Category: News

Vladimir Putin’s senseless Ukraine war continues, even though it’s not continuing too well for him. The Russian president’s finally lost the backing of one of his biggest allies, and Putin cannot keep the battlefields going while running companies at abysmally low levels. This is good news for Ukraine, obviously, since they’ve been snatching up abandoned Russian tanks. However, elite Russian soldiers have had it with being used as “cannon fodder,” so Putin’s expanding his already expansive draft.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Putin has added dual Russian citizens to those eligible to be called up for fighting. This means that Steven Seagal is eligible as well as Edward Snowden, which cannot be an enjoyable revelation for the latter after all those jokes. However, any dual citizens that happen to also be wealthy will likely breathe easy. It should come as no surprise that those with means are able to altogether avoid Putin’s draft because, as Fox News reveals (via Bloomberg), Granada is here for those with open wallets:

Wealthy Russians have increasingly been attempting to avoid being drafted into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine by applying for citizenship in the Caribbean nation of Grenada.

Russians with the financial means to do so have been applying for citizenship in Grenada through an investment initiative that allows an applicant to receive a passport to the country for a minimum investment of $150,000 or a government approved real estate purchase at a cost of $350,000, Bloomberg reported.

This passport also allows for Russians to head to the U.S. without much sweat at all, and as Bloomberg reports, Grenada is reaping the financial benefits. Back in June, they lifted their ban on Russian’s applying for Grenadian citizenship, but now, the money is flowing. Putin cannot be thrilled, but then again, he’s awfully busy fretting about other things at the moment.

(Via Wall Street Journal, Fox News & Bloomberg)

Carol City rapper Denzel Curry is not a fan of this year’s Grammy awards nominations, and he has no problem showing it. As the Recording Academy hosted its annual nomination stream to reveal the nominees in each category, Curry was not impressed by the names mentioned in this year’s rap categories.

Several of the genre’s newer acts earned their first nominations, including GloRilla, Latto, and Tobe Nwingwe. Kendrick Lamar led the hip-hop pack with 6 nominations, including a nod for both Rap Album of The Year and Album of the Year. Despite this, the “Ultimate” rapper remained unimpressed, writing on Twitter, “but for the rap album category, I can literally name you 10 other albums,” adding, “congrats to kdot and push but all that other sh*t come on bruh.”

Although Curry didn’t outright say his album, Melt My Eyez See Your Future, should have been nominated because it was released during the ceremony’s eligibility period (October. 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2022), fans of the musician chimed in to advocate on his behalf.

Others joined the conversation adding the names of the albums they felt were snubbed. The two most mentioned albums in the thread were Future’s I Never Liked You and JID’s The Forever Story (which was released on the same day as DJ Khaled).

If Denzel Curry is upset now, wait until the actual winners are revealed.

The 65th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on February 5, 2023. The ceremony will be broadcasted live on the CBS Television Network and streamed live and on-demand on Paramount+.

A month after dropping the extremely unsurprising “bombshell” that she’s left the Democratic Party, former Hawaiian congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has officially joined Fox News as a paid contributor. Not only that, but Gabbard kicked off her new stint by filling in for Tucker Carlson on Monday night thanks to the two of them having almost identical political views. As for how that’s possible if Gabbard was a Democrat, well, to put it bluntly she was barely one.

When Gabbard left the party, it wasn’t exactly a shocking decision to anyone who closely followed her proximity to MAGA views and Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton took things even further by famously insinuating (without specifically naming her) that Gabbard is a Russian asset, so her jump to Fox News is yet another predictable move. Via Los Angeles Times:

A representative for the conservative-leaning cable channel confirmed Gabbard signed a deal Monday and will start appearing on its programs next week.

Gabbard, 41, pursued the 2020 Democratic nomination for president. But she has been distancing herself from the party ever since and has appeared as a frequent guest on Fox News, including its most-watched shows, “The Five” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

Following the reveal that Gabbard and Fox News finally put a ring on their relationship, the reactions on Twitter all had a very similar theme: Who didn’t see this coming? Gabbard has been a frequent guest on Tucker Carlson’s show and didn’t hesitate to hop on the “anti-woke” bandwagon. The only thing surprising is that this didn’t happen sooner.

You can see the reactions to Gabbard joining Fox News below:

(Via Los Angeles Times)

Nobody likes doing jury duty, not even rappers. While it is a civic duty and one of the foundations on which our justice system is built (although maybe it shouldn’t be, all things considered), it can be a bit of a hassle, cutting into work time and vacations alike. People have come up with some pretty wild ploys to get out of jury duty, but JID may have just one of the most novel ones yet.

“lol they got me in Jury duty like I’m not fina go Dr. Umar on they stupid ahh,” he tweeted, referring to the controversial motivational speaker/social media personality who has been criticized for his muddled applications of Pan-African beliefs. While he didn’t quite go that far, he later recapped his experience before deleting his tweet, lest he set a bad example (or get in trouble). “So Boom This lawyer nigga asked me a question, I didn’t even answer it,” he wrote. “I just said ‘The whole DOJ is corrupt. Free Brittany Griner.’ I was dismissed seconds later. The End.”

Of course, the US Department of Justice has very little say in the case of Brittney Griner, who was arrested for a tiny amount of marijuana in Russia earlier this year, sentenced to nine years in prison, and is being held in a penal colony as the State Department works to secure her release.

Perhaps you have been lucky enough in your lifetime to never have to fight for Taylor Swift tickets. In the past, maybe you’ve been invited by a generous friend or your parents bought your tickets for your 16th birthday. Maybe your sister’s friend’s boyfriend’s cousin couldn’t make it so gave you their tickets, or you just logged on to Ticketmaster an hour before and bought some nosebleed tickets for $30. The point is, buying tickets should not be hard! But it is.

Imagine a world, if you will, where you want to purchase tickets to a global popstar’s tour but you simply cannot. This is the reality for most if not all of the world’s population, which just so happens to be 8 billion, as of today. But nobody is celebrating! Because it seems like the entire world is currently trying to get tickets to The Eras Tour. It is not going well, and this is clearly the most important news of the day.

Netflix, which is no stranger to large pulling in large audiences, tweeted in support (or mockery) of the thousands (millions?) of Swift fans trying to get tickets to The Eras Tour, which will make over 50 stops around the country and become her largest tour yet. Can Netflix send some IT help over to Ticketmaster? They seem to be struggling a lot over there.

Maybe Netflix will strike up a deal with Swift to air her concert on the streamer for the millions of fans who will still be waiting in the Ticketmaster queue for the next 6 months. They’ve done it before, they can do it again!

After news began circulating that the world’s population is set to cross the eight billion mark next week, many folks concluded only one person could be responsible — Nick Cannon.

Cannon and his growing number of children are strangers to being the topic of conversation on social media. Recently, the television host and actor announced that he would have his 12th child with Abby De La Rosa, who is also the mother of their one-and-a-half-year-old twins, Zion and Zillion Cannon. — making it his fourth baby announcement this year.

The internet wasted no time having a field day at Cannon’s expense, alleging he was the reason for Earth being overpopulated.

“They saying Nick cannon planned this,” one person tweeted.

“STOPPPPP @NickCannon,” another person tweeted.

Another person pointed out that it seems women only have two choices these days — date Pete Davidson or procreate with Nick Cannon.

“You either date Pete Davidson or have a baby with Nick Cannon,” one person wrote. “Those are the only two life paths for women.”

One fan used a hilarious Taylor Swift GIF, implying that Nick Cannon knows he’s the problem but can’t stop himself.

While it’s obviously untrue the mogul/entrepreneur is the reason for the Earth’s recent expansion, it sure is funny as hell.

Today, the nominations for the 2023 Grammy Awards were announced. Beyoncé is nominated nine times: She is up for Record Of The Year (“Break My Soul“), Best R&B Song (“Cuff It”), Best Traditional R&B Performance (“Plastic Off The Sofa”), Best R&B Performance (“Virgo’s Groove”), Best Song Written For Visual Media (“Be Alive” from King Richard), Song Of The Year (“Break My Soul”), Best Dance Recording (“Break My Soul”), and finally, Best Dance/Electronic Album and Album Of The Year for her 2022 record, Renaissance.

This nomination sweep brings Beyoncé’s current total Grammy nominations up immensely, to 88. This actually ties her for the all-time record with husband Jay-Z, who had 83 nominations previously and picked up five more today.

Beyoncé is now the first female artist to receive over 80 nominations. She surpassed Frank Sinatra with the most nominations for Record Of The Year at eight times.

Beyoncé also only needs three more Grammy wins to tie as the highest-awarded artist. She currently has 28. However, if she wins four times from any of this category, bringing her up to 32, she will become both the most nominated and awarded artist of all time. Considering just how many categories and songs from Renaissance she is up for, this record isn’t out of the question for the 2023 Grammys.

Stormzy‘s upcoming album, This Is What I Mean, will be the UK rap star’s third studio album and is set to release later this month.
This past October, the UK rapper dropped his first track off his forthcoming album, “Mel Made Me Do It,” featuring a cameo from Jose Mourinho, the Portuguese professional football manager, and some narration from actress and screenwriter Michaela Coel.

It’s no surprise Stormzy kept that same energy for his next song, the official lead single for the project, “Hide & Seek,” featuring Top Boy actress Saffron Hocking. Stormzy recently revealed that his latest upcoming project, which will include 12 tracks, was created with “freedom” and fun in mind.

“When you hear about music camps, they always sound intense and somber,” Stormzy said in a recent statement. “People saying: ‘We need to make an album.’ ‘We need to make some hit records.’ But this felt beautifully free. We’re all musicians, but we weren’t always doing music. Some days we played football or walked around taking pictures. And the bi-product [sic] to that was very beautiful music. Because when you marry that ethos with world-class musicians and the best producers, writers, and artists in the world, and we’re in one space, that’s a recipe for something that no one can really imagine. You can’t even calculate what that’s going to come up with. And it came up with a big chunk of this album.

This Is What I Mean is out on 11/25 via Def Jam/Interscope. Pre-save it here.

Check out the full tracklist below.

1. “Fire + Water”
2. “This Is What I Mean”
3. “FireBabe”
4. “Please”
5. “Need You”
6. “Hide & Seek”
7. “My Presidents Are Black”
8. “Sampha’s Plea”
9. “Holy Spirit”
10. “Bad Blood”
11. “I Got My Smile Back”
12. “Give It to the Water”

The biggest night in music is nearly upon us. As musicians anxiously tune into the 2023 Grammy nomination stream, Kendrick Lamar can sit back confidently. The “We Cry Together” rapper has earned six nominations for the ceremony beating out all other hip-hop acts.

Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, brings the Compton native’s nomination total to 47. The album and lead single, “The Heart Pt. 5” snatched the nominations for Song of the Year, Best Rap Album, Best Rap Performance, Best Music Video, and Record of the Year. A close runner-up with three nominations, DJ Khaled is the second most nominated hip-hop act.
Khaled and Lamar will battle it out in the same categories, except Best Music Video, Record of the Year, and Album of the Year.

This year’s ceremony will be quite interesting to watch as Nicki Minaj is notably absent from the nomination list. Also, other notable nominees, Young Thug and Gunna are still incarcerated as they are fighting a RICO case against the state of Georgia.

The 65th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on February 5, 2023. The ceremony will be broadcasted live on the CBS Television Network and streamed live and on-demand on Paramount+.

Just a few months ago, GloRilla was in Memphis hangin’ out the window with her ratchet-ass friends. Today, she’s nominated for a Best Rap Performance Grammy for “FNF (Let’s Go),” the song on which she raps the previous reference.

What a year it’s been for GloRilla. In the wake of the success of her and Hitkidd’s breakout hit, she was signed to Yo Gotti’s label Collective Music Group, following up with a string of well-received singles including “Tomorrow 2” with Cardi B, which delivered her first-ever appearance in the top ten of the Hot 100. And while you’d be hard-pressed to imagine how things could get better from there, Glo wound up winning Best Breakthrough Artist at the BET Hip-Hop Awards, being the voice of her hometown Grizzlies’ 2022-23 season hype video, was tapped to perform at the 2023 American Music Awards, and got shout-outs from all over hip-hop, from Lil Baby and ASAP Rocky to living legend Nas on his new album King’s Disease III, which dropped the same night as her debut EP.

That last acknowledgment blew the 23-year-old rapper’s mind, prompting her to gush about Nas’ legendary status (and unwittingly undercut 21 Savage’s assertion that he is no longer “relevant”). Glo will now be competing for the honor with other huge artists like Doja Cat, Gunna, Kendrick and Lamar, along with their respective features including Jay-Z, Future, Young Thug, and more.

You can see the full list of Grammys nominations here.