R&B/Hip-Hop

New details regarding PnB Rock’s 2022 murder have emerged. True Crime News got its hands on surveillance footage inside the Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles on the fateful day PnB Rock — born Rakim Allen — was killed, and the clips suggest the rapper/singer was set up.
Reporter Ana Garcia narrates the video that shows a person fist-bumping PnB around the time of his and fiancée Stephanie Sibounheuang’s 12:20 p.m. PT lunch arrival. Security footage outside the restaurant finds two people hashing out a plan to rob the Philly native of his estimated $500,000 in jewelry.

They would go on to alert the gunman, who pulled up to Roscoe’s in South Central around 1:17 p.m. PT, and it wasn’t long before he pulled the trigger — firing three shots into PnB Rock’s midsection and leaving him in a pool of blood as an unarmed security guard, staff members and innocent bystanders fled the scene.

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Bodycam footage of police arriving on the scene five minutes later, along with Sibounheuang being interrogated by investigators, is also included, along with the heartbreaking moment she learne of PnB’s death as he succumbed to his injuries at a local L.A. hospital.

Sibounheuang posted an Instagram Story of her chicken and waffles during their meal, which included a geotag of the Roscoe’s location (PnB Rock was not in the photo). She blamed herself for the fatal attack, and many others on social media attempted to hold her responsible, but Garcia explained to CBS News that the setup was made by two people inside the restaurant and had nothing to do with her post.

“She didn’t get to post that photo until much later. It was those two [in the restaurant] that were responsible for the death of PnB,” Garcia said, while exonerating Sibounheuang. “The setup was just to steal his jewelry. The girlfriend blamed herself that it was her fault, and it wasn’t her fault. Social media and other celebrities jumped all over to blame her.”

PnB Rock leaves behind two daughters. His first, Milan Allen, was born in 2013, and Sibounheuang gave birth to Xuri Lee in 2020.

Freddie Lee Trone was found guilty in August of sending his 17-year-old son to shoot and murder PnB Rock in 2022. Trone, 42, was sentenced to 31 years behind bars in September on a count of murder, two counts of robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery.

Prosecutors ruled that Trone’s 17-year-old son wasn’t fit to stand trial, which led to Trone being charged in the case. A second defendant, Tremont Jones, was also sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in the murder on multiple robbery charges.

Watch the never-before-seen footage below.

Earlier this month, Drake ripped former Toronto Raptor and current Sacramento Kings star DeMar DeRozan — a Compton native who appeared in the “Not Like Us” video — and scoffed at the idea of the Raptors ever retiring his No. 10.
“If you ever put up a DeRozan banner, I’ll go up there and take it down myself,” Drake said on the broadcast the same night Vince Carter’s No. 15 went into the rafters.

Season two of 7PM in Brooklyn returned on Tuesday (Nov. 12) as The Kid Mero and Carmelo Anthony welcomed a new co-host for the episode with freshly retired NBA hooper Rudy Gay.

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“I think Drake was hurt a little bit because of the relationship he built with DeMar in Toronto,” Melo said. “Representing the 6, Raptors — you know that was a lot of connection with those two. He’s a Raptor for life from a basketball standpoint. Yes, that jersey should be going up.”

Rudy Gay — who suited up for the Raptors in 2013 — chimed in: That’s wack, man. Drake is wack for that … You gotta pull up on DeMar if you feel that way before you go on camera.”

Melo agreed Drizzy’s comments may have been a bit over the top. “Drake did a lot when he said I’ma go up there and take it down. That part is a lot,” Anthony said before adding that he understood why Drake was upset. “Those are shots. You my man, we in the crib, we hanging, we building the 6 up. From that standpoint, that would f–k me up too.”

The former New York Knick and Gay believe Drake and DeRozan should have communicated before saying anything publicly on a broadcast to see if they could hash it out.

“I’m gonna feel a way no matter what, but yes, you do have a conversation. As a man, you have a conversation,” Melo continued.

Gay replied: “As a society we just get used to phones and cameras and all that stuff. If you got a problem, come at me. To see your man’s out there dancing with the enemy, that’s kinda crazy.”

DeRozan — who spent the first nine years of his career with Toronto — was asked about Drake’s comments regarding his potential jersey retirement following the Kings and Raptors game. “He’s going to have a long way to climb,” DeMar quipped.

Drake and DeRozan had a tight relationship, but things have since gone awry with DeMar appearing in Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” video and joining his fellow Compton native on stage at his Pop Out concert.

Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive came to DeRozan’s defense during the next Raptors and Kings matchup, and jabbed at Drake while rocking a “They Not Like Us” T-shirt when sitting courtside.

Watch the full conversation below.

50 Cent is a menace when it comes to his social media antics. While 50 and Busta Rhymes are good friends, they roasted each other in a hilarious back-and-forth on Instagram on Tuesday (Nov. 12), which focused on their hairstyle botches of the past.

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50 lit the fuse after seeing Busta’s hair looking darker than usual, and the G-Unit boss accused the “Touch It” rapper of using some colored paint.

“Nah why crazy s–t be happening and [ninja emoji]’s don’t say nothing,” he wrote before including a photo of Fat Joe’s Rewind 10 beard-coloring brand. “I think @fatjoe, Khaled and Tyson need to intervene here. Lol WTF.”

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50 said: “How this n—a Busta paint his whole hair on? How the f–k you let him go outside looking like that, Joe?”

Busta isn’t one to back down and he quickly returned fire with a photo of 50 from several years ago appearing to grow his hair out with some curls at the time. “WHEN YOU GOT THIS TYPE A CRAZY SHT GOIN AND NOBODY IS SAYING NOTHING,” he wrote. “WHAT TYPE ADVISORS YOU LISTENING TO BRUH??? WHAT THE FK IN A 100 JARS OF TCB GEL TYPE SHT IS THIS MY N—A?? @50cent C’MON MAN!! BY THE WAY FIF, THIS S–T LOOK LIKE YA JERRY CURL STINK TOO BRUDDAH!!”

The Queens rap legend then upped the score, calling out Busta Rhymes for having a “leather lineup.” “N—s always gotta one-up me, right? Have one up on me and s–t. I get a banging leather jacket and this n—a Busta get a leather lineup,” he quipped.

Busta Rhymes appeared to get the last word in when he posted a screenshot of a bald and malnourished 50 from his role in 2011’s All Things Fall Apart flick. “THE BLESSINGS DON’T STOP SO WE AIN’T NEVER GONNA STOP,” Busta added. “DAMN @50cent YOU WAS MY #1 CUSTI WHEN I USED TO SELL CRACK HOMIE. DAMN YOUR HAIR LINE BEEN FUCKED UP SINCE THEN BRUH!!”

Of course, Busta and 50 are close and this is all in good fun. Busta Rhymes opened up for 50 on his lucrative Final Lap Tour in 2023, which eclipsed $100 million in earnings and made him the second rapper ever to do so at the time.

See some of the posts in their back-and-forth below:

Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan character in Challengers defined tennis as a relationship. An unexpected tennis star in his own right while growing up in Florida, Real Boston Richey is adjusting to the give and take of his relationship with fame as his rapper profile continues to grow.

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Boston Richey served up a splash with “Help Me” earlier this year, which had fans comparing his motivational anthem to Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares.”

The MacFly-produced single picked up steam and powered its way to give Richey his first Billboard Hot 100 hit in July. “Help Me” would go on to peak at No. 50 and even cracked the top 10 of the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

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With burgeoning success on one side for the 27-year-old, he’s also had to tune out the haters on the other shoulder. Detractors have attempted to pepper him with accusations tied to snitching, which even peers have thrown in his direction trying to muddy his project’s rollout.

Through it all, Real Boston Richey is focused on what’s ahead while moving past the allegations and using the haters as fuel to his fire and bricks to “build a house.”

“At first, it made me feel a way. But I had to understand, it’s life,” he admits during a Zoom call with Billboard last week. “You gotta expect curveballs when you’re doing some kind of good. I had to embrace what I was going through. You can’t really say you the best if nobody ever seen you go through something and not make it through.”

After whittling down hundreds of songs to a package of 24, the Free Bandz Gang artist delivered his Richey Rich album on Friday (Nov. 8) featuring GloRilla, Lil Yachty and YTB Fatt. Check out our conversation with Boston Richey below as he goes long on his project, dealing with the haters and gems he’s taken from Future.

Richey Rich — what was the creative process for everything with this album?

Real Boston Richey: Richey Rich is really gonna be one of them ones. I put a lot of time in there. Like, over a year, for real. Most of the project I recorded in Miami. 80 percent there and the rest I did in my city. I put a lot of effort and feelings into this and I feel like this one’s gonna be one of them albums. 

I was gonna touch on what makes this stand out from your other projects. What do you hope people take from it? 

I put a lot of feelings into it. A lot of my thought process. These are the top picks from all of the music I recorded. I done recorded hundreds of songs. These were the best hand-picked songs. 

How tough is that process to whittle it down?

That’s probably the hardest thing in the world for me. That’s probably why I took so long with getting it ready, because I was always indecisive with what I wanted to do. I might have these songs I have this week, and I might go to the studio and be like, “Nah, I don’t wanna use these no more. I like these I just made.” That’s the deal of the situation.

Would you save some for a deluxe?

Yeah, we got bonus tracks for sure coming. 

How did you link with Lil Yachty?

He had hit me on Instagram. A month or two later I was in [Atlanta] so I had pulled up to the studio they was at. We was just in there vibing and listening to beats. We went to record and did probably seven songs that night. 

When did you link up with GloRilla? She’s had a good run this year. You guys went to Magic City to shoot the video too. 

I had dropped “The Type” with [YTB Fatt] and she had wrote me like, “You hard, man, I wanna work with you.” I’m like, “Hell yeah, we gotta do something.” We didn’t make it until two or three months later and we were in Miami and I went to her studio session. I think she was working on her album or mixtape if I’m not mistaken. She was bringing up music and I had jumped on one of her songs.

Then she was like, “Play me some of your s–t!” I was playing some of my music and she was really supposed to get on another song I had. She had walked out the room and her brother had heard “Get in There.” Her brother was like, “Oh nah, this the one right here.” Soon as she walked back in, I played it again and they all went crazy. She went in there and did her verse like, “Tell me if y’all don’t like it.” They played it and her verse and the whole studio went crazy. “You slid on that b—h, ya feel me?” 

That’s crazy she wasn’t that confident in it. 

Yeah, she was like, “Tell me if this hard.” Her whole studio went crazy like, “This is the one.”

We gotta talk about “Help Me,” your first Billboard Hot 100 hit. I think it’s reached No. 50. Talk about creating that record and seeing the heights it’s gone to.

When I heard that beat, the beat was telling me, saying, “Help me.” I had both my phone around and got a new phone. I told my engineer send me the new music I recorded. I literally had forgot about it. One day, we was on the road and my brother was in the car and played the car when everyone was asleep. Everyone woke up like, “What this is?!”

We went and shot the video that same night. Everyone was going crazy about it. I played a little snippet at one of my shows and it was going crazy on Instagram. We still had not dropped it until two months later. We were pushing the music and little snippets on the Gram so they were anticipating it for real. 

So then it drops and it makes the Hot 100. What was your reaction to that?

Really just motivated me to know that as long as I apply myself and do the right thing I’m supposed to do I could really be somebody. I could really have a hit song. It motivated me to stay in that mode and keep going and doing what I’m supposed to do.

I saw people saying “Help Me” was the new “Dreams and Nightmares.” What do you think about that?

Nah, for sure. It kinda made me feel good. Comparing my song to “Dreams and Nightmares” – that’s been a banger for years and years. I still go to the club to this day and they play, it and it still gets that reaction same to when I first heard “Dreams and Nightmares.” For them to compare my song to that, it made me feel great.

With the success comes the hate. Do you feel like the snitching allegations were thrown at you to derail you?

At first, it made me feel a way. But I had to understand, it’s life. You gotta expect curveballs when you’re doing some kind of good. I had to embrace what I was going through. You can’t really say you the best if nobody ever seen you go through something and not make it through. I used it as gas to my fire, and really learn how to overcome and get through to show people I’m really one of them ones. These days, I just learned to use the bricks people throw at me to build a house. 

Can you clear up anything around that situation?

Nah, it was just some bulls–t. It wasn’t on really nothing. I’m not really into it. I can’t explain no street s–t once I’m past it. I’m an artist now. If you ain’t from my city, you ain’t never gonna understand it. I’m here to prove no points to people. I’m still the biggest in my city, and I’m still active in my city… I don’t really be worrying about what a person got to say about me on the internet that don’t know me or don’t know where I’m coming, for real. 

Signing to Future, what’s the communication there? What are your last conversations?

My last conversation, he hit me about “Help Me” saying how the song was amazing and s–t like that. Just how I did and how I overcome the bulls–t. Basically saying, like, “Damn boy, you got a a hit on your hands. Keep going.”

They listened to my project first-hand. I know when they send a song like, “This the one.” I just know not to question it. They helped me pick my Public Housing one. So when they tell me, “This the one, tweak this or do this with it.” I just understand and listen. They got hits on hits. When they tell me to do something different with a song, I just be listening and go with it. 

I was looking into hobbies you had outside of rap and I saw you were into tennis. Did you play growing up?

I got championship trophies from tennis, man. I’m raw at tennis. I ain’t wanna be no tennis player or nothing. My mom didn’t want us hanging out after school, so she thought, “I’ma put y’all in sports.” I’m thinking she’s gonna put us in football or basketball or something like that. I remember one Sunday morning she woke us up like, “We going to practice.”

We drove an hour away – me and my brother looking like, “What is this?” She like, “Y’all finna play tennis. Y’all thought you were gonna play football and be around the same boys y’all had?” We did, and it grew to something me and my brother actually liked, and we won a championship too. 

Do you pick up the racket these days?

That was more growing up, but I know I could still be raw at it if I wanted to.  

What’s your dream collaboration?

Bad Bunny or something like that. 

What was the rap scene growing up in Tallahassee? Did you ever get to meet T-Pain?

Yeah, I met T-Pain before. Me and T-Pain from the same hood… The rap scene s–t, when I think about back in the day, I really wasn’t big on the rap scene. My influence on music was heavy through my cousin. He passed away, but that’s who had me rapping through the years after he passed. My influence on music was dictated through what he liked because he’d be the one like, “Ay cuz, you gotta go listen to this new Thug.” He was the type of person that kept me rooted and grounded on music. I wasn’t big on music. I ain’t never wanted to rap or nothing like that. 

What’s your album of the year so far outside of your own?

If I gotta say the album of the year, I probably gotta say I been bumping that We Still Don’t Trust You. I been bumping that the most. I ain’t gonna lie. A lot of times I be bumping my own s–t, but outside of that, that’s probably what I listen to the most.

Any goals for 2025 coming up?

One of my biggest goals is going on my own tour – just me in 2025. That’s what I’m working toward more than anything. That’s what I want to do and really spread my wings and show people I could do it myself. The greater me for real. 

A holiday gift is arriving early for Al Jarreau fans. A lost live album recorded by the Grammy-winning jazz/R&B/pop singer-songwriter at Washington, D.C.’s historic Childe Harold Club in 1976 is finally being released. 
Titled WOW!, the rediscovered project is being released by Resonance Records. Recorded two years before a then-emerging Jarreau began his platinum-selling ascent, the 10-track set presages the late artist’s string of jazz-, R&B- and pop-vibed hits, such as “We’re in This Love Together,” “Mornin’” and the theme from the popular ‘80s television series Moonlighting. In another WOW! bonus, the set also boasts five songs never included before on a live Jarreau recording, among them: James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain,” Count Basie’s “Shiny Stockings,” plus early renditions of “Take Five” and “You Don’t See Me.”

It was Grammy-nominated producer Zev Feldman who discovered the lost recording. In an announcement about the live album’s upcoming release, Feldman recalls, “When I met Al in the early 2000s, I happened to be living in D.C., and we struck up a conversation where he told me the very first show he ever played there was at a place called the Childe Harold. Well, six months ago, I was at the home of the former operations director for WHFS radio, and he had this tape of Al’s D.C. debut — professionally recorded, mixed and mastered. It’s a tour de force. He’s absolutely swingin’ for the fences and has the audience in the palms of his hands. I can’t believe that after Al told me about this particular show all those years ago, we found the actual recording — an amazing set of circumstances!”

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At that time in August 1976, as his vocal dexterity was gaining critical and fan acclaim, Jarreau had also released his sophomore album Glow for Reprise Records. And it was during that album’s release week that he performed in Washington, D.C., home to one of his budding fanbases thanks to local freeform FM station WHFS. For that live performance, Jarreau was backed by a trio led by his longtime collaborator, keyboardist Tom Canning. In an interview about WOW!, Canning notes, “Al was irresistibly funny, very upbeat all the time and a force of nature onstage. Above all, he was totally confident being Al Jarreau.”

Among the additional artists sharing their reflections on Jarreau’s vocal prowess and overall legacy are Dee Dee Bridgewater, Nile Rodgers, Earth, Wind & Fire’s Philip Bailey and Dionne Warwick. “Al’s legacy is his music and his musical ability,” says Warwick. “I’ve never met or heard anyone like Al — a consummate instrument above everything else.”

Resonance will release WOW! as a limited-edition two-album set on Nov. 29 as part of Record Store Day’s Black Friday event. A deluxe CD and digital download will become available on Dec. 6. The deluxe edition features an overview written by acclaimed music writer A. Scott Galloway.

Six-time Grammy winner Jarreau, who died in 2017, is the only singer to win the statuette in the jazz, R&B and pop categories. WOW! also brings to seven the total number of live albums that he recorded. Those six prior live albums are:  Look to the Rainbow: Live in Europe (1977), In London (1985), Tenderness (1994), Live at The Half/Note 1965 with George Duke, Vol. 1 (2011), Al Jarreau and The Metropole Orkest Live (2012), and Live at Montreux 1993 (2016).

Mark Zuckerberg is potentially making music with T-Pain. The Facebook founder posted a photo of the two in the studio on his Instagram Story with the caption, “It’s happening guys.” T-Pain then reposted the same pic with “It is time…” and referred to the Meta boss as “Z.” The two have forged an unlikely relationship over […]