During R. Kelly’s racketeering and sex trafficking trial in Brooklyn, his former tour manager dropped a bombshell regarding Aaliyah. Billboard reports that Demetrius Smith, who served as Kelly’s tour manager for twelve years, from 1984 until 1996, testified Friday that Kelly married Aaliyah while she was underage because she was pregnant. Smith reportedly testified that Kelly “told me that Aaliyah was ‘in trouble,” and added “‘Don’t call Barry [Kelly’s manager and Aaliyah’s uncle, Barry Hankerson], it’s deeper than you think.’”

Smith’s testimony further incriminates Kelly and his business manager and accountant Daryl McDavid, who allegedly helped make plans for Kelly and Aaliyah to be married, so she couldn’t testify about the pregnancy if it came to that. “R. Kelly said, ‘Aaliyah, man. She thinks she’s pregnant,’” Smith stated in his testimony “It was a shock.” The pair were married in Cook County, Illinois in 1996 — Aaliyah had turned 15 six days before, though the marriage certificate was falsified to state she was 18 at the time. Their marriage was later annulled.

Kelly is charged with racketeering and 14 other underlying acts, which includes kidnapping, sex trafficking and forced labor, as well as eight counts of violating the federal Mann Act, an act that outlaws sex trafficking across state lines. He will face ten years to life in prison if convicted on all counts. After her tragic death, fans have been disappointed that her iconic album One In A Million wasn’t on streaming services, but it officially hit streaming today.

Back in 2012, the video game company 38 Studios closed its doors for good. The video game company started by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling was going to create a massive MMO that would take on Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. However, the company spent money it didn’t have and quickly drove itself into deep debt. So much debt that, right before the company closed, it stopped paying its employees. They were blindsided.

Nine years later it looks like Schilling and 38 Studios will finally be paying the employees the checks they’re owed. Kind of. According to Bloomberg, for most of them, it will only be a fraction of what they were originally supposed to receive.

Many of the staff who worked for the volatile game developer in either its Rhode Island or Maryland offices will receive payment of about 14% or 20%, respectively, of what the company owed them before it ran out of money and was forced to shut down on May 24, 2012, according to bankruptcy documents.

After nearly a decade of litigation through a Delaware court, final payouts were decided in June and recently began being distributed to staff. One former 38 Studios employee told Bloomberg News they received their check this week. Other employees said their checks had been sent to old addresses, as many of them have moved multiple times for new jobs in the years since 38 Studios closed.

The story behind the closure of 38 Studios is one of the most bizarre in recent memory. When the company was formed it went on a hiring spree of some of the industry’s most talented developers. Employees spoke highly of the work conditions and some still say it’s one of the best places they’ve ever worked. Unfortunately, the environment was masking the fact that Schilling and other executives in the company were spending money they didn’t have in hopes of earning it all back when the MMO launched. When all was said done, 38 Studios launched a single game called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Most of it was developed in an external studio called Big Huge Games which saw their own fallout from the 38 Studios closure.

Anyone who wants a more detailed look into what happened with 38 Studios should consider reading the book PRESS RESET. Authored by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, it has several chapters on both 38 Studios, Big Huge Games, and the hundreds of employees impacted by 38 Studios closure.

The best new hip-hop this week includes albums, videos, and songs from Dame D.O.L.L.A., Trippie Redd, Young Thug, and more.

Another week has come and gone without an appearance Kanye’s oft-delayed Donda. Whether that’s throwing other release schedules out of whack remains to be seen (no one wants to compete for ears with the guy who effectively ended 50 Cent), there still seem to be a few artists willing to risk being overshadowed — which means that they can get our full, more-or-less undivided attention instead.

Meanwhile, Friday saw the releases of new singles from Young Thug (“Tick Tock” from the upcoming Punk), Swae Lee (“In The Dark” with Jhene Aiko), Don Toliver (who appears on Skrillex’s “Don’t Go” with Justin Bieber), Common (“When We Move” with Black Thought), and Rico Nasty (“Magic“) along with the releases listed below.

Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending August 20, 2021.

Albums/EPs/Mixtapes

Blu X Mickey Factz X Nottz — The Narrative [EP]

The two former XXL Freshmen (they shared the inaugural cover in 2009, the height of the blog era) reunite after all this time for an EP of abstract raps and neck-cracking production provided by backpack rap mainstay Nottz. And hey, look! Asher Roth is here too! Remember him? Ah, nostalgia.

Chynna — Drug Opera

I hate writing this, yet I’ve had to do it way too many times in recent months: the late Chynna releases a posthumous album with a truly uncomfortable title, showcasing the talent that was taken way too soon. Collabs with Junglepussy and ASAP Ant prove she could flex alongside the best, making this one a double gut check.

Dame D.O.L.L.A. — Different On Levels The Lord Allowed

The Portland Trailblazers can breathe easy now that Dame’s more-or-less confined he’s hanging around, and his new album is also proof he’s been working just as hard on his pen game as his hoops one. This time around, he adds Blxst and Q-Tip to his growing list of high-profile co-signers along with frequent collaborators Mozzy and Lil Wayne. His “Kobe” collab with Snoop shows up here too.

Problem — Coffee Break [EP]

Presented as a “visual EP,” the Compton rapper’s latest continues to play on his “Coffe & Kush” concept as he takes on familiar-sounding production alongside Dom Kennedy while boasting his accomplishments and personal growth.

Rod Wave — SoulFly (Deluxe)

Look, man, the deluxe re-release trend has long since gotten out of hand, but since we can’t control it, we may as well roll with it, right? Here, the Floridian crooner adds nine new tracks to his most successful release, graciously eschewing the addition of any new guest stars. He sounds good and gives his fans more of a good thing.

Trippie Redd — Trip At Knight

Give the SoundCloud alum some credit; he’s probably been the most consistent member of his cohort, dropping an album a year since receiving XXL‘s cosign in 2018 — more than Lil Uzi Vert, Playboi Carti, or Ski Mask The Slump, all of whom also appear on this album, along with deceased members of their peer group, Juice WRLD and XXXTentacion.

Singles/Videos

Brittany B — “Confidence”

I can’t lie, I have a soft spot for Brittany B, a fellow Compton native who’s paid dues behind the scenes for half of the last decade, writing for and alongside John Legend, Kash Doll, Ty Dolla Sign, and even Bhad Bhabie. For the last few years she’s been part of the supporting cast of Love & Hip Hop, but re-christening herself Bee-B and adopting a Timbaland-esque beat, she reintroduces herself with a bold new look and I can’t help rooting for her.

Dro Kenji — “Kill Cupid” Feat. $not

A hazy banger with an anime-inspired video, “Kill Cupid” sets up the 10K Projects artist from Summerville, South Carolina for a potential breakout assisted by emo-rap fave $not.

Lute — “Myself”

Dreamville’s own Lute bounces back after 2020 slowed up the momentum from his single “GED (Gettin Every Dolla),” unleashing one of the hardest opening lines I’ve heard in a while.

Mo3 & Morray — “In My Blood”

Losing Mo3 in 2020 feels all the more devastating when his emotive flow is matched with Morray’s just as the latter is breaking out thanks to his own well-received debut and a co-sign from J. Cole. Under just slightly different circumstances, Mo3 could be here to celebrate both their success alongside his collaborator.

Rick Hyde — “Black Sinatra” Feat. Benny The Butcher

Benny’s BSF crew expands on the throwback sound espoused by the Griselda gang while embracing more of the mafioso rap posture of their NYC predecessors. Rick Hyde does a pretty serviceable job of painting the picture, while new Benny is always appreciated.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Drake is well-known for constantly keeping his hometown of Toronto on the tip of his tongue, and now the rapper has doubled down on support of “the 6” as his OVO imprint has teamed up with the University of Toronto for a collaborative merch capsule. Complex reports that the capsule includes fleece pants, a varsity jacket, hoodies, rugby polos, headwear and a tote, all emblazoned with both the signature OVO owl and the University’s maple leaf logo.

To help promote the new collab, OVO enlisted Kylie Masse, a four-time Olympic medalist and an alum of the university to star in a video. Scored by the legendary Canadian composer Chilly Gonzales, the clip is truly a celebration of all things Canuck. Masse shared the video on her Instagram along with a heartfelt and excited caption, check those out below, along with OVO’s own posts.

Eeeeeekk so stoked to share this!!!! What an absolute honour, I’m buzzin to be a small part in this. I had such a blast filming with this incredible team, thank you sooo much @welcomeovo for allowing me to be a part of this collab! It is SO cool to represent both @welcomeovo & @uoft forever a varsity blue
Tomorrow is the day…08.20.2021. FW2021— OVO®/University of Toronto

The capsule collection is available on the OVO website.

Mike Richards is no longer the full-time host of Jeopardy!, a job he officially had for about one day before he abruptly quit after a singly day’s taping. That was not without justification, though, following a slew of controversy about past lawsuits and disturbing comments about women’s appearances and religious beliefs.

The show’s executive producer rising to host was supposed to be the start of a new era for the syndicated game show. Instead, it’s been a weeks-long disaster that’s marred the legacy of the show helmed for decades by the late Alex Trebek. And according to the New York Times, a final tribute to Trebek may have been the reason Richards decided to call it quits on Friday.

Thursday was the official start of taping for Season 38 of the show, with Richards getting in his first games as full-time host. But things on set were tense, and reportedly a meeting where grievances were aired about Richards’ behavior and controversies occurred to kick off a very strange day on set. But a ceremony to honor Trebek before the taping began also brought in a number of other guest hosts, including Jeopardy! GOAT (and presumptive pick of Trebek to take over) Ken Jennings. Which made things awkward on set to say the least.

A group of “Jeopardy!” loyalists had gathered for a ceremony to rename the show’s studio after Mr. Trebek, including Mr. Trebek’s widow, his children and Anthony Vinciquerra, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s chief executive. Mr. Richards and Ms. Bialik were there, along with two of the other contenders for the hosting job, the former contestants Buzzy Cohen and Ken Jennings, according to three people familiar with the incident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Afterward, the people said, Mr. Cohen and Mr. Jennings had expected to attend Mr. Richards’s debut taping. Instead, they were escorted from the sound stage to a nearby green room, where they watched the taping over a closed feed. They were told that Mr. Richards was too nervous to have them in the studio, the people said.

One of the people likened it to inviting Joe DiMaggio back to Yankee Stadium and then not letting him in the dugout.

According to the story, Sony said it was coronavirus mitigation protocols that limited the number of people that could be in the studio for the taping. But it’s yet another instance of odd interactions that have come with Richards’ ascent to control of the show after he was named an executive producer shortly before Trebek’s death.

This particular anecdote will likely go down as the final odd power play from the Richards era. But it’s certainly a good example of just how strange the last few weeks have been in a very odd year for Jeopardy!

[via NY Times]

In the wake of the news that content-sharing site OnlyFans will no longer allow pornographic content on its platform, some of its more high-profile patrons have already announced alternatives to their OnlyFans accounts ahead of an expected mass exodus from the service. One of those, Tyga, was one of the earliest celebrity adopters as OnlyFans became more widely known due to a shout-out from Beyonce on Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” and mainstream actors like Bella Thorne began opening accounts. Notably, Tyga is one of a few mainstream celebrities actually sharing explicit content.

Today, Tyga deleted his OnlyFans account, then turned right around and announced what he hopes will be its replacement. The new platform is called MyyStar and is set for launch by October. To entice creators to jump ship, the new platform is also offering more favorable profit splits — it will only take %10 of subscription fees and purchases, as opposed to OnlyFans’ 20% –as well as the option to sell their own NFTs using the Ethereum blockchain. Although Myystar has not yet completely launched, aspiring creators can apply to be in its first wave at its website.

It remains to be seen whether other artists with OnlyFans accounts, who include Blueface, Cardi B, Rico Nasty, Snoop Dogg, and Swae Lee, will join Tyga’s team, roll out their own platforms, or simply migrate to existing ones like Patreon. However, it still seems clear that an alternative to OnlyFans will be in high demand — at least among those who sell sexually explicit content — as the company looks to make nice with credit card brands looking to keep their images squeaky clean.

After New York prosecutors filed charges against Allen H. Weisselberg, the chief financial advisor to the Trump Organization, there was a collective freakout by the former president and his children, and then the whole thing seemingly faded into the background as the country’s focus turned towards to the Delta variant as it dramatically spiked cases amongst the unvaccinated. However, despite not making headlines, the investigation has been moving ahead, and it’s not been going great for the Trump Organization as the legal scrutiny intensifies.

According to reports, the charges against Weisselberg are expected to hold up in court. However, the Trump Organization has been trying to avoid complying with subpoenas into its financial records, which are presumably loaded with material that could implicate Trump. Via The Wall Street Journal:

Manhattan prosecutors are moving to advance their criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s business affairs, fighting with his company over evidence and continuing talks with the lawyer of a Trump Organization executive who hasn’t been charged, said people familiar with the matter. Manhattan prosecutors and Trump Organization lawyers appeared at a secret court proceeding with New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan last week to discuss a dispute over documents the Manhattan district attorney’s office has subpoenaed, the people said… The dispute is related to documents prosecutors have sought for their continuing investigation, the people said. While the scope of the evidence in question couldn’t be determined, it includes a broad swath of financial documents, according to the people.

After the Mueller Report failed to bring any significant charges against Trump, his biggest detractors have been apprehensive about the investigation into the Trump Organization yielding any fruit. But one person who does not share that apprehension is the president’s niece Mary Trump. Shortly after prosecutors indicted Weisselberg, she told Rachel Maddow that she fully expects Trump’s children will turn on their father.

“I think [Donald Trump] would be surprised to learn that I don’t believe my cousins would exercise that kind of loyalty towards him,” Mary said. “His relationship with them, and their relationship with him, is entirely transactional and conditional. They’re not going to risk anything for him, just as he wouldn’t risk anything for them.”

(Via The Wall Street Journal)

One of the most anticipated games of the year is 343 Industries’ Halo Infinite. The next game in the beloved Halo franchise is supposed to be gigantic with a scope that developers have promised will change everything … at least that’s what we’ve been promised with the campaign. The multiplayer, from what we’ve seen, is going to continue to be the same Halo we all know and love. There’s a notable split in Infinite between the multiplayer and campaign, with the multiplayer being available as a separate free-to-play download for anyone that wants to play it.

The campaign, meanwhile, has had a bit of a rough development cycle. The initial demo everyone saw went so poorly that the game was delayed in response. A follow up trailer at the most recent E3 was more hopeful, but the turnaround time to fix an entire game was pretty short, especially during a pandemic. As such, there was a bit of concern about what the state of the campaign would be in at launch. It turns out we weren’t wrong to be a little concerned, because there are going to be missing features at launch such as no co-op or forge.

A big part of why this is happening is 343 Industries’ commitment to hitting the holiday launch date they promised. They’re certainly feeling pressure to meet that deadline with Xbox head Phil Spencer stating publicly their commitment to that time window. When the big boss says you’re committed to a date, then you probably need to make sure you hit it. If that means no co-op or forge mode at launch, then so be it.

Unfortunately, though, that’s going to be a pretty big hit to the campaign release of the game. With the multiplayer going free-to-play, the only version of Halo that people will have to pay for is single-player. Without co-op — a staple of the Halo franchise — or forge, there are going to be players who skip out on purchasing the campaign at launch. Unfortunately, in the rough world of video game development, sacrifices like this have to be made sometimes to ensure a game meets a deadline. As long as the game technically works when it comes out then people will be able to forgive the lack of co-op or forge, at least for a little while.

Jerma, a Twitch streamer famous for his elaborate pranks and borderline surreal streams, has outdone himself again. In what looks like an eerie, modern version of The Truman Show, Jerma has placed himself in a simulation and allowed fans to not only watch, but actively take control over his life choices in an ongoing series of streams called The Jerma985 Dollhouse.

The first stream in the series, which aired August 18, introduced the concept with a prerecorded video of Jerma choosing his outfit for the day before showing the streamer walk on to a closed two-room set and relinquishing control over his life to his viewers:

Take care of me. Don’t fuck around. You’ve got three streams to do this. Good luck.

Over the course of the three-hour stream, thousands of enthusiastic fans got to watch Jerma as they forced him to shower, pass out on his front lawn, and interact with a pair of clowns in his kitchen. During one of the stream’s lowest points, Jerma even “died.”

For those unfamiliar with the concept of The Sims — the video game series Jerma’s streams are largely based on — the popular simulation games essentially allow players to create their own families, design homes for them to live in and then take control of their lives. It becomes up to the player to do everything from feed and bathe their characters, to ensure their grades are high enough to get into that college program they’ve been gunning for and they one day find their true love — or maybe even several of them. To add pressure to players, each Sim is equipped with several bars that indicate their needs and overall happiness, a feature that Jerma applied to his stream. If any one of these bars drops too low, it will lead to severe distress for your character and oftentimes, an unfortunate accident, which applies quite literally in the case of a low bladder bar.

While The Sims streams have always been a pretty solid staple on Twitch, this unique take on it certainly feels like a first for the site. Jerma’s initial Dollhouse stream, while certainly strange, seemed a fairly shallow take on the game, but there’s truly no telling how much more immersive and bizarre things will get in the future. Jerma ended his first stream by telling fans this “tutorial” was just the beginning. After viewers elected to “upgrade the house,” the stream came to a close and Jerma relayed the following message:

Seems you have chosen to upgrade the house and what does that mean? That means that that is the end of the tutorial. In two days that is where the real game starts. We have two more streams of this and it’s going to get even more wild, we’re literally going to dial it higher and higher every day.

Seeing as it’s now two days later, Jerma’s stream should be starting sometime today — and we can’t help but be curious about what’s next

Ryan Reynolds has already made it clear he thinks LeVar Burton should be the next host of Jeopardy! and in the wake of Mike Richards abruptly quitting as host amid a cascade of scandals he seems to be even more certain that things will work out for the one-time guest host.

Reynolds is a Jeopardy! fan for sure — he made a cameo in one of Alex Trebek’s final episodes hosting the show before his death — and he’s also a fan of the former Reading Rainbow host. So when Richards left the hosting job open again, after a landslide of accusations and inappropriate comments from his past, Reynolds took to Twitter with a not-so-subtle message of support.

A fan favorite who finally got a chance to guest host the show late last month, Burton was ultimately overlooked for the actual hosting gig. But according to Reynolds, it’s just a matter of time before the powers that be at Sony realize it’s what the people want for the show’s future.

“Pretty consistently from 2013 to 2015 Deadpool would explode on Twitter with fans wanting me to play him. It was awkward because I agreed with them but the studio didn’t see it,” Reynolds said on Friday in a Tweet. “Ultimately the fans won and the rest is glorious history. I’m forever grateful.”

Reynolds finished the post by saying “hi” and tagging Burton, who has certainly enjoyed his Friday on Twitter. It’s a really nice note from someone who has seen legions of online fans make their hopes a reality in the past, with the actor certainly benefiting in the process. And while it’s entirely unclear if Burton will end up actually getting the job, it’s nice to see that Burton’s getting significant support in the wake of a very strange fortnight in the Jeopardy! universe.