Category: News

Helen Reddy, the voice behind the empowering feminist anthem, “I Am Woman,” has died at the age of 78. The news was revealed in a Facebook post from her children Traci and Jordan. “It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, Helen Reddy, on the afternoon of September 29th 2020 in Los Angeles,” they said in the post. “She was a wonderful Mother, Grandmother and a truly formidable woman. Our hearts are broken. But we take comfort in the knowledge that her voice will live on forever.”

Reddy had a fairly successful musical career, one that reached international acclaim in the 1970s. She saw 20 songs enter the Billboard singles chart, with ten landing in the top 10 and three coming in at No. 1. Reddy’s three chart-topping songs were 1972’s “I Am Woman,” a song that earned Reddy a Grammy award, 1973’s “Delta Dawn,” and 1974’s “Angie Baby.” Reddy spoke about “I Am Woman” in a 2013 interview with the Chicago Tribune where she said the song was a result of the women that surrounded her own life. The publication would also name her the “Queen of ’70s Pop” in 2013.

“There were a lot of songs on the radio about being weak and being dainty and all those sort of things,” she said in the Chicago Tribune interview. “All the women in my family, they were strong women. They worked. They lived through the Depression and a world war, and they were just strong women. I certainly didn’t see myself as being dainty.”

The first debate of the 2020 presidential election occurred on Tuesday night, and NBA players had one pretty common reaction: vote. The debate, which pitted Republican incumbent Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, went over about as well as a fart in church for a few million different reasons, from the temperament of the nominal leader of the free world to the job done by moderator Chris Wallace, who you can certainly say was in attendance.

It was a debate defined by a number of stunning moments, whether it was Biden calling Trump a “clown” who needs to “shut up” or something much darker, like Trump opting to not condemn white supremacists and calling on his supporters to perform acts of voter intimidation on Election Day, which is a crime. And both during and after the debate, NBA players tweeting along with the whole thing called on those with the power to make their voiced heard this November to head to the ballot box and do just that.

A few of players, both current and former, were a little more explicit in wanting folks to go vote for Biden and his nominee for vice president, California senator Kamala Harris.

Throughout the NBA’s Orlando Bubble, players have used the platform afforded to them to try and sway folks to head to the polls this year. Election Day is on Nov. 3, 2020, and if you head to Vote.org, you can read up on your voter registration, how you can potentially vote early or by mail, and much more.

The United States, along with the rest of the world, came together on Tuesday night to watch the first president debate for the upcoming election in November. The debate was much more unorthodox and off-the-rails than any presidential debate in recent memory, leaving many viewers in absolute shock at what they just witnessed. Frustrated with the way the debate played out on Tuesday night, Frank Ocean took to his Instagram story to speak with his followers and beg for them to go out and vote President Trump out of office.

“Debate are on. It all feels fake. The problem’s that it’s not,” Frank Ocean began in the post on his Instagram story. “Donald Trump is president and might not leave the White House even if he loses the race so some say. Pls vote. Watching him dragged out will be way more entertaining than these debates.” Frank would continue his message by offering to help get voters registered for the upcoming election through his Blonded website. “If you’re not registered swipe to BLONDED.CO the form just takes 2 minutes to fill out. Goodnight.”

Tonight’s debate resulted in many major headlines included the public’s distaste with moderator Chris Wallace‘s performance as well as Donald Trump interrupting Joe Biden as the former Vice President spoke about his late son Beau.

You can see Frank Ocean’s Instagram story post in the photo above and on his Instagram page here.

The first presidential debate was almost certainly the nastiest in history, starting off quiet but quickly descending into fighting and interjections, mostly from the incumbent, Donald Trump. Some of the jabs between the two were amusing; a flustered Biden at one point called him “man” and twice he called him a “clown.” But most of the time watching the debate was a profoundly annoying and noisy experience, with Trump barely letting Biden get five words in before interrupting him with jabs and insults.

But there was one interruption that was more horrifying than most, one that showed how heartless the sitting president can be. Biden was talking about our divided nation when he segued into a discussion on something close to his heart: the military. Both of Biden’s sons served at different points, including his late son Beau, whose unit was deployed overseas during the Iraq War. Trump has said many derogatory things, both on and off the record, about the military, in which he never served, infamously having repeatedly avoided service during the Vietnam War. Here’s where Biden went on the attack.

“The way you talk about the military, the way you talk about them being losers and being suckers,” he said to Trump. “My son was in Iraq. He spent a year there. He got the Bronze Star. He got the Conspicuous Service Medal. He was not a loser. He was a patriot. And the people left behind there were heroes.”

It’s around here that Trump started interrupting Biden’s talk about his late son and the troops, trying to bluster in with one of his attempted gotchas. “Really?” Trump said in defance. “Are you talking about Hunter?” Joe Biden: “I’m talking about my son Beau Biden!” President Trump: “I don’t know Beau. I know Hunter. Hunter got thrown out of the military. He was thrown out, dishonorably discharged.”

It’s true: Hunter Biden was discharged, though not dishonorably, and while battling a cocaine addiction. But ignoring that Trumpian embellishment, people online were disgusted that Trump would interrupt Biden talking about his late son by trying to falsely smear his other son.

It caused people to reflect on their own lives.

brought up cocaine

Even if Trump hadn’t acted inhumanely, he was still wrong.

Just like many festivals this year, Bonnaroo postponed their 2020 showcase following growing concerns over the coronavirus. The festival originally hoped to hold their festival at some point this month, but as the pandemic continued to impact our country, the festival was forced to postpone a second time, pushing it back to June 2021. And now, they’re delaying it a third time, hoping to finally get things back in time for September 2021.

The festival made the announcement in a post on their social media pages, noting they’ll return to Manchester, Tennesse on September 2-5, 2021. The festival asked ticket holders to roll over their tickets to the new festival date, but they also offered to give refunds if the new date could not be honored. “We want to thank you for being a loyal Bonnaroovian, and we appreciate your patience as we navigate the best options to ensure we can be together on the Farm in 2021,” the festival said on their website in conjunction with the new festival date.

Back during the second postponement of their festival in June, Bonnaroo staff wrote, “Our annual time together on the Farm is nothing short of magical, but out of an abundance of caution and for the health and safety of all Bonnaroovians, artists, staff, partners and our community, this is a necessary reality.” The new Bonnaroo date would also mark the festival’s 20-year anniversary.

You can read Bonnaroo’s full statement on the new 2021 dates here.

No one should be surprised that the first Trump-Biden debate is total chaos. Trump refuses to let his opponent speak interrupted, Biden told him to shut up, and then for the first time in U.S. history, the sitting president was called “a clown” during a general election debate. Both sides are slinging insults, and Biden actually raised his voice about two-thirds of the way through the show. It’s absolute mayhem, and Fox News’ Chris Wallace is acting as moderator of the evening’s events.

Or is he? Wallace isn’t able to get a word in edgewise, which was undoubtedly the plan from Trump, and Biden’s throwing plenty of shots. In the middle of it all, Wallace isn’t putting up much of a fight. And he’s being roundly called out (by the right, left, and everything in between) for his (lack of a) performance.

In all fairness, could anyone moderate this hot mess? Well, maybe Samuel L. Jackson could, as one user pointed out on Twitter.

The complaints continued (as you can see below), and as it stands, there’s still two more scheduled debates between the president and the former vice president (but will they happen?). 2020, it only gets weirder as the year continues.

The first — and possibly last? — presidential debate during the 2020 election got off to a relatively quiet start. Moderator, Fox News’ Chris Wallace, laid the ground rules, that incumbent Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden would each get two minutes apiece to talk, uninterrupted. That lasted for about one exchange. Then Trump lost whatever cool he had and would barely let Biden get more than five words without some interjection or insult, trying — and often succeeding — in throwing his opponent off his game. Sometimes Biden even snapped.

In the first half hour, Biden lost it, greeting one interruption with the instantly iconic words, “Will you shut up, man?” But like Trump, he stepped up his game. At some point during the second half-hour — it’s hard to tell when, time seemed to evaporate while watching it — Trump went after Hunter, Biden’s son, whom he’s accused, without much proof, of shady dealings. Biden tried to defend his son, but was pelted with more Trump blabber. And so he moved on from calling him “man,” and moved onto calling him “clown.”

“It’s hard to get any word in with this clown,” Biden told Wallace, the auditorium’s socially distancing crowd, and the entire world. To his credit, he backed off, recusing himself by calling him a “person,” instead.

The world responded in kind. Some praised Biden for losing his cool in such a Biden-y way.

People wondered if history was being made. (Probably.)

There were clown memes.

And Nicolas Cage memes.

And, inevitably, Joker memes.

Actually, it was the second time Biden had called him a clown within the first hour. There’s just that much going on!

Anyway, as of this moment there was still 40 minutes left. Hang tight.

For anyone hoping the first round of the 2020 Presidential Debates would remain civil and orderly, you simply had to tune in for the first few minutes of tonight’s event to know that’s just not going to happen when President Trump is at the podium.

Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace was given the difficult job of reigning both men in — Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden — as they traded barbs on stage in Cleveland in front of a limited live audience. Wallace — who really should have a mute button at the ready as Trump continuously interrupted the former Vice President — struggled to manage the two candidates during their first topic of discussion: the impending Supreme Court nomination.

Wallace gave the floor to Biden to answer the question of whether Senate Democrats would filibuster the Republican nominee Amy Coney Barret should she go through and if Biden would support that political tactic. Biden refused to directly answer Wallace, saying he didn’t want his answer to be the focus of the debate, instead reaffirming his belief that the American people deserve to have a say in who sits on the Supreme Court. It’s an argument Democrats have been making since the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, saying that because we’re already in the midst of a presidential election, the nomination should be made until after a new president is elected.

Obviously, Trump took that as an opening to goad Biden, belligerently interrupting his time and forcing Biden to finally say what everyone watching this circus was probably thinking: “Would you just shut up, man?”

Biden had some fairly good digs at Trump before and after this moment but this feels like a standout because, as presidential as this bickering might be, it’s also incredibly cathartic to see someone stand up to this schoolyard bully.

Over the last month, Travis Scott has been on an unstoppable streak. The Houston rapper kicked off the last week of August with a new song, “The Plan,” which appeared in Christopher Nolan’s film Tenet. Soon after, the rapper and McDonald’s announced a new collaboration that debuted a new commercial, a Travis Scott Meal, and a trio of merchandise collections. Despite all this, Travis has a problem on his hands: He has reportedly been sued by video game company KontrolFreek for copyright violations.

According to Page Six, the company claims Travis and Cactus Jack “reproduced KontrolFreek’s copyright-protected” images of its products for their own use. KontrolFreek claims that, as a result of this, false rumors of a possible collaboration between them and Travis began to swirl following his Fortnite performance in April. The video game company says that while Travis and Cactus had not manufactured the copyrighted material at the time, they were contacted by them in May about their willingness to “to manufacture the Cactus Jack Thumbsticks for Defendants, and at no cost.” After this request the two parties did not speak again, but the previous rumors came back to haunt the video game company when Travis and his team released the Cactus Jack-branded controllers.

Consumers were dissatisfied with the “the poor quality” of the controllers, with one consumer saying the controllers “were not like ‘normal kontrol freeks’ [sic].” KontrolFreek later discovered a copyright violation in the packaging of the Cactus Jack controllers including the use of their slogan and “identical bullet points.” KontrolFreek is suing Travis and Cactus Jack for their profits, plus damages, as well as requesting that they halt all sales of the controllers and destroy the rest of the stock.

(via Page Six

In an ideal world, Westside Gunn‘s Shady Records debut Who Made The Sunshine would have dropped last month. The Griselda rapper announced the album back in July in an Instagram post that revealed its artwork, which was curated by his daughter WS Pootie. Unfortunately, due to the untimely death of Griselda’s DJ Shay, Westside, as well as the entire group, pushed back the release of all of their future projects. But fans won’t have to wait long, as Westside Gunn revealed the new release is this Friday, October 2.

Who Made The Sunshine will serve as Westside’s third album of the year, following April’s Pray For Paris and July’s Flygod Is an Awesome God II. The album includes many a great guest, among them the entire Griselda squad: Conway The Machine, Benny The Butcher, Armani Caesar, and Boldy Jame. Others from outside the label will also be present, including Slick Rick, Black Thought, Busta Rhymes, Jadakiss, Smoke DZA, A.A Rashid, Stove God Cooks, Flee Lord, Estee Nack, ElCaminio, and Keisha Plum.

The announcement comes after Westside joined RMR on the video for “Welfare” and Armani Caesar on the track “Mac 10s For Everybody,” off her Griselda debut, The Liz.

Check out the artwork and tracklist for Who Made The Sunshine below.

01. “Sunshine Intro” Feat. A.A. Rashid
02. “The Butcher and The Blade” Feat. Benny The Butcher & Conway The Machine
03. “Ishkabibble’s” Feat. Black Thought
04. “All Praises” Feat. Boldy James & Jadakiss
05. “Big Basha’s”
06. “Liz Loves Luger” Feat. Armani Caesar
07. “Ocean Prime” Feat. Slick Rick & Busta Rhymes
08. “Lessie” Feat. Keisha Plum
09. “Frank Murphy” Feat. Stove God Cooks, Flee Lord, Estee Nack, ElCamino & Smoke DZA
10. “Goodnight” Feat. Slick Rick
11. “98 Sabers” Feat. Armani Caesar, Conway The Machine & Benny The Butcher

Who Made The Sunshine is out 10/02 via Griselda/Shady.