsuit includes an allegation that The-Dream raped Mangroe in May 2015. Her lawyers say he pinned her down inside a sprinter van, started “forcibly having sex with her” and choked her so intensely that she potentially lost consciousness.
Representatives for The-Dream did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday.
In addition to five studio albums of his own, The-Dream has credits on a wide range of hits, including Rihanna’s 2007 smash “Umbrella” and Beyonce’s 2008 chart-topper “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).” He’s also worked with Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Kanye West and numerous other stars.
Mangroe, a native of the Netherlands, claims that The-Dream reached out to her in 2014 when she was just 23 years old and working in the United States on an international visa. After she sent samples of her work, she says he invited her to Atlanta to work with him and his producing partner, Tricky Stewart.
Over time, her lawyers say The-Dream “used his age and influence in the industry to manipulate the young artist into believing that she needed him to be successful.” They say he promised to help her secure a visa extension, sign a record deal with a major label and even offered her a chance to open for Beyonce’s upcoming tour.
But in reality, her lawyers say The-Dream “used Ms. Mangroe for his base desires, which manifested in violent sexual acts and vicious psychological torture.” In addition to the alleged rape, they say he frequently subjected her to violent choking during sex, “berated” her during sex and used recordings of their sex to “threaten Ms. Mangroe into silence.”
“Nearly a decade later, Ms. Mangroe is still putting the pieces of her life back together, but she knows that without speaking up about what Dream did to her, she will never be able to heal from the harm he has caused,” her lawyers write. “She therefore brings this lawsuit to speak up for herself and other female artists who have been tormented by powerful and selfish men in the recording industry.
In addition to The-Dream, the lawsuit also names Sony Music’s Epic Records as a defendant, arguing that the producer’s “depraved behavior” was facilitated by the company. The lawsuit claims Epic “benefited from facilitating his behavior to the extent it kept their relationship with the talented musician viable and ensured continued profit from his work.”
Reps for both Epic and parent company Sony Music did not immediately return requests for comment on Tuesday.
The lawsuit was filed by Douglas Wigdor, a New York attorney known for representing alleged sexual assault victims. Wigdor’s firm has filed numerous abuse cases against music industry figures in recent months, including the bombshell case against Sean “Diddy” Combs filed by his ex-partner Cassie.
Last October, REVOLT — the Black-owned and operated digital cable network co-founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2013 — celebrated its 10th anniversary. Now, eight months later, the multi-platform media company is celebrating its rebirth as an employee-owned entity.
Announced today (June 4) by REVOLT CEO Detavio Samuels, the historic business shift follows in the wake of Combs’ stepping down as company chairman last November after being served with multiple sexual assault lawsuits. In keeping with Samuels’ and his team’s determination that REVOLT remain Black-owned and operated, the equity move — in which Diddy sold his stake back to the company, which is then distributing shares among its current employees — underscores the company’s original vision to pioneer a new era of entertainment while also establishing a new media model.
“I needed my employees to be incentivized, excited, to feel like they have skin in the game,” Samuels exclusively tells Billboard. “It’s about generating wealth for marginalized communities who have been historically left out.”
Atlanta-based Samuels joined REVOLT as COO in 2020 and was promoted to CEO a year later. It’s his hope that “more CEOs embrace and embody this idea of linked prosperity: if the company wins, every single person wins. We’re trying to set an industry standard where this type of thing becomes the norm.” In the following interview, Samuels outlines REVOLT’s journey to that decision.
At what point was the decision made to seek a new owner for REVOLT?
After all of the allegations in November became clear, stepping into 2024 for that association with Sean Combs could be a distraction to the mission that we had been on for the last four years. So at that point in time, we had very real conversations. You know, you can’t force anybody to sell their shares in the same way that nobody could force you to sell your house. But Sean Combs understood the assignment and elected to sell his shares so that the mission could continue.
In March there were media reports that Richelieu Dennis, the owner of Essence magazine, was buying REVOLT. Was that true? Were there other suitors for the company?
There’s been tons of speculation and rumors, as you can imagine. What we wanted to do was find the best home for REVOLT. At the end of the day, we want this business, which is stronger than ever, to continue to thrive. So absolutely, we’ve had lots of conversations with people. What we realized is that you can search the whole world, but we came to the conclusion that the only people we needed was us. We were the ones that we were looking for. I hope that can be a signal just to us as Black people and the Black community in general about self-reliance, unity. Nobody’s coming to save us. We have all we need to save ourselves.
When you came on board as CEO, was such a notion on your mind then?
One of the biggest things I wanted to do was just make sure that employees could benefit in the success of this company. And it’s been a conversation that we’ve had, specifically at the management level, for the last four years since I’ve been here, looking for the opportunity to ultimately make it happen. I’m a big believer in the idea of linked prosperity, meaning that as REVOLT wins, everybody in our ecosystem wins. Our values are reflected in our business model. We’ve given 50-plus entrepreneurs capital with no exchange of equity. We’ve put more than $50 million recirculated back into the Black community every single year. We have the biggest deals with the biggest content creators, but all of them also have upside participation in the content we co-create.
When we’ve had big years and blown our numbers out the water, our employees got big bonuses — every single one of them. So this was kind of like the missing piece. How do we put our employees, who are giving us their blood, sweat and tears every single day, in a position where they can benefit from the economics of their genius? So I’m thrilled that we are finally at that point where the people who are the backbone of our success now to get to be shareholders in the company.
At the bottom of the press release announcing REVOLT’s new owners, it says, “Shares held by the company’s former chair have been fully redeemed and retired.” What does that mean exactly?
Some people still aren’t clear. So that [statement] is enough to make it very clear: He [Sean Combs] is not the chairman of the company. He’s not on the board of this company. And he owns zero equity and zero shares in this company.
How did you decide to distribute the shares among employees? Were they all given equal shares?
Everyone is not going to be given equal shares. What we’re doing right now is working through a distribution process where we can ensure everything is smooth and fair. And two of the key components, of course, will be seniority and our vesting schedule. We plan on rolling that out over the course of the next few months.
And by employees, that includes yourself and the rest of the executive team as well?
If you are a full-time employee at REVOLT, you will receive something from this distribution.
Was there any pushback to this plan?
There was no pushback. In fact, if anything, I need to celebrate my amazing board, who immediately latched onto the idea. Their work was critical in helping us get here, so no pushback. Everybody knows that REVOLT is a values-driven brand. We don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk.
How many members comprise the board and what are the names of some of those members?
We’re going to keep that side confidential.
And new employees will be eligible to be shareholders as well?
New employees will be eligible for this equity incentive pool as well. In the short term today, there are no massive changes happening to our organizational structure. We will continue to stay on brand; the vision and mission are the same. We want to shift the narrative for Black people globally by building the world’s most powerful Black storytelling engine on the planet, powered by creators. In fact, as we lean into this idea of being powered by creators, we are trademarking a new term: we are “pioneering a new era of entertainment.” Media is in chaos right now. But we believe that we’ve got a new model that works in this chaotic world that we live in. And we’re getting ready to make a run and show the world what it’s supposed to look like. The only other way to say this is that we’re about to dream bigger and we’re about to dream Blacker. That’s all it is.
Diddy was very publicly the face of Revolt. How do you plan to forward and reinvent the brand out of his shadow?
Diddy wasn’t the face of the brand, I don’t think, inside of the company. Since I’ve been here, he’s never been part of the day-to-day operations and the teams have had zero interaction with him. So there’s no difference on our side; no difference with our clients and our affiliate partners, our customers. So really the only place where I think there’s this, you know, massive association with him and REVOLT is with the culture.
The way we will respond to that, first and foremost, is with this announcement so that everybody knows every time you support REVOLT, you are standing by the people and the employees who are building this thing. The second thing is, it was never supposed to be built on one person. REVOLT has never believed that it is one person, one idea, one lens. You can’t shift the narrative for Black people through one lens. So we will continue to bring on the biggest and baddest creators in the culture. And it is through this “for us, by us” model that we will get people to shake this association from Sean Combs and make it about the people who are building the culture today.
Are you planning to continue REVOLT’s events business as well as the television and podcasting initiatives?
Last year’s REVOLT WORLD summit was just the pilot and it took off like a rocket ship: 30,000 people [in attendance] during three days. Now we’re moving ahead with our vision and strategies clear. We haven’t announced this year’s REVOLT WORLD yet, but it will be in September. Last year’s was sponsored by Walmart, Pepsi, McDonald’s and other brands who have continued to stand by us through all of this.
The other piece is about this new era of media. Gone are the days where there’s a single-lane media company, where you can only be cable, only be a podcast, or only be live events. We believe we have this special model where we are able to be fast, efficient and effective, partner with the dopest creators in the culture, shoot once and be able to deliver that in whatever format — cable, streaming, podcast, live events — that our audience wants to consume it: Spotify, Apple, all cable, CTV, YouTube, so be it. It’s imperative that we reach our audience wherever they live and breathe. You name it, we’re going to be there.
What is REVOLT valued at and is it profitable?
I can’t tell you the valuation. But REVOLT has been profitable since at least 2018. I took over [as CEO] in the COVID year, 2020. If you compare the numbers we finished in 2020 to the numbers we finished in 2023, EBITDA is up 3.5x. If you want to compare advertising numbers, those are up six times. The business is healthy, the business is sound. That’s why we’re ready to make this next run.
Are there plans to continue to shop REVOLT in the future, or is this the ownership structure you guys are committed to now?
I am 100% committed to this new ownership structure. I’m big about the history and the history of America says that Black people have been responsible for building trillion-dollar industries in this country, whether we’re talking about the cotton and tobacco industries or now hip-hop. But they’ve never been able to fully reap from the economics that their hard work and genius have built. Black and brown people deserve to benefit from the economics that their genius creates.
A second thing also underscores my commitment and why this announcement is so important and historic. Usually when you run into these kinds of situations, the companies reflect what I consider the old America majority: white people. Marginalized groups barely get a benefit when these types of things take off. But with REVOLT, you’re talking about a company that’s majority Black and 50% women. So when we make this run to become the next Black unicorn, when we hit that billion-dollar valuation, those people who have historically been left out of the wealth-building opportunities in America will be left out no more. So for those reasons, I’m committed. Does that mean that we won’t have to take back equity in order to raise capital to make that run to that billion-dollar number? No. But what it means is our employees will always have a share and ownership in this company that they’re creating.
With the ownership situation behind you, what are you looking forward to next?
I’m most excited about the bunch of coming announcements that I’m sitting on right now and can’t wait to roll out. For now, people can see that we’ve started to sow some seeds, like launching REVOLT Sports. People may think we’ve been a little quieter than usual. And in full transparency, we have been: the only hit show we have running at this time is Drink Champs on YouTube. But they’re about to find out really quickly that REVOLT is about to get real loud real fast. So ask me this question in December, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty to talk about.
Revolt announced on Tuesday (June 4) that its employees will become the company’s largest group of shareholders.
The announcement follows a report in March that Sean “Diddy” Combs, who founded the company in 2013, sold his shares to an anonymous buyer. Combs is facing multiple sexual abuse lawsuits, with two more complaints filed against him in May; he has denied any wrongdoing.
In a statement on Tuesday, Revolt CEO Detavio Samuels said “we succeed because we have a dedicated team who has been committed to advancing our purpose, our community, and our culture every single day.”
“Without question, they deserve participation in our growth,” he added, “and I could not be more honored to continue on this journey with them, leveraging our collective strength, pushing boundaries, and achieving new heights together.”
Speaking to The New York Times, Samuels also noted that “One-hundred percent of Sean Combs’s shares have been redeemed and retired” and “we have completely separated and dissociated from each other.”
Combs stepped down as the chairman of the Revolt board in November, not long after he was accused of sexual and physical abuse by his former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, who performs as Cassie. (The suit was settled a day later.) Earlier this year, Combs’ Miami and Los Angeles homes were raided by federal agents, part of what Homeland Security described as “an ongoing investigation.”
Samuels told The Hollywood Reporter that Revolt has been unaffected by the allegations against its founder. “Since [his departure], there’s been no interaction or anything in terms of leading or driving the brand,” he said in March. “We lost no clients, we lost no employees, we didn’t lose a dollar. Q4 was the largest quarter in the history of Revolt, and 2023 was the best advertising year we’ve had in the history of Revolt. In all ways it was record-breaking, even in the middle of a crisis.”
It’s become more common for new media companies to offer employees a stake in their success. Publications like Defector, Hell Gate, and 404 Media are worker-owned. The start-up Puck also offers employees “a small ownership stake in the company,” according to The New York Times.
Kanye West is facing a lawsuit from his former assistant over allegations of sexual harassment and wrongful termination, including claims that he masturbated in front of her.
In a complaint filed Monday in Los Angeles court, Lauren Pisciotta claims that she faced a “systematic” onslaught of “unlawful harassment” during her year of working for the embattled rapper, first as an executive assistant and later as chief of staff for his companies.
Pisciotta says West frequently sent her sexually explicit texts, including photos and videos of him having sex with other women, and that he repeatedly propositioned her for sex.
“Defendant would often tell plaintiff that he always wanted to have sex with her, and that he held these feelings for a very long time,” Pisciotta’s lawyers write. “Defendant also falsely boasted that he had sex with plaintiff or would insinuate to his friends, business partners and music and fashion collaborators that he was having sex with plaintiff.”
In one particularly graphic allegation, Pisciotta claims that West locked her in a room during a private jet flight and laid down in a bed in front of her: “Plaintiff sat in a chair across from defendant; he masturbated under the covers until he fell asleep. Plaintiff was unable to leave as the door had locked and jammed behind her.”
A rep for West, who now legally goes by the name Ye, did not immediately return a request for comment.
According to the lawsuit, West hired Pisciotta in July 2021 after they met while she was working in connection with his fashion line. She says she agreed to work for him as a “full time employee” in return for a $1 million salary.
At the time she was hired, Pisciotta says she maintained a successful page on OnlyFans – a social media site in which subscribers can pay to access sexually explicit content from individual creators. Pisciotta says the page was generating more than $1 million per year, and West “did not have any issue or objection to it” when she was hired.
But a year later, she says West told her that he wanted her to be “God like” and asked her to delete the page in return for a promise of a $1 million payment. Though she agreed to do so, her lawyers claim she didn’t see any of that money: “Ye never paid plaintiff as promised.”
Pisciotta’s lawsuit came with pages of texts allegedly sent by West, many of them sexually graphic. In one, he allegedly sent a video of him having sex and then asked “What u think of this vid.” In another, he referenced an earlier outing at a bowling alley: “I just thinking back to the bowling alley thinking of what the headline could have been,” the rapper wrote in one of the alleged texts. “Ye arrested for fucking the shit out of his assistant on the bowling alley floor.”
In another incident, the lawsuit says West told a male guest that he could have sex with Pisciotta in exchange for allowing West to have sex with another woman.
In October 2022, Pisciotta says she was terminated, shortly after she had been promoted to chief of staff and offered a huge raise. Though she was allegedly offered a $3 million severance payment, she claims West and his companies later “reneged on their commitment to pay the severance.”
In technical terms, the lawsuit includes claims of breach of contract, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, retaliation, gender discrimination, fraud and various other employment law violations.
John Legend is speaking out against Diddy, less than a year after the duo collaborated on a track that appeared on Legend’s The Love Album: Off the Grid.
“I was horrified by the descriptions that I read before the video evidence came out,” Legend told CNN this week of the devastation accusations against Diddy, as well as the video that was released that featured the hip-hop star appearing to assault his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura. “And absolutely it’s something that needs to be brought to light when it happens.”
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The duo collaborated with Babyface on 2023’s “Kim Porter,” which was named after Combs’ late partner who died in 2018 of pneumonia.
Noting that that allegations against Diddy are “shameful,” Legend added, “My default stance is to believe women when they make these accusations and to make sure that we do whatever we can to support women,” hoping “that they’re heard and that any kind of accountability and reparations can be made to make these women whole again.”
In the video, obtained by CNN earlier this month and dated March 5, 2016, Combs appears to shove Ventura to the ground near an elevator bank, kick her several times while she lies on the ground and drag her down a hallway. The contents of the video mirror an assault allegation Ventura made in a now-settled lawsuit she filed against Diddy in November.
Shortly after, on May 19, Diddy took to social media to share a video of himself taking responsibility and apologizing for his actions in the disturbing clip. “It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you got to do that,” Diddy says in his Instagram video. “I was f—ed up. I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it, I’m disgusted now.”
He continued, “I went out and sought professional help. Had to go into therapy, into rehab. Had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry. But I’m committed to being a better man each and every day. I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m truly sorry.”
“The gut-wrenching video has only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr. Combs,” said Ventura’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, in a statement sent to Billboard. “Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms. Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light.”
Ventura was the first to accuse Diddy of sexual assault, filing a lawsuit in November in which attorneys for Cassie claimed she “endured over a decade of his violent behavior and disturbed demands,” including repeated physical attacks and forcing her to “engage in sex acts with male sex workers” while he masturbated. According to the complaint, after she attempted to separate from him in 2018 after an on-and-off public relationship for 11 years, Combs allegedly “forced her into her home and raped her while she repeatedly said ‘no’ and tried to push him away.” The case was soon settled, but Combs was then sued by multiple other women who claimed they were sexually abused by the hip-hop mogul.
“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,” Diddy wrote on Instagram in December. “For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
Jason Aldean and his wife Brittany Aldean shared their reactions after former president (and current presidential nominee) Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges. The Trump verdict marks the first criminal conviction of a former president in U.S. history. The “Try That in a Small Town” singer shared a photo on Instagram of an upside […]
Former President Donald Trump is now a convicted felon, with a Manhattan jury finding him guilty of all 34 charges against him of falsifying business records Thursday (May 30) following a seven-week trial. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The verdict makes him the first ex-POTUS to […]
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. First lady Jill Biden is bringing a new perspective of the White House to young readers with her upcoming children’s book […]