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Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty / JAY-Z
JAY-Z is once again using his influence to aid those in need, specifically those who are victims of shady law enforcement.
Spotted on TMZ Hip Hop, JAY-Z and Roc Nation are coming to the aid of a Wisconsin man who was wrongfully and violently arrested, and despite the police admitting they threw coughs on the wrong man, he is still facing charges.
Per TMZ Hip Hop:
TMZ Hip Hop has learned Jay-Z’s Team ROC org has enlisted powerhouse lawyer Alex Spiro to rep Jermelle English Jr. and his family … in hopes of getting all charges dropped, and possibly to sue the Kenosha PD.
Team ROC Managing Director Dania Diaz tells TMZ Hip Hop, “The reckless arrest of Jermelle English Jr. and the careless endangerment of his infant child by the Kenosha Police Department is an absolute travesty … the Team ROC team is here to support Jermelle and his family through this traumatic experience, demand justice and hold the Kenosha police officers accountable.”
Kenosha PD’s Leo Viola tells us the department is still undergoing an internal investigation, and plans to be extremely transparent with the public once it’s completed. He adds, the Dept. initiated its probe without any outside pressure.
What Exactly Went Down That Day
According to reports, English Jr. was mistaken for a suspect in a hit-and-run. A Black couple and a child involved in an accident ran towards the Kenosha, Wisconsin Applebee’s.When police officers arrived, employees pointed them toward English Jr., sitting with his family at the time. In a video captured by an employee, English Jr. can be seen holding his child as the cops approach him.
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“He tried to go the other way, and they eventually tackled him into a wall, and the baby had his head on the wall. They had at least four cops on his back,” said restaurant manager Jennifer Harris. “At least a cop or two, each grabbing his arm. And still, one cop punching him over and over again in his face.”
Witnesses in the restaurant during the incident said English Jr. and his family were there well before the incident took place.
Police later realized they had the wrong man when they found the family they were looking for hiding in the Applebee’s bathroom.
Even though he was cleared, police still had the audacity to charge him and the woman he was with, Shanya Boyd, with disorderly conduct, resisting and obstructing an officer. Boyd was also accused of marijuana possession.
Spiro is working to get all of the charges dismissed.
The Kenosha PD has launched its internal investigation into the incident.
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Photo: Kevin Mazur / Getty
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A new surprise exhibit dedicated to highlighting the impact of Jay-Z has debuted at the Brooklyn Public Library, complete with his lyrics adorning the building.
The new exhibit, titled The Book of HOV, made its debut to the public officially on Friday (July 14). “He navigated the gritty streets of Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects to the halls of Roc Nation, and now he shines as one of the brightest stars in our constellation. With his rhymes sharper than a knife and beats hotter than a summer in the city, JAY-Z is a beacon of hope for those who dare to dream beyond the confines of their circumstances,” said a statement from the exhibit’s website.
Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty
The exhibit is styled like chapters in a book and spans the entirety of the main branch of the library, with lyrics from “Justify My Thug” and “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” decorating the curved facade of the building’s main entrance to greet visitors. Inside, there are various installations showing off memorabilia from the rap icon’s career including a down-to-the-detail full-scale recreation of the place where Jay-Z recorded many of the hits he’s known for, Baseline Recording Studios. Other parts of the exhibit feature turntables that play vinyl records containing his hits and the samples that helped to create them and one area that encourages young visitors to craft paper planes in homage to one of his companies.
Chief executive of the Brooklyn Public Library, Linda E. Johnson, worked closely with Sandra Perez, the president of Roc Nation to make the exhibit come alive. That includes Roc Nation footing the entirety of the bill for it, including a donation to a gala in October at the library where Jay-Z and his mother, Gloria Carter, will be honored. “People thought I was a little out of my mind,” Johnson said when interviewed. “I don’t think I’d be going out on a limb to say that this is the biggest exhibition we’ve ever done.” There will also be 13 limited edition library card variations based on each of Jay-Z’s albums available for those who sign up.
“The Book of HOV” will be on display throughout the rest of the summer. More information can be found on its website.
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Jay-Z is expanding his sports roster. The rapper and businessman’s Roc Nation Sports announced on social media on Monday (July 10) that it has landed a deal with Italy’s Series A soccer league. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The “strategic partnership” between the two aims to […]
Colombian star J Balvin has officially joined Roc Nation as a management client, where he will be overseen directly by Jay Brown and Chris Knight.
Balvin was previously managed by Fabio Acosta and Scooter Braun’s SB projects. He parted ways with the latter on June 30, 2022, after nearly three years together. He continued working with Acosta and his company, Akela Family Music, through March. Acosta had managed or co-managed Balvin in some capacity for the past decade. Sources say the two parted on amicable terms.
Balvin, one of the biggest Latin stars in the world, has had a series of management shifts over the past five years. In 2019, he parted ways with manager Rebeca León, who had managed him since the onset of his career in the United States, and signed with Braun. Throughout both deals, Acosta remained part of his management team and worked in partnership with SB Project, helping bring in groundbreaking deals and partnerships. These included his celebrity menu collaboration with McDonald’s — a first for a Latin act. Balvin was also the first Latin artist to collaborate with Nike and Michael Jordan on an Air Jordan collaboration, and in November of 2020, he performed in Fortnite, marking the first performance ever by a Latin act for a gaming company.
Last year, Balvin also briefly split with his longtime agency, WME, and went to UTA, after postponing his 25-date José tour. But after four months, he returned to WME.
Balvin is currently featured on the Fast X soundtrack with the track “Toretto.” He’s also announced a series of European tour dates, mostly festivals, beginning with a June 24 performance at the Solydays festival in Paris.
Balvin’s full touring schedule is below.
6/24 – Paris – Solydays 25th Anniversary Festival6/26 – Ibiza – Pacha Nightclub6/30 – Seville – Puro Latino Fest7/1 – Madrid – Puro Latino Fest7/3 – Ibiza – Pacha Nightclub7/8 – Liege, Belgium – Les Ardentes Festival7/9 – Constanta, Romania – Neversea Festival7/11 – Milan – Milano Latin Festival7/12 – Bern, Switzerland – Gurten Park7/14 – Tenerife – Ritmo del Mundo7/15 – Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal – Meo Mares Vivas Festival7/21 – Byron Bay, Australia – Splendour in the Grass7/23 – Melbourne – Margaret Court7/25 – Sydney – Hordern Pavillion
The latest battleground in Megan Thee Stallion’s war with her record label is a dispute over whether her manager – Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez – can be forced to sit for a deposition.
For months, the two sides have sparred over whether Perez must answer questions from lawyers for record label 1501 Certified Entertainment. They say she is “one of the most critical” witnesses in the ongoing case; Megan’s lawyers say they’re just trying to “harass” a busy executive who has little pertinent info.
In the latest filing on Tuesday, Megan’s attorneys said 1501’s arguments in the dispute are “entirely off base, bordering on nonsensical.” Perez doesn’t have any “unique or superior personal knowledge,” they said, and 1501’s lawyers should have sought such info from “alternative sources.”
The star rapper (real name Megan Pete) has been fighting with 1501 for more than two years, claiming the company duped a young artist into signing an “unconscionable” record deal in 2018 that was well-below industry standards. She says that when she signed a new management deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in 2019, she got “real lawyers” who helped her see that the deal was “crazy.”
That core dispute has mushroomed into additional litigation, with both sides accusing the other of various forms of wrongdoing and claiming millions in damages. A judge ruled in December that the case will need to be decided by a jury trial; a date has not yet been set.
With both sides preparing to make their case, 1501 sought to have Perez sit for a deposition – meaning she would meet with the company’s lawyers and answer questions about Megan’s case under oath. But the rapper’s lawyers quickly threw a challenge flag in November, seeking a so-called protective order that would have shielded Perez from what they called “gamesmanship” by 1501.
They pointed to what’s known as the apex doctrine, which limits when high-ranking executives can be forced to give a deposition. (That’s the same rule that Spotify cited last year when it tried to shield CEO Daniel Ek from questioning in a copyright lawsuit.) Under the apex doctrine, busy top officials only need to testify when they have unique info that can’t be derived from other less burdensome sources.
“1501 does not seek relevant, admissible evidence because Perez does not have any,” Megan’s lawyers wrote in their November filing. “Rather, 1501 is intent on harassing Perez and disrupting her responsibilities as CEO of Roc Nation.”
The label quickly fired back in December, arguing that Perez had been “directly, personally, and substantially involved in the underlying facts of the lawsuit.” They claimed she’d had direct conversations about whether Megan’s 2021 Something for Thee Hotties counted as an “album” under her deal – a central dispute in the case. And they said Perez had personally negotiated one of Megan’s record contracts at issue in the lawsuit.
“Ms. Perez is trying to use her position at Roc Nation to prevent 1501 from obtaining otherwise discoverable information from her as a fact witness,” the label’s lawyers wrote. “1501 is not seeking discovery from Ms. Perez as CEO of Roc Nation. Rather, 1501 is seeking discovery from Ms. Perez as a fact witness.”
With Tuesday’s new filing from Megan’s lawyers, both sides have now fully made their arguments, and a judge will rule in the coming weeks or months on whether Perez must sit down with 1501’s lawyers. A rep for Megan and Roc Nation did not immediately return a request for comment on the deposition dispute.
Steve Zager, lead attorney for 1501, told Billboard his client was simply trying to obtain key information from an individual who was “intimately involved” in the events that led to litigation: “It is not harassment to try to serve a witness with knowledge of the facts of a case with a deposition subpoena where her lawyers have refused to accept service on her behalf.”
Read this week’s entire legal filing from Megan Thee Stallion’s lawyers here:
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Source: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / Getty / Kodak Black
Another day, another rapper or celebrity sharing their head*ss opinion on Tory Lanez being found guilty of shooting Megan Thee Stallion.
Legal expert and frequent court visitor Kodak Black is the latest person with something to say about Tory Lanez being found guilty on all charges.
Like the ridiculous petition started by “fans” and Lanez’s father, Sonstar Peterson, and other family members, Black also stupidly believes that JAY-Z and Roc Nation have something to do with the trial’s outcome.
Kodak Black Thinks JAY-Z Is A “F*ck N*gga”
In an Instagram Live session, the rapper shared his unwanted opinion, chastising the victim in all of this, Megan Thee Stallion, for speaking on the matter while dissing the GOD MC, JAY-Z.
Via HipNMore:
Who advised this sh*t before Christmas? And Jay-Z standing behind this, you a f*ck n*gga homie,” Kodak said, dissing Jay-Z and believing the wild rumors that his company Roc Nation has a big role to play in the case. “And Meg, you supposed to be from the streets …. even it was a gunshot on your foot (and not pavement fragments) … I know a b*tch who got shot in the toe, too. I know a female who got shot in the toe. You don’t see her talking about sending n*ggas to jail.” He also called Tory a “good n*gga.”
“This shit aint right, homie. For real, bro,” Kodak continued. “And Tory Lanez a good nigga, bro…This shit fu**ing with my Christmas Eve. Everybody shit ain’t for me to speak on. But it’s like ni**as aint finna talk about that. Ni**as finna act like this shit ain’t never happen. I don’t know. I wasn’t in the courtroom. But at the same time, if it is some fu**ed up shit going on, ni**as ain’t gonna wanna say nothing because of the politics bullshit. And all of this Jay-Z shit. But I don’t like that shit nan bit.”
You can watch Kodak Black spew his stupidity below.
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Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / Getty