State Champ Radio Philadelphia
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The Democratic Party saw some huge wins nationally on election night, with Black candidates including Yusef Salaam factoring in as part of the success.
Defying predictions from various pundits, voters around the country turned out to choose Democratic candidates and policies in major battleground states on Tuesday(November 7), turning back Republican efforts in Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia. In three of those races, Black candidates stood out, making significant history with their wins.
In New York City, Dr. Yusef Salaam was elected to the City Council, representing a district in upper Harlem after winning his primary election in a landslide and running unopposed on election night. A member of the Exonerated “Central Park” Five, Salaam along with four other Black and Latino teens were charged and wrongly convicted of beating and raping a white jogger in 1989. The Democratic politician spoke about how the experience of serving 7 years before his conviction was thrown out in 2002 “guides me and informs me and allows me to be a humble servant for the people.”
Another historic victory featuring a Black candidate came to fruition in Philadelphia as Democrat Cherelle Parker became the city’s first-ever woman mayor, soundly defeating Republican challenger David Oh. Parker’s win continues the streak of Democratic leadership in the city in the position since 1952 as she becomes its 100th mayor. The former Philadelphia City Council member ran on a platform of reinforcing public safety. “I’m uniquely prepared to make the city the safest, cleanest, greenest big city in the nation with access to economic opportunity for all,” she said during her campaign.
In another landmark moment, Gabriel Amo won his special election to become the first Black person to represent the state of Rhode Island in Congress. His robust victory over Republican Gerry Leonard earned him the seat vacated by former Representative David Cicciline. The son of Ghanaian immigrants, Amo previously served as deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs in the Biden and Obama presidential administrations. He recognized the impact of his win in speaking to the press afterward. “I certainly believe I am part of a generational shift that has been underway before me,” Amo said.
Dope Shows co-founders Stephen Piner and Jamir Shaw have a vision for elevating hip-hop in Philadelphia and they’re ready to share that vision with the rest of the music industry.
Since launching in 2017, the Philadelphia concert promotion duo have sold over 200,000 tickets for shows including Lil Baby, Lil Durk, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and more. They’ve become one of the most powerful independent concert promotion companies in the U.S., known for having an authentic love of music and a pound-the-pavement street team approach.
That includes hand-selling tickets for one of Lil Baby’s first headlining shows in Philadelphia years ago and promoting Rylo Rodriguez’s first show in the city on Sept. 29, also his first headlining performance there. In 2022, Dope Shows signed a partnership with Live Nation to bring shows to the company’s Philly venues like the Fillmore, the Met and Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia, as well as partnering on arena shows at venues like Wells Fargo Arena and the TD Garden Arena in Boston.
“Since day one, our slogan has been, ’Ain’t no shows like Dope Shows,’” Shaw says, attributing Dope Shows success to the authentic synergy at their concerts. Each concert is preceded by sets from local rappers and area DJs, and when it comes to the main event, the sets are often longer.
“We want Dope Shows to be a badge of honor for us and Philadelphia,” Piner says. “We want it to live forever.”
Shaw grew up in West Philly listening to Beanie Sigel and Freeway; his cousins were members of Philly’s Most Wanted. While he remembers trying his hand at rap, he soon found his calling as a party promoter. Traveling between his mother’s house in West Philly and his dad’s neighborhood in South Philly as a 12-year-old, he would hit up all the parties he could go to. There was only one problem: they usually ended in a fight.
His mom suggested throwing a party in his basement and after earning $70 from the concert, his career began. In 2016, he linked up with Piner, an all-city high school football halfback and together they promoted their first concert, Fabolous and Jadakiss’ Freddy vs. Jason at The Fillmore, which sold out. From there, they landed Rick Ross before booking Fab and Jada again at Boston’s House of Blues.
What were once conversations and vague aspirations became more sold out venues.
In February of last year, they hosted their fifth annual Birthday Bash featuring Gunna, Lil Durk, Lil Baby and G Herbo at the Wells Fargo Center. In total, Dope Shows has sold 200,000 tickets with 90 percent of tickets sold out for its events.
“Our goal is to continue building on our staples,” says Piner, including the company’s annual Birthday Bash and its Dope Fest event. “We have a couple concepts that we want to add, as well as merch and content ideas. We also want to do a national tour with an artist and grow Dope Shows in that direction.”
Dope Shows are setting their sights on the label side of the industry, launching Dope Records last year. Their first signee, artist and fellow West Philly native Toure, saw his All I Wanted Was Everything project on Dope Records earn close to a million streams in less than a week
“He’s an artist that we’re real passionate about,” Piner say. “He’s a great performing artist and sold out his first show a month ago and did an hour-and-a-half set. For a young artist, that’s a feat.”
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Gillie Da Kid went on social media to break his silence on the death of his son, who was shot and killed in Philadelphia last week.
On Saturday (July 29th), Gillie shared a photograph of YNG Cheese on his Instagram account. The rapper-turned-podcaster added a deeply stirring tribute to his son in the caption. “I Miss u like $hit Dev My heart will forever have a Black hole in it but u know ur father gotta be strong to hold the family up,” he wrote.
“Thanks 4 all the support from family, friends, and all of my followers y’all really helping me get thru these ruff times Me, and my family appreciate and love y’all.” He concluded: “Rest Well dev and watch over us u know I got chase, love u Cheese”, adding five crying emojis at the end.
YNG Cheese, aka Devin Spady, was killed in a triple shooting on July 20th in the Olney neighborhood in Philadelphia. According to reports, the aspiring 25-year-old rapper had been shot once in the back and was taken to the hospital, where he died shortly afterward. Two other men who were shot at the scene were in stable condition. YNG Cheese leaves behind a son, Chase.
Wallo, Gillie’s co-host of the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, composed his own tribute to YNG Cheese on Instagram on July 24th. “Lil Cuz usually when I talk to you, I got a lot to tell you,” he wrote next to a photo of the rapper, accompanied by a slew of broken heart emojis. “Tonight the pain in my heart & tears spoke to you. I love you beyond life Cheese. I got your father, Rest Well!”
In another Instagram post before the Gillie Fest event this past Saturday, Wallo acknowledged all of the support that Gillie Da Kid has gotten. “
All your supportive words / love was heard & felt,” he began. “We greatly appreciate you all. Major love to all the friends / family who came through yesterday & put love / laughter on Gillie’s heart & mind. Please know that our mission to lift & educate the youngins will continue and become stronger. No matter what, we’ll never stop believing that tomorrow will be better than yesterday.”
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Since its founding in April 2021, the Black Opry has championed the work of numerous Black country and Americana artists and has worked to increase opportunities for the artists the organization supports across various platforms, including media, industry showcases and touring.
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Earlier this year, the Black Opry partnered with Philadelphia public radio station WXPN to initiate an artist development program to highlight five emerging Black country and Americana musicians, and offering resources, mentorship and other support to each of the artists. WXPN produces World Cafe, public radio’s most popular program of popular music that is distributed by NPR to more than 280 U.S. radio stations.
Now, these artists’ stories will be further spotlighted in a new five-episode podcast, Artist to Watch: Black Opry Residency, launching on Thursday (June 8). A new episode will release each week throughout June, in support of Black Music Appreciation Month.
“We’ve been focused on showcasing emerging talent through our Artist To Watch program for two decades,” Bruce Warren, WXPN’s associate GM for programming, tells Billboard in a statement. “Building on that commitment, we really wanted to up our game and build an artist development residency. We chose to partner with Black Opry and focus on Black creators who have not traditionally been afforded access to resources to help their careers.”
The premiere episode will highlight the musical journey of Texas native Tylar Bryant, who first gained a following in 2016 through a cover of Brothers Osborne‘s “Stay a Little Longer,” and now blends elements of country with R&B and rock. Bryant has played over 80 shows per year throughout the Lone Star State, and recorded his debut EP, Don’t Let Go in 2017, before moving to Nashville in 2019.
The subsequent episodes will trace the journeys of Samantha Rise, Grace Givertz, Denitia, and sibling duo The Kentucky Gentlemen.
Rise is a Philadelphia-based teacher, performer, songwriter/singer and activist whose music is rooted in indie folk. Boston-based Givertz is a multi-instrumentalist with a blazing folk sound. Nashville-based Denitia fuses elements of country and folk with poetic lyrics, The Kentucky Gentlemen’s Brandon and Derek Campbell, who issued their debut EP, The Kentucky Gentlemen, Vol. 1 last year, blend pop, country and R&B.
“The partnership with xpn for the Black Opry Residency has been such an easy fit, it felt like we were meant to work together,” Holly G, founder of the Black Opry, tells Billboard in a statement. “It can be hard to find people in the industry that are passionate about emerging artists and willing to provide the resources to support them, especially artists from marginalized identities in the country and American landscape. It displays a tremendous amount of leadership and faith that Bruce and his team were able and willing to put their efforts behind such a big project and i’m grateful they were so keen to listen to myself and people like Rissi Palmer about the needs of our community.”
Additionally, WXPN hosted each of the Artist to Watch: Black Opry Residency artists for a week-long residency in Philadelphia, where they collaborated on writing and recording and performed at World Cafe Live. Those performances will be released on Monday (June 5), alongside the World Cafe interview on the national show.
Artist to Watch: Black Opry Residency is produced by Rowhome Productions and hosted by journalist/radio host John Morrison. Artist To Watch: Black Opry Residency is distributed by PRX and available at XPN.org and on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and most other podcast providers.
“My hope is that others will see the success of this project and realize that we need to do it many times over,” Holly G says.
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Do not show your plate to those who are hungry. Thieves made away with two million dimes in a Philadelphia street heist.
As spotted on CBS News local badges say some unidentified individuals hit a lick like never before. On Thursday, April 13 a truck was parked in the Northeast section of Philadelphia from the evening prior. While the vehicle was clearly unmarked, a team of robbers were wise to the contents and found a way to gain entry into the trailer. Inside were 15 pallets of ten cent coins; with each pallet holding just about $50,000 in dimes.
The crooks made away with roughly five of those pallets but left a mess during the heist. That morning police found the truck door wide open and hundreds of dimes on the floor. Originally authorities estimated their caper landed them $100,000 but have increased the guess to $200,000. Police say that the driver picked up the currency from the local mint Old City and was headed to another mint in Miami, Florida. The trucker said he parked it overnight in a Walmart parking lot to get some rest.
“There’s been a lot of cargo thefts here and there in Northeast Philly and South Philadelphia over the ensuing months where we’ve had lamb, chicken, TVs, refrigerators, etc. taken, alcohol,” Philadelphia Police Captain John Ryan said. Police are currently looking for “10 or more men wearing wearing all black”.
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A legal cacophony is brewing in the City of Brotherly Love.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the Philly Pops accused the Philadelphia Orchestra of violating federal antitrust laws by abusing its control over local concert venues and ticketing services to try to crush its smaller rival.
“Defendants have engaged … in unlawful, anticompetitive and predatory conduct with respect to the Philly POPS for the purpose and with the intent to force the Philly POPS out of business so that Philadelphia Orchestra could eliminate the Philly Pops as a competitor in and monopolize the market for live symphonic popular concert music concerts in the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area,” lawyers for the Pops wrote.
Philly Pops claims that it has long peacefully co-existed with the Orchestra, one of America’s so-called Big Five symphony orchestras. The Pops has played symphonic versions of Broadway show tunes, movie scores and popular music, while the Orchestra has stuck to classical symphonic – and the two have been “marketed to different potential patrons” and “attended by audiences with little duplication.”
But starting last year, Philly Pops says the Orchestra has been jumping into the pops space and trying to put its smaller rival out of business. The lawsuit claims that the Orchestra has done so mostly by abusing its merger with the Kimmel Center, the primary orchestra venue in the city and the ticketing service Ticket Philadelphia.
According to the lawsuit, the Orchestra “substantially and unreasonably” increased fees for the Pops to perform at the Kimmel Center and slowed down the sale of tickets to previously scheduled shows. It then hired a PR firm to “create media messaging” that the Pops would be absorbed by the Orchestra after the 2023 season.
When the Pops said it would not go along with such a plan, the Orchestra “summarily evicted the POPS from the Kimmel Center forcing the POPS to cancel and postpone its concerts [there] and scramble for different but substantially less viable indoor venues.”
In addition to naming the Philadelphia Orchestra-Kimmel Center, Inc. as a defendant, the lawsuit also named Matias Tarnopolsky, the company’s president and CEO.
In a statement to Billboard, a spokesperson for the Orchestra said: “We have just received the lawsuit, which was brought to our attention by the media. As the complaint has yet to be formally served, we will reserve comment until then and once it has been reviewed with counsel.”
Read the entire lawsuit against the Philadelphia Orchestra here:
