Category: News

Over the past two years, student debt has become a hot-button issue, in part because of certain campaign promises made by Joe Biden during his successful bid for the Presidency. While conservative commentators have railed against debt forgiveness — mostly to oppose Democrats, despite the policy’s overwhelming popularity among voters — others have taken matters into their own hands. In 2019, Vista Equity founder and billionaire Robert F. Smith paid off the tuition of the entire Morehouse University graduating class. Now, Pharrell Williams, in an attempt to lead by example, has done the same for five student leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

During a Friday panel on the student debt crisis for Black scholars at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, DC, Pharrell announced he was paying off all student debt for students of Southern University, Howard, and Florida A&M, as well as alumni of North Carolina AT, and Norfolk State. The panel’s organizer, NAACP National Director of Youth and College Wisdom Cole, said, “Pharrell forever changed their lives. This was a powerful moment. Now just imagine if President Biden made this a reality for all student debt holders in America.”

Meanwhile, NCAAP President and CEO Derrick Johnson posted photos of the youth leaders as they learned of their debt cancelation on Twitter, imploring President Biden, “It’s your turn now to do the same for all Americans plagued by student debt.” Hours later, Pharrell kicked off his Something In The Water Festival, where he’s set to perform with Clipse, Justin Timberlake, SZA, and more.

The argument can be made that the best wide receiver prospect in the 2022 NFL Draft was the second player off the board at his position. After an ultra-successful collegiate career as a member of the Ohio State Buckeyes, Garrett Wilson was the 10th overall selection by the New York Jets, a potential No. 1 receiver for second-year signal caller Zach Wilson.

There’s a whole lot of hype around what he can achieve in the league, and ahead of his rookie campaign, Wilson appeared on The Pivot podcast. It featured one spectacular moment where Wilson was informed what it means to pay for a rookie dinner, which left him stunned.

“I gotta take all the receivers to a dinner,” Wilson said around the 44:55 mark. “That’s gonna be cool, I’m excited for that.”

It was at this point that Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder, and Fred Taylor told him this is very much not cool, with Taylor informing him that the bill could get run up to $75,000. Wilson could not believe this.

“Nah, they ain’t doing me for $75k,” Wilson said before getting resoundingly told that he’s wrong.

“All I’m gonna say is, we didn’t do a whole lot of rookie dinners, all the rookies, when I was in Jacksonville,” Taylor said. “We did position by position. But when I was in New England, the entire team went out on the rookies — if it’s 10, 12 rookies, whatever it might be in that class. All I know is, that bill comes back $50-60,000, because Tom [Brady] would come in there and buy a $3, $4, $5,000 bottle of wine, take one sip, put it, and say ‘goodnight.’ So, it’s gonna happen.”

Wilson laughed at this story, but deep down, we can tell that he’s still getting ready to spend a lot more money on a meal than he anticipated.

They might be the oddball-iest couple in the public sphere: Kellyanne and George Conway. She spent nearly four years as Donald Trump’s senior counselor (and was part of his empire for well before that). He’s a longtime Republican who became famous for trashing his wife’s boss and even trying to end his re-election chances. For years, Kellyanne kept shtum about how they made that work, but lately she’s been speaking ill of her spouse of over 20 years.

As caught by Raw Story, Kellyanne went on CNN, where host Michael Smerconish dared ask about the state of her marriage, especially considering her husband had accused Trump of “witness tampering” on MSNBC mere hours before. He got more than he perhaps expected.

“You know, in 2016, known as the year of the tweet, George Conway sent zero tweets,” Kellyanne said. “Now he’s sent over 100,000. He can change his mind about Donald Trump, this is a free country, George has no allegiance to a political party or presidential candidate but his vows to me I feel were broken because we were all in.”

Kellyanne then launched into an epic rant, which Smerconish tried — and often failed — to interupt. She said it was George that told her to take the campaign management job that led to her post in the White House, but that he eventually turned on Trump, tweeting about him relentlessly and even co-founding the Lincoln Project, comprised of anti-Trump renegade Republicans. She she confronted him about his “steady diet of ‘Trump, Trump, Trump,” but to no avail. Instead, he “became some kind of resistance folk hero but not at a small cost.”

Kellyanne was even surprised at how far George went. “I feel that I should have known ahead of time if this thing called the Lincoln Project was going to exist there were going to be ads, dumping an op-ed the next day, his tweets are going to be about my boss,” she said. She continued:

“Again, just so your viewers who are saying ‘why did you have her on? I turned off the TV,’ although they didn’t or are reading online, they should know that George — I feel like I was owed an explanation. And this is not the situation, I gave up millions of dollars to go be a public servant in the White House. George wanted to have a big job in the Trump administration, we moved our family to Washington as a family. He changed his mind about Donald Trump somewhere along the way. Famously, Donald Trump never changes. I didn’t change my mind.”

Kellyanne has been promoting her new memoir, which has led to revelations about how much Trump hated all the mean things her husband was saying about him. Nevertheless, she’s standing by her old boss.

You can watch Kellyanne’s CNN appearance in the video above.

(Via Raw Story)

Hip-hop fans have been through a lot in the last few years. There hasn’t been a single year in the past half-decade that hasn’t seen the death of one of rap’s most prominent rising stars. In 2019, Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed in front of his Marathon Clothing store in Los Angeles. Later that same year, Juice WRLD overdosed coming off a flight at Midway International Airport in Chicago. More recently, Drakeo The Ruler was stabbed to death backstage during Once Upon A Time in LA Festival, and Lil Keed died of apparent kidney failure earlier this year.

Last night, during his set at Something In The Water Festival, Compton rapper Roddy Ricch paid homage to these artists and more with a tender performance of his breakout hit “Die Young.” Images of his fallen peers and contemporaries flashed behind him as he crooned the all-too-fitting lyrics of his song’s chorus: “Tell me, why the legends always gotta die quick?”

Roddy was at least partly associated with many of the rappers to whom he paid homage Friday night; he won a Grammy with Nipsey Hussle for their song “Racks In The Middle,” while Keed was a member of YSL Records, a frequent Roddy collaborator via Gunna and Young Thug. Roddy shouted out Gunna on Instagram, calling for his release from Fulton County jail as he awaits trial on racketeering charges with the rest of the YSL crew.

Watch Roddy’s tender performance of “Die Young” above.

In the last year-and-a-half, a large number of people have been arrested for invading the Capitol building. (Others have simply forfeited a large chunk of their salary for not complying with other rules.) To that list, add a most surprising figure: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

On Thursday, as per The Hollywood Reporter, a number of people working for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert were detained by U.S. Capitol police while filming a skit. Among them was Robert Smigel, the writer and performer who since 1997 has been the voice and puppeteer behind Triumph, the cigar-chomping Yugoslavian Mountain Hound-Rottweiler who trades almost exclusively in insult comedy.

A CBS spokesperson told THR that Smigel and crew had been on the Capitol premises on Wednesday and Thursday, collecting interviews for Colbert’s show, presumably pertaining to the ongoing Jan. 6 committee hearings. (Triumph spent much of his career on various Conan O’Brien programs.) The team had arranged a number of meetings, but on Thursday wound up staying late — too late, after the building was closed to visitors. They were approached by officers, and — unescorted and without Capitol IDs — they were arrested and charged with unlawful entry.

It’s a serious crime, and the seven arrested, Smigel included, may face additional criminal charges.

Smigel has long made Triumph a fixture of politics, covering presidential elections going back to 2004 and ramping it up in the Trump era. He’s even insulted Ted Cruz to his face — but the Texas senator seems to be used to people, and dog puppets, pointing out his flaws.

(Via THR)

On the heels of Drake’s new surprise release album, Honestly, Nevermind, fans are suspecting the reason Joey Badass pushed back his album, 2000, is so he wouldn’t be in direct competition with Drake.

This past Thursday, before Drake had even announced the album, Joey took to Twitter to explain that 2000 wouldn’t be released this week, as originally planned.

“Man I got some terrible news,” he said. “my album won’t be coming out tonight due to sample clearance issues. Right now, it’s unclear how long I’ll have to postpone it but my hope is no more than 2 weeks. I wanted to have a new date before I told you guys but it’s out of my control.”

He continued, saying, “I’ll keep you guys updated obviously, I’m almost certain I’ll have a new date by Monday.”

Following the announcement of Honestly, Nevermind, fans theorized that this may have been a cover-up to hide the fact that he pushed it back as not to compete with Drake. Joey has since taken to Twitter to deny these rumors, saying, “Y’all thinking I pushed my album back because drake is comedy. Can’t say I ain’t happy tho hahaha.”

He later showed praise for the album, saying, “I f*x with this new drake tho.”

Had 2000 come out as originally planned, it would’ve coincided with the 10th anniversary of Joey’s breakthrough mixtape, 1999. As of now, there is no confirmed release date for 2000.

Ahead of his upcoming album Montega, produced by Harry Fraud, French Montana has dropped a new video for “Blue Chills.” In the video, Montana is seen in various parts of New York City, including rapping from a rooftop and grabbing bites at a bodega.

Lyrically, the song features Montana addressing his haters and critics, some of which seem to come from within his own circle.

“The grеatest threat is always from the inside / Yessir, they put staples in my head, b*tch, they been tried / Killers wanna bag me or come see me in that dayroom / Shorty wanna rag me and throw me up on Shade Room,” he raps over the Fraud-produced track.

Fraud has worked with Montana on various projects since his mixtape days in the late aughts and early 2010s. In a recent interview with Connected With Wayno, Montana recalled his mixtape days pleasantly, however, he says the songs fans prefer aren’t what he considers his best work.

“Some people, when I dimmed it down, I sold more records,” he said, “and I’m competing in a numbers game. If I could put up numbers, why wouldn’t I put numbers, and I can still do the rap.”

Check out Blue Chills above.

Montega is out 6/24 via Coke Boys. Pre-order it here.

Quality Control’s new signee Lakeyah is ready to take the summer by storm. On her new, scorching single, “Record Straight,” Lakeyah asserts control. She knows she’s bossy, and wears that label with pride, not taking any sort of BS from any man.

“Let me set the record straight / I’m a young fine b*tch, but I’m a heavy weight / Know we shuttin’ down the function when we celebrate / And these diamonds on me shinin’ ball like Kevin Gates,” she raps.

In the song’s accompanying music video, she is dressed in two-piece suit and high-top stilleto boots. She arrives at a construction site and hands out orders to the men working.

“Record Straight” comes from Lakeyah’s new EP, No Pressure, Part One, which dropped today. When speaking of her project in an interview with Popsugar, she said. “It’s so much growth in the music, I stepped out of my comfort zone for sure, as everybody can see …I wanted to work with a lot of different and big producers, creative people, and you can hear the confidence in my music.”

Check out “Record Straight” above.

No Pressure, Part One is out now via Quality Control and Motown. Listen to it here.

Ahead of his upcoming album, Memo, Kota The Friend has dropped a new single called “Father’s Day,” just in time for the holiday. On the new song, Kota shouts out the fellow single fathers and raps about his love for his son.

“Every day gon’ have its bad moments,” Kota raps on the track, “And every day he gon’ be mad when I make him have his nap /He gon’ teach me how to dab / I’ma teach him how to rap / We just learning as we go / and we going with the flow.”

The song’s accompanying video shows several adorable clips of Kota spending time with his son.

In regards to Memo, fans can expect Kota to share moments equally as intimate and relatable throughout the album.

“My goal is to create an incredible body of work,” said Kota in a statement. “My life experiences are real and are the life experiences of hundreds of thousands, and in some cases even millions of people around the world. These experiences are not unique to me, but I have the unique opportunity to put these experiences into my music in a way that we can all relate. I want to say Happy Father’s Day to all fathers who are there for their kids, but who are still vilified and unappreciated. This song is for you.”

Check out “Father’s Day” above.

Memo is currently slated for release in July.

After a rough two years for Rexx Life Raj, the Berkley native singer and rapper has announced his fifth studio album The Blue Hour. Ahead of its release, Rexx has shared a new single and video for his song, “Save Yourself.”

On the new track, he calls for the listener to fight for themselves, as they only have themselves in the end. “Ain’t nobody gonna come save you,” he sings. “You’ve gotta save yourself.” In the accompanying visual, he is seen in his home, finding solace in his own company. He is later seen outside on a race track, joined by a crew of friends.

Ahead of “Save Yourself,” Rexx released a song called “Balance,” on which he sings of the loss of his parents. The Blue Hour will detail Rexx’s healing process over the events that have taken place over the past nearly two years.

“This album is about transition,” said Raj 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.”

Check out “Save Yourself” above and the album artwork below.

The Blue Hour is out 7/15 via EMPIRE. Pre-order it here.