Month: July 2022

Just when Kodak Black was progressing upward in his rap career, the rapper once again finds himself in legal trouble. According to TMZ, the rapper was arrested in his home state of Florida on a pair of drug charges. Kodak was riding in a Dodge Durango on Friday when officers pulled him over for what they believed was an illegal window tint. Once his car was approached, officers say they smelled marijuana and decided to conduct a search of the vehicle. That search resulted in the discovery of 31 oxycodone pills and $74,960 in cash. Additionally, Kodak’s license and tags were expired.

As a result, Kodak was booked on two drug charges: possession of a controlled substance without prescription and trafficking with oxycodone. The incident comes after the rapper was arrested on trespassing charges earlier this year, but those charges were later dropped. Prior to that, Kodak Black’s criminal record includes a 2019 arrest on weapons charges where he lied on a background check in order to obtain a gun. That resulted in him being sentenced to 46 months in prison, a term that was later pardoned by former President Donald Trump.

Kodak’s other run-ins with the law include a 2018 arrest for grand theft and child neglect, a 2017 arrest for violating his probation and failing to complete an anger management class, and multiple accusations of sexual assault.

Kodak Black is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

This weekend is an exciting one for new releases thanks to some projects that were shared with the world. One of them is Steve Lacy’s long-awaited sophomore album Gemini Rights. The project is the follow-up to his Grammy-nominated 2019 debut Apollo XXI and it checks in at a brief yet extremely fulfilling ten songs with guest appearances from Joji and Foushee. Together with the release of Gemini Rights, Lacy shared a message about the project and it earned a special response from one of music’s biggest names.

“Gemini Rights is outttt [crying emoji] this feels so surreal,” Steve wrote in his original message. “I can’t explain it. It’s a new feeling. I think I’ll be able to tell you about it in a couple months. But for now I’ll enjoy this newness. Thank you guys for all the love and support. I promise it doesn’t go unnoticed [bow in a heart emoji].” In response, Kanye West took the moment to praise both Steve and the new album. “Album is beautiful,” Kanye wrote in the comment section. “One of the most inspiring people on the planet.”

The comment from Kanye comes after he and Steve were photographed together at the former’s Donda livestream event last summer. When asked about his time there during an interview with GQ, Steve said simply, “It was cool, it was cool.”

You can view Kanye’s message to Steve in the post above.

Gemini Rights is out 7/15 via RCA Records. You can stream it here.

“Irreconcilable differences” have led to Russell Westbrook and his longtime agent, Thad Foucher, parting ways. In a statement given to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN on Friday night, Foucher indicated that he and Westbrook disagree on the best path forward for the Los Angeles Lakers’ point guard, with the Wasserman agent hinting that the difference stems from his belief that Westbrook should stay with the Lakers.

You can read Foucher’s entire statement here, but the following excerpt is where he implies that Westbrook wants to leave the team:

“Now, with a possibility of a fourth trade in four years, the marketplace is telling the Lakers they must add additional value with Russell in any trade scenario. And even then, such a trade may require Russell to immediately move on from the new team via buyout.

“My belief is that this type of transaction only serves to diminish Russell’s value and his best option is to stay with the Lakers, embrace the starting role and support that Darvin Ham publicly offered. Russell is a first-ballot Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame player and will prove that again before he is retired.

Foucher has represented Westbrook throughout his NBA career, making this a pretty stunning departure and an even more stunning statement. But despite that, Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times reports that Westbrook has never explicitly requested a trade from the Lakers, while Sopan Deb of the New York Times indicated that Westbrook liked a tweet in the aftermath of the news that seems instructive.

Westbrook has one year and approximately $47 million remaining on his contract.

Jak Knight, a comedian known for co-creating and acting on Peacock original series, Bust Down, has died at 28. In addition to Bust Down, Knight was a writer on shows like Blackish and Big Mouth, on the latter of which, he voiced DeVon. Although he proved to be a promising comedian, Knight was very much known and loved within the realm of music.

In 2018, Knight appeared in a live version of Zach Fox’s Bruh podcast, alongside rapper Amine. In one of his most iconic stand-ups, he hilariously detailed Chance The Rapper‘s career evolution and recounts a time when he saw the rapper perform at a music festival while on shrooms.

“I thought I was in The DaVinci Code, directed by Jordan Peele. This sh*t was crazy as hell,” he said in a Comedy Central special.

Following the news of his death, several musicians have taken to social media to mourn the loss of Knight.

“RIP to Jak Knight,” said Flying Lotus, “honestly was my fav comedian these days. Unapologetically bold and hilarious.”

https://twitter.com/flyinglotus/status/1548102870653800450?s=21&t=BpryIJhrGneI5kmTkq98Ew

Producer Kenny Beats also expressed sadness over Knight’s death, tweeting “Rip Jak I’m heartbroken.”
https://twitter.com/kennybeats/status/1548127265745014796?s=21t=BpryIJhrGneI5kmTkq98Ew

Television personality and rapper Steelo Brim, who once had Knight as a guest on his Wine And Weed podcast, said “Truly don’t know what to say but Jak Knight was & is the man. He will be forever missed and loved, lit up every room and was as pure as they come. F*ck this one hurts.

https://twitter.com/steelobrim/status/1548110906957082625?s=21&t=BpryIJhrGneI5kmTkq98Ew

A cause of death has not yet been confirmed for Knight.

Fans of Jhene Aiko and Big Sean are still reeling over those baby bump photos that circulated over Fourth of July weekend. Both Aiko and Sean have remained relatively quiet on social media since news of the pregnancy broke, until today.

Earlier, Aiko took to Instagram to reveal the first official maternity photo.

In the picture, she is seen nude, tastefully covered by shadows of the sun, as an image of the earth appears in the background. Sean commented on the picture thanking fans for their support, and said that he “can’t wait” for the baby to arrive. Their child will be Aiko’s second child and Sean’s first.

So it looks like fans may have to wait a little bit longer for a follow-up to Aiko and Sean’s 2016 collaborative album, Twenty88. Sean confirmed that he and his longtime partner have been working on the album earlier this year, during an Instagram live session with R&B singer Queen Naija. He also confirmed that he is recording music of his own.

“I’m here working on a new album and new Twenty88, me and Jhené,” he said. “Sh*t, we’ve been working on it for a little bit… It’s coming along good, though.”

LeBron James, by nature of being one of the very best athletes in the world, is no stranger to getting trash talk hurled at him by opposing fans. On a recent episode of The Shop, James was asked to pick the fanbase that takes things to a different level, and perhaps unsurprisingly, he singled out fans of the Boston Celtics.

When asked why he feels so strongly about Boston fans, James simply said “they racist as f*ck.”

“They will say anything, and it’s fine — I mean, f*ck, it’s my life, I’ve been dealing with it my whole life,” James said. “I don’t mind it, like, I hear it, if I somebody close by, I’ll check them real quick, I’ll move onto the game, they gonna say whatever the f*ck they wanna say. They might throw something on me, I got a beer thrown on me leaving the game.”

Maverick Carter then said Boston is the only place in the country where people wear “F*ck LeBron” t-shirts, which James joked were probably sold in the team shop. Even before he suited up for the Celtics’ historic rival, the Los Angeles Lakers, James’ NBA career featured numerous high-profile battles in Boston while he played for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat.

It’s hard to get a feature from Jay-Z these days. It’s even harder to get an interview. But fortunately, Jay stopped by Kevin Hart’s Peacock talk show, Hart To Hart, to talk about how his career has evolved over the years.

One of the biggest revelations was the fact that he no longer charges for features. Jay, however, admitted that he is still very selective about who he collaborates.

“It’s mostly [based on] relationships,” Jay said. “It’s actually always been mostly relationships. Sometimes it’s talent and sometimes someone asks me to be on something. Pretty much every song that I’m on I’m asked to be on. I don’t ask people to be on their songs. I never charge.”

Jay also admitted that it can be hard to reject requests from other rappers, but says it’s better to be honest and transparent.

“I try to be straight up,” he said. “Sometimes it slips through the cracks. Sometimes I want to do it and my life is in a certain place and I’m movin’ and I can’t do it. But I typically try to be straight up with people. I don’t like to drag or like waste people’s time or hold them.”

In the interview, he also spoke about marriage, fatherhood, and his plans to retire eventually. He confirmed that he is not currently retired, he just hasn’t put out solo music in a while, as he “needed a break.”

When Joaquin Oliver was 12, he wrote a letter to gun owners imploring them to support background check legislation to help prevent gun violence in America. When he was 17, he was shot and killed in a hallway outside his creative writing class at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Oliver’s parents, Manuel and Patricia, have been on a mission to raise awareness and reduce the influence of the gun lobby ever since. They founded the gun control advocacy organization Change the Ref and their latest initiative may be their most powerful yet.

Manuel and Patricia Oliver’s son Joaquin was killed in the Parkland, Florida, school massacre in 2018.Courtesy of Change the Ref

On July 14, the Olivers took a mile-long convoy of 52 school buses—dubbed The NRA Children’s Museum—to Ted Cruz’s offices in Houston, Texas, to deliver Joaquin’s letter to him.

The empty seats on 51 of the buses represent the more than 4,368 children in the United States that the organization claims would have sat in them since 2020 had they not been killed by guns. The leading bus is filled with memorabilia of children killed in shootings—things like photos of the children, the clothing they wore or things they carried, such as the Nickelodeon backpack of a student from Santa Clarita, California, a girl scout sash from a student in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a piece of construction paper artwork from a student in Newtown, Connecticut.

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The reason for the buses representing child gun deaths since 2020 is that, according to the CDC, since that year, firearms have overtaken car accidents to become the leading cause of death in children and teens ages 1 to 19 in the U.S.

That fact is worth repeating. Since 2020, gun violence has been the leading cause of death for children and teens in America. More than car accidents. More than disease. That’s mind-blowing.

And the reason for heading to Ted Cruz first? Lawmakers in Texas lead the country in donations taken from the gun lobby, and among those lawmakers, Ted Cruz leads the pack.

“To commemorate this horrific historic moment, we are showing American voters the toll these politicians have taken on our children’s lives with this all-too-real archive,” Manuel Oliver said in a statement. “And this is only the beginning. We will not stop with Sen. Ted Cruz. To every politician who has stood by, taken NRA money, and refused to listen to the people they represent: the museum is on the way to honor you next.”

“We want to display, for the voters who keep these politicians in office, the consequences of those choices. We want voters to remember which politicians are in the pocket of the NRA when they visit the polls in November,” added Patricia Oliver. “We urge everyone to join us in our mission to fight for every innocent soul lost to gun violence and to demand universal background checks on gun sales.”

Change the Ref requests that Sen. Cruz immediately renounce all future funding from the NRA and listen to the people’s will to enact legislation for universal background checks—commonsense gun legislation that most of his constituents, including those in his own party, support. The Olivers hope that their son’s letter will spark a realization that receiving political donations from gun lobbyists like the NRA is not worth an innocent child’s life.

Reasonable citizens everywhere share the same request and the same hope.

Kids say the darnedest things. And usually, those things are the stories you don’t want them sharing. It’s the Murphy’s law of having young children—as soon as you tell them a story stays in the house, EVERYONE will know about it. One former preschool teacher in Texas is hilariously chronicling tales from his former students on TikTok. So far, there are 69 videos, but given how popular they are, that number will continue to grow.

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Mr. Hills, aka atxhills on TikTok, started the series last year, and I’m sure even he could not have anticipated just how successful it would be. What makes these videos funny is always Hills’ reaction to the truly off-the-wall stuff his students say to him.

I was able to talk to Mr. Hills on the phone, and it was a hilarious and enlightening.

@atxhills be careful what you do and say #fypシ #thinkabout #prekteacher #teachers #snitches #foru ♬ gibby likes careless whisper very much – unicorn shart❤️

When I talked to Hills, he explained that he was a preschool teacher for 18 years. On the encouragement of his sister and later, his wife, he wrote down all of the wild things his students said to him in notebooks (he has about 5). Initially, he planned on making one video, then five. He definitely didn’t think he’d be making 69 and counting. But the stories were just too funny to stop sharing.

In another video, he reveals that during a game of “Duck, Duck, Goose” a female student told him he has a head like a “naked cat.” (Hills is bald, and his lack of hair comes up in several videos.)

@atxhills #prekteacher #preschoolteacher #teachersoftiktok #fyp #foryoupage #raidernation ♬ original sound – Mr. Hills

As the videos progress, Hills starts to talk about certain students with more frequency—some of the stuff they talk about is a bit adult in nature. I asked Hills and he confirmed that many of his students were children of color and lived in lower income neighborhoods. Hills was the only Black male teacher, and as a result was often tasked with teaching some of the most difficult little ones. He did have several co-teachers who were usually older women. The Mrs. Martinez you hear him refer to in the videos is real, and has declined making a guest appearance on TikTok.

“I asked, can I get students who listen?” Hills said. He explained that his two years with the children who feature most prominently were two of the “most difficult” because most of them would just do their own thing.

In particular, there is one little boy named Gavin (Hills uses his middle name at the request of his mom who follows along and asked so she could keep track of the stories) who has a lot of videos made about him. And after a couple, you can understand why. Again, we don’t know much about his home life, but from Hills’ videos, you learn a lot about Gavin. For example, he has a gang called the “Knee High Killers,” among other things.

@atxhills #gavinedition #atxhills #fyp #fypシ #foryoupage #prekteacher #10MillionAdoptions #teachersoftiktok ♬ About Damn Time – Lizzo

Another fan favorite is Bradley, a second grader Hills supervised in an after-school program. Bradley is white but he has a Black stepdad and, as a result, has some interesting takes on things. Hills is still in touch with him via TikTok, and Bradley (who is now 18) loves hearing his stories told. He even shares them with his friends.

@atxhills Reply to @johnny.amigon #AmazonVirtualTryOn #prekteacher #MakeASplash #raidernation #fyp #fypシ #foryou #teacher ♬ original sound – Mr. Hills

Hills told me that he left teaching a few years ago to become a trained behavioral teacher and now works a couple of days at a new preschool. He also works with teens. Yes, he’s been taking notes for both and plans to share those videos as well.

While he never anticipated these videos taking off the way they did, he’s enjoying riding the wave and making videos while people are still interested.

Bay Area’s own Rexx Life Raj is back with his first album in two years. His latest effort, The Blue Hour is his most personal project to date, detailing the harrowing loss of his parents and the process of grieving and maintaining his mental health.

“This album is about transition,” said Rexx in a statement. “This album is about grief. This album is about experiencing every emotion and not running from them. This past year and a half have been so insane that I could make another 20 albums about it. From losing my parents, to moving out of places I grew up in and made me who I am, all while trying to maintain some type of balance and sanity. I tried to be as honest and intentional with this project as possible. Creating it helped me in ways I can’t even explain. I pray it does the same for someone else.”

This fall, Rexx will support The Blue Hour with a 24-date North American tour.

Check out the full list of tour dates below.

09/22 — Dallas, TX @ Cambridge Room @ HOB
09/23 — Houston, TX @ Bronze Peacock @ HOB
09/25 — New Orleans, LA @ Parish @ HOB
09/27 — Atlanta, GA @ Vinyl
09/29 — Washington, DC @ Songbird
09/30 — New York City, NY @ Baby’s All Right
10/01 — Philadelphia, PA @ Milkboy
10/02 — Boston, MA @ Middle East Upstairs
10/03 — Toronto, OH @ Velvet Underground
10/06 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit Hall
10/07 — Columbus, OH @ The Basement
10/09 — Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
10/11 — Denver, CO @ Other Side @ Cervantes
10/12 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Soundwell
10/14 — Vancouver, BC @ Fortune
10/16 — Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
10/18 — Portland, OR @ Star Theatre
10/20 — Arcata, CA @ Arcata Theatre Lounge
10/23 — Ventura, CA @ Ventura Theatre
10/24 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy
10/25 — San Diego, CA @ VooDoo @ HOB
10/29 — Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst
10/30 — Sacramento, CA @ Ace Of Spades
11/04 — San Francisoco ,CA @ August Hall

The Blue Hour is available now via EMPIRE. Stream it here.