Lady Gaga Confesses To Substance Abuse Problem

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Lady Gaga revealed on the Elvis Duran radio show in November 2013 that she’s been quietly battling an addiction to marijuana. “I had to stop (smoking pot),” the Mother Monster said. “I was addicted to it. … Although I think it’s the best drug to choose from when you’re playing around and experimenting, I just want young kids to know that you actually can become addicted to it, and it’s ultimately … a form of self-medication. I was smoking 15-20 marijuana cigarettes a day with no tobacco.”

Meet the 23-Year-Old Kid Who Turned Down $3 Billion for Snapchat (VIDEO)

From Yahoo!, where you can read plenty more on the story:

Two years ago, Evan Spiegel was just another beer-soaked frat boy obsessing over sex and dot.com riches. This week, the 23-year-old co-founder of Snapchat was offered big — big — money for the tiny smartphone app company he created.

Instead of dancing into the sunset, Spiegel did the unthinkable, turning down a $3 billion offer from Facebook (FB) and then a $4 billion bid from Google (GOOG). A college dropout running a company with almost no assets, no revenue and a mountain of legal problems, Spiegel is betting Snapchat can transcend the stigma of the “next big thing” and become an industry unto its own.

There’s no going back now. History will paint Evan Spiegel as either one of the most brilliant entrepreneurs ever, or a delusional fool.

With him there is no in between. The irony of the weird tale unfolding around this boyishly handsome child of privilege is that Snapchat is based on the idea of not leaving any history at all. Dreamed up as a way to send so-called “sext” messages that self destruct before falling into the wrong hands, Snapchat doesn’t actually posses the things that made Facebook and Google huge. Snapchat knows nothing about its users. Each of the millions of Snaps that will be sent this month will be erased from a third-party server within seconds of being received.

What Snapchat has is explosive growth with the teenagers that are already sick of Facebook. Snapchat is sexy and subversive. It’s cool. It’s everything Facebook isn’t. That may be precisely why Spiegel thinks Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google, or maybe even Twitter, will be coming back with even bigger offers soon.

PREVIEW: Battle Of The Year (Starring Chris Brown)

Battle Of The Year is out now.

Battle of the Year is an international dance crew tournament that attracts all the best teams from around the world, but the Americans haven’t won in fifteen years. Los Angeles Hip Hop mogul Dante (Alonso) wants to put the country that started the Sport back on top. He enlists his hard-luck friend Blake (Holloway), who was a championship basketball coach, to coach his team. Armed with the theory that the right coach can make any team champions, they assemble a Dream Team of all the best dancers across the country. With only three months until Battle of the Year, Blake has to use every tactic he knows to get twelve talented individuals to come together as a team if they’re going to bring the Trophy back to America where it started.

Inspired by the actual world championship held yearly in France.

Alec Baldwin Apologizes For Anti-Gay Slur

(CNN) — It’s been a rough week for Alec Baldwin.

Not only did he give very emotional testimony against an accused stalker, but he also raised the ire of GLAAD after using an anti-gay slur he didn’t realize was one.

According to TMZ, the “30 Rock” star chased after a photographer outside his Manhattan apartment on Thursday and called the man a “c**ksucking f*g.”

“Get away from my wife and the baby with the camera,” Baldwin can be heard yelling on video taken of the incident. “What f***ing language you want that in?”

On Friday Baldwin posted a statement on MSNBC’s website saying, “I did not intend to hurt or offend anyone with my choice of words, but clearly I have — and for that I am deeply sorry. Words are important. I understand that, and will choose mine with great care going forward.”
The incident occurred hours after Canadian actress Genevieve Sabourin was found guilty of stalking and harassing Baldwin.

Alec Baldwin pins paparazzo against car

“What I said and did this week, as I was trying to protect my family, was offensive and unacceptable. Behavior like this undermines hard-fought rights that I vigorously support.”
The statement came after MSNBC announced a two-week suspension for Baldwin’s Friday evening show “Up Late With Alec Baldwin.”

“I understand ‘Up Late’ will be taken off the schedule for tonight and next week. I want to apologize to my loyal fans and to my colleagues at MSNBC — both for my actions and for distracting from their good work. Again, please accept my apology,” wrote Baldwin.
Following reports of the incident, the activist organization GLAAD expressed its disappointment on Twitter.

“Mr. Baldwin can’t lend his support for equality on paper, while degrading gay people in practice,” GLADD tweeted.

The organization later added via Twitter, “It’s clearly time Mr. Baldwin listens to the calls from so many LGBT people and allies to end this pattern of anti-gay slurs.”
Baldwin responded with his own series of tweets.

“Anti-gay slurs are wrong,” he said. “They not only offend, but threaten hard fought tolerance of LGBT rights. I’m grateful to all of the ppl I meet + hear from who recognize that I would never say something to offend my friends in the gay community.”
He also said “1-Rich Ferraro from @glaad informs me that c’sucker is an anti-gay epithet. In which case I apologize and will retire it from my vocabulary.”

On Friday TMZ featured video of Baldwin asking his male hairdresser if he thought he was a homophobe, to which the stylist jokingly responded, “Yes. Big time.”

This is not the first time Baldwin has had a run-in with paparazzi. In August, Baldwin was photographed holding a paparazzi’s arms behind his back and pinning him over the hood of a parked car. Both Baldwin and the photographer called 911 but no charges were filed.
In 2012, a New York Daily News photographer accused Baldwin of assault. Baldwin said the photographer bumped him with his camera.

Pusha T: Stand For Something (Video)

After releasing his solo debut studio album, My Name Is My Name, last month, Pusha’s finally found his spot on a major label. The 36-year-old Virginia Beach rapper had been working on his solo debut for over a year, and after a few hurdles, the Kanye West-executively produced project was met with critical acclaim. Even with his most recent successes, his patience and tolerance are at an all-time low. His life is surrounded by business. “Anything that’s untrue jeopardizes my business,” he says.

He’s learned the best way to be truthful is just to talk straight, and that’s something his dad taught him early on. “Speaking truthfully is the only way to go—and the easiest way to go,” he says. “Everyone just needs to stay on a straight and even plane, and that all begins with truth.”

GQ Editor-In-Chief Responds To Backlash Of Kendrick Lamar Cover Story

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Earlier, TDE (namely, Top Dawg himself) blasted GQ for what he felt was the magazine’s use of racial overtones in the latest issue, which featured one of GQ’s Men of the Year Kendrick Lamar.

Jim Nelson (GQ’s Editor-In-Chief) has now responded to the claims, which you can check out below:

“Kendrick Lamar is one of the most talented new musicians to arrive on the scene in years. That’s the reason we chose to celebrate him, wrote an incredibly positive article declaring him the next King of Rap, and gave him our highest honor: putting him on the cover of our Men of the Year issue. I’m not sure how you can spin that into a bad thing, and I encourage anyone interested to read the story and see for themselves. We were mystified and sorely disappointed by Top Dawg’s decision to pull him at the last minute from the performance he had promised to give. The real shame is that people were deprived of the joy of seeing Kendrick perform live. I’m still a huge fan.”

JAY Z Issues New Statement Regarding Barneys New York Amidst Controversy

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In a nutshell, he’s going to move forward with his partnership deal. From LIFE+TIMES:

In the past several weeks two separate investigations were launched as a result of the wrongful detention of Trayon Christian and Kayla Phillips. My team has been privy to the status of the Barneys third party consultant investigation. In continuing our research, we also contacted the New York State Attorney General’s office for the status of their investigation into both Barneys and Macy’s. Those findings are not yet available.

While I await the findings of the Attorney General’s Office, I have agreed to move forward with the launch of BNY SCC collection under the condition that I have a leadership role and seat on a council specifically convened to deal with the issue of racial profiling. I am in a unique position to use my voice to affect change to this disturbing issue. The easy position would have been to walk away and leave policy making to others hoping that someone addresses the problem. I will not leave the outcome to others. I will take this into my own hands with full power to recommend, review and revise policies and guidelines moving forward. I am choosing to take this head on.

As I previously stated, the collaboration with Barneys has always been about giving and The Shawn Carter Foundation. From this collection, the Foundation will receive not only 25% of sales, it will now receive the additional 75% of Barneys’ sales, totalling 100% of all sales from BNY SCC. Along with 100% of sales from the collaboration, the Foundation will receive an additional 10% of all retail sales from Barneys New York stores nationwide and Barneys.com on November 20th. – Shawn “JAY Z” Carter

Kanye West Will Premiere ‘Bound 2’ On Ellen

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I’m pretty damn excited. Taken from Ellen’s website:

Raise the roof, Yeezus returns to the building! The always sensational rap mastermind KANYE WEST is here to drop the world-premiere video for his new single, “Bound 2,” which may or may not feature his stunning and curvalicious fiancée Kim Kardashian. After a year that included a baby girl (North!), an engagement, a new album and worldwide tour, the hip-hop all-star brings the power and flashing lights to Ellen’s set, where he will give it to her as he always does: major! He’ll undoubtedly arrive in customized style. The rapper has moved mountains since his early days as a young man in pursuit of divinity on “The College Dropout,” to a fierce leader presiding over his kingdom with his latest works, “Yeezus” and “Watch the Throne,” an album in partnership with Jay-Z. See how he stuns Ellen and the world with his new video, which will live exclusively on EllenTV.com for the day. Amen to that!