Category: News

The murder trial for the man who shot and killed Nipsey Hussle is underway and yesterday, one of the prosecution’s key witnesses was cross-examined by the defense. Although Eric Holder’s lawyer Deputy District Attorney Aaron Jansen can’t truly deny his client pulled the trigger — there’s plenty of security video along with multiple witnesses — the defense hinges on Holder’s insistence that the murder was not premeditated, in which case he should have been charged with voluntary manslaughter. Holder pled not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree attempted murder.

Jansen’s questioned the witness, Bryannita Nicholson, about discrepancies in her testimony on Monday, comparing her statements to her initial witness statements in 2019 and video from the crime scene. According to the Associated Press, Jansen took care not to accuse Nicholson of lying, only that she might be mistaken. It’s clear that his strategy is to create doubt about whether Holder intended to shoot the rapper when he had Nicholson park her car in a nearby alley.

Nicholson had accompanied Holder to the store, giving him a ride in her car, and said she witnessed an argument between Holder and Nipsey, after which they left, returning a few minutes later and parking in the alley instead of the store’s parking lot. Holder got out, leaving her alone, and returned after shooting Hussle, telling her to drive away. Nicholson has always maintained she had no idea that was his intention, and Jansen’s pressing on small details — the color of a truck in the parking lot at the strip mall where the Marathon Clothing store was located, the order of events during Holder’s initial confrontation with Nipsey — was intended to cast doubt on her reliability as a witness.

To that end, it’s reported Jansen did get Nicholson to acknowledge she didn’t see any violent signs from Holder and that she was never close enough to hear more than a minute of the men’s conversation, which she’d said in 2019 revolved around Nipsey accusing Holder of being a snitch. This was apparently what incited Holder to return to the store minutes later and fire at Nipsey, killing him and hitting two bystanders.

April 2021 marked the release of Through The Soil, a compilation album to benefit the NAMI COVID-19 Mental Health Support Fund. Now, a sequel project, Through The Soil II, has been released and it features some indie rock firepower: Contributing to this 37-track album are artists like Julien Baker, Faye Webster, Squirrel Flower, Ian Sweet, Tomberlin, Ratboys, Wednesday, Friendship, and Horse Jumper Of Love.

Most of the material is new songs original to this release, while some are covers, demos, and live versions. Baker offers a song called “Milkman Of Human Kindness,” Webster shares a live version of “What Used To Be Mine,” and Ian Sweet contributes a demo version of the 2021 single “F*ckthat.”

“These charity compilations would be absolutely nothing without the generosity from all the artists involved,” the project’s Bandcamp page reads. “Thank you to all who took part in the making of this release, for sharing a piece of your art for this project and for your continued support.”

Proceeds from the album will benefit The Trevor Project, which cites its mission simply as “to end suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer 
& questioning young people.”

Stream Through The Soul II below or here.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie‘s Château Miraval in France has been a pivotal location in both their tabloid frenzy marriage and their years-long contentious divorce. While Jolie sold off her stake earlier in the year to Pitt’s frustration, the actor has held onto his end of the secluded estate and winery business, which he’s claimed in court papers he developed “from scratch.”

However, Pitt has revealed a previously unknown attachment to the French chateau: Buried treasure. While promoting his new movie, Bullet Train, the actor confessed to GQ that he was conned into believing there was gold harkening back to the Middle Ages underneath the chateau grounds. Pitt admits he became obsessed with the hunt:

He tells me that he was approached a few years ago by a man who explained to him that the château was supposedly home to another fortune: millions of dollars’ worth of gold that one of the estate’s medieval owners had taken from the Levant during the Crusades and buried on the grounds. “I got obsessed,” Pitt says. “Like for a year, this was all I could think about, just the excitement of it all.” He bought radar equipment and scoured his property. “Maybe it has something to do with where I grew up, because in the Ozark Mountains there were always stories of hidden caches of gold.”

Turns out, the man was trying to drum up interest in “some kind of radar company,” and there was never any buried treasure. Despite being duped and admitting it was “pretty foolish in the end,” Pitt said he still had a blast. “It was just the hunt that was exciting.”

(Via GQ)

Atlanta and music go hand in hand, and they are set to take the next step in their marriage this fall with the 12th annual One Musicfest taking place at Central Park in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward Neighborhood. Attendees will be graced with the presence of talents such as Lil Baby, Jazmine Sullivan, Rick Ross, Tems, Ashanti and Ja Rule, Gucci Mane, City Girls, Beenie Man, Jeezy, and Ms. Lauryn Hill for a nice mix of hometown talents, music legends, and fresher faces.

The two-day festival, taking place October 8th and 9th, is provided in collaboration with Live Nation Urban for the second year in a row but also introducing a new partner in the entertainment powerhouse BET. Per Billboard, organizers are describing what BET has planned for the event as a “Black Joy Playground.”

J. Carter, the founder of ONE MusicFest, had this to say about the October event: “We are super excited about this year’s lineup and new location. One thing we pride ourselves on is creating a diverse lineup that reflects the vast and beautiful breadth of Black music and culture. We are also taking over the Fourth Ward area and increasing our footprint to four stages instead of three. ONE Musicfest 2022 will be our biggest year yet, but we still plan to keep the energy and vibrations intimate and comfortable.”

Check out information about tickets and more at the One Musicfest website here.

Gucci Mane is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Squid Game unexpectedly became Netflix’s biggest-ever hit last October (according to self-reported data from Netflix), with over 1.6 billion hours viewed in its first 28 days on the streaming service. It’s the only Netflix season to exceed one billion hours, although like poor Chrissy being lifted in Eddie Munson’s trailer, Stranger Things 4 is going higher and higher on the all-time chart — and could soon even surpass Squid Game.

Stranger Things 4 has racked up 883 million hours in its first 24 days of release. It only has four more days to reach Squid Game’s 1.6 billion hours (or 1.599999999999999999 billion hours more than anyone spent wondering if a Squid Game competition series is a good idea). That obviously isn’t going to happen… until you remember that there are still two more episodes of season four of Stranger Things to go. Forbes reports:

Netflix has already said what they will count and what they won’t. The 28 day clock will start ticking from July 1, but only for those two episodes. While viewings of part 1 will count toward the overall grand total (and last we checked, Squid Game’s lifetime views are something like 2.2 billion hours), they will not add to the 28 day counter. Part 2’s will, within those 28 days.

Many Stranger Things fans will re-watch at least a portion of the first seven episodes of season four before the show returns on July 1. Those two new episodes equally roughly four hours of viewing (including a whopping and butt-numbing two hours and 20 minutes for the finale), so there’s a chance that it could break Squid Game’s record. At the very least, Stranger Things 4 will exceed one billion hours, which is also how much time Max spends listening to Kate Bush this season.

Here’s the English language top 10:

1. Stranger Things 4 (883,300,000)
2. Bridgerton: Season 2 (656,260,000)
3. Bridgerton: Season 1 (625,490,000)
4. Stranger Things 3 (582,100,000)
5. Lucifer: Season 5 (569,480,000)
6. The Witcher: Season 1 (541,010,000)
7. Inventing Anna (511,920,000)
8. 13 Reasons Why: Season 2 (496,120,000)
9. Ozark: Season 4 (491,090,000)
10. The Witcher: Season 2 (484,340,000)

And the non-English language top 10:

1. Squid Game: Season 1 (1,650,450,000)
2. Money Heist: Part 5 (792,230,000)
3. Money Heist: Part 4 (619,010,000)
4. All of Us Are Dead: Season 1 (560,780,000)
5. Money Heist: Part 3 (426,400,000)
6. Café con aroma de mujer: Season 1 (326,910,000)
7. Lupin: Part 1 (316,830,000)
8. Elite: Season 3 (275,300,000)
9. Who Killed Sara?: Season 1 (266,430,000)
10. Elite: Season 4 (257,090,000)

(Via Forbes)

People have used plenty of words to describe Rudy Giuliani. Most recently, and memorably, Liz Cheney’s description of the former New York City mayor as being “apparently inebriated” on Election Night 2020 is the phrase currently ringing through people’s ears. But Arizona Republican House Speaker Russell “Rusty” Bowers had a more poetic description of Rudy when he described him as a “tragic parody.”

As Insider reports, this on-point descriptor came about on Tuesday, as Bowers recollected his interactions with Giuliani and other members of #TeamTrump in the wake of the 2020 election. He testified that Rudy floated a lot of bonkers conspiracy theories by Bowers which he claimed to have proof of, yet when asked to provide said proof could not. Bowers likened the whole thing to something out of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

Bowers testified that Giuliani eventually told him “We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence.” Bowers admitted that he didn’t know if that statement was “a gaffe,” but that he and his fellow election officials “kind of laughed about it.”

Laugh at Rudy? Never!

Bowers explained that Giuliani was attempting to convince him that thousands of dead people had voted in the Arizona election, but neither Rudy nor fellow Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis could provide any proof to back up their claim. Ellis even traveled to Arizona to plead her case to Bowers, yet again brought no evidence of their theories.

Ultimately, Insider reports, the Trump team filed—and lost—more than 40 lawsuits attempting to contest the results of the election in Arizona.

(Via Insider)

Marjorie Taylor Greene‘s actions never make much sense. With the January 6 hearings putting the insurrectionist attacks back in the headlines, the last thing Greene should want is to shine a spotlight on her suspicious actions before and during the attack. So, of course, she did the exact opposite of that by posting a weird video of herself walking through the tunnels of the U.S. Capitol building.

As for the meaning of the odd, six second clip, your guess is as good as ours. However, people on Twitter have been having a field day parsing through its cryptic meaning, which has reopened speculation into what role Greene may have planned during Trump’s insurrection. Again, that’s exactly the type of heat Greene doesn’t need right now, but brains have never been her strong suit.

One user noted the connection between Greene’s tour of the Capitol building prior to the January 6 attack.

While another user was more pointed and wrote, “More prep?”

Another delved into some extremely wishful thinking by suggesting “Maybe she’s leaving.”

And then there was one user who, we gotta be honest, is probably right on the money with this theory: “She just wants to show off that badonkadonk.”

Of course, peppered throughout were numerous dunks that are still pouring in. You can check out just a small taste of the Greene disses below:

(Via Ron Filipkowski on Twitter)

Vladimir Putin’s reportedly stuffed full of Botox (his supply-chain problems are apparently solved) to the point where he looks embalmed, and rumors of his ill health are one reason why U.S. intelligence officials stumbled onto a report that said his “rule is no longer absolute.” And for months (particularly following Russia’s ill-advised Ukraine invasion), speculation won’t stop regarding Putin’s demeanor during news clips and how that could all reflect upon whether he should be, you know, trusted to wage war.

Well, a Kremlin spokesperson wants everyone to chill. Diplomat Dmitry Peskov spoke to NBC News (via Page Six), and in response to questions about Putin “limping, shaking and gripping a table,” here’s what Peskov said with a chuckle:

“What I suggest is that you watch his performance,” he said, insisting Putin spoke and answered questions for more than three hours on Friday. Peskov even chuckled as he insisted, “Yesterday in the afternoon, actually, he played hockey.”

Putin has for months been plagued by rampant rumors that he suffers from cancer, Parkinson’s disease or early-stage dementia. His love for hockey even played a part in raising speculation after he skipped an annual game in May as he was seen with a blotchy face.

Sky News has a video clip of Peskov’s quotes, and it sure looks like he’s not concerned about his boss, at least right now. Then again, Putin’s propaganda machine runs so fast and furious that they might send him out on a shirtless fishing trip this weekend, just for show. Something to look forward to, no doubt.

(Via NBC News, NY Post & Sky News)

Lil Tjay, per TMZ reports, has been rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery after being shot multiple times in the early morning of June 22. Though the severity of his wounds and current condition are unknown, the reports say the shootings occurred at two locations in Edgewater, New Jersey — a Chipotle restaurant and an Exxon gas station.

TMZ also adds that there is a second victim whose identity is unknown, but the said victim was also shot multiple times at the same locations as Lil Tjay. No suspects have been identified or arrested, but the police are actively on searching for them. The internet has been offering prayers and well wishes to the 21-year-old rapper all throughout the morning.

It is unfortunate how often reports like these come out; the community is already trying to process multiple losses that have occurred this year, whether within music or the several mass shootings that have occurred, but it is difficult to do so when yet another shooting occurs. For Lil Tjay’s unfortunate situation, no motive is known for why the suspects opted to shoot him.

Recently, Tjay collaborated with Kaash Paige on “24 Hrs” in May. Last November, he and French Montana linked up for “Bag Season.”

It’s a wild time to be Kate Bush right now: Thanks to “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” making an appearance in Stranger Things, the 1985 single shot to the top of the charts in the UK and the top-five in the US. As the song’s resurgence has unfolded, Bush has offered some messages about it on her website, but now she has given her first interview since the new season of Stranger Things.

On BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Bush spoke about how surprised and excited she is by the whole thing, saying (as Billboard notes):

“It’s just extraordinary. I mean, it’s such a great series, I thought that the track would get some attention, but I never imagined that it would be anything like this. It’s so exciting. It’s quite shocking really, isn’t it? The whole world’s gone mad [laughs]. […] What’s really wonderful is that this is a whole new audience who in a lot of cases haven’t heard of me, and I love that. The thought of all these young people hearing this song for the first time and discovering it, well, I think it’s very special.”

She added, “I think they put it in a really special place. I thought, ‘What a lovely way for [‘Running Up That Hill’] to be used,’ in such a positive way. As a kind of talisman almost, for Max. I think it’s really touching, really.”

Find the full interview here.