A little while ago, we confirmed that Beyonce will be performing at the Grammys next month, but now we just got word from Billboard that Jay Z will be hitting the stage as well. Beyonce & Jay Z will be hitting the stage along with Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, John Legend, Pharrell, Robin Thicke and more.
After some speculation, the above promo confirms that Beyoncé will in fact be performing at this year’s GRAMMYs, alongside Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Bruno Mars, John Legend and more. No word on if Madonna will be making a surprise visit.
Last week, Baylor joined the list of 13 schools to offer rapper Snoop Dogg’s son Cordell Broadus a spot in their 2015 recruiting class. And it looks as if they have some help; Robert Griffin III sent Snoop Dogg a text asking him if he thinks his son is going to Baylor. Check out some pics above.
This is my cut I got on my album sales pic.twitter.com/YGpivhpc9l
— Kreayshawn Ferrari (@KREAYSHAWN) January 17, 2014
Somethin’ ‘Bout Kreay (which, by the way, didn’t even break 4,000 units in sales it’s first week out) has apparently been less-than-fruitful for its creator, who recently posted the above Twitter image, claiming that it representing what she made from the album. Damn.
Kid Cudi announced back in October that he would be releasing a both a new album and prelude EP, followed by the EP’s title in November — Satellite Flight: The Journey To Mother Moon. Last night, he released the title and release date of the EP, which you can check out in the above tweets.
Kanye West was seen in a new fur heading to the Givenchy show in Paris during Fashion Week. Naturally, PETA had this to say about Kanye West:
“Kanye has only to lie down, and he’d be mistaken for roadkill in all that skin and fur. This isn’t a style that the public has embraced since the caveperson era. Kanye may be admired for his music, but he and his fiancée are vulgar dressers and callous when it comes to the suffering of living beings other than themselves.”
“Youngsters naturally identify and empathize with animals – so even though Kim and Kanye will undoubtedly serve as poor examples when it comes to kindness toward animals, perhaps their child will take after aunt Khloe and choose kindness by rejecting fur.”
PETA previously had some words regarding a pretty bold statement Kanye made to the organization in the track ‘Way Too Cold’ (formerly titled ‘Theraflu‘).
Huffington Post reports:
Marijuana, which has just been made legal for sale and purchase in the state of Colorado, is no more dangerous than alcohol, President Barack Obama said in an interview published Sunday. Speaking to the New Yorker, Obama said he still viewed pot smoking negatively but that on the whole, the drug wasn’t the social ill that it’s been viewed as in the past.
“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol,” Obama told the weekly magazine.
Obama said pot was actually less dangerous than alcohol “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.” “It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy,” he said.
Instead, Obama said in the New Yorker interview that he’s focused on making laws that treat users fairly. “We should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing,” he said.
“If marijuana is fully legalized and at some point folks say, Well, we can come up with a negotiated dose of cocaine that we can show is not any more harmful than vodka, are we open to that?” Obama wondered. “If somebody says, We’ve got a finely calibrated dose of meth, it isn’t going to kill you or rot your teeth, are we O.K. with that?”
Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he’ll fight for the last time in September next year.
Mayweather told guests at a gala dinner in South Africa on Friday that he remembers his first fight when he was a kid in 1987, and that “September 2015 will be my last.”
The unbeaten five-division world champion, considered by many the best boxer of his era, said after beating Canelo Alvarez in a dominating display last September that he had four fights and two years left in his career.
Mayweather’s next bout will be in May against an undecided opponent, having said this week that British fighter Amir Khan and Argentine Marcos Maidana are the leading contenders.
Mayweather has a 45-0 record with 26 knockouts and made his pro debut in 1996. (AP)
Rhymes With Snitch reports:
A southeast Louisiana woman filed a sexual assault complaint last year accusing former New Orleans Saint Darren Sharper of criminal misconduct, the WDSU I-Team has learned.
The local complaint is not related to Sharper’s arrest on Friday in Los Angeles, where he is charged with rape in connection with incidents that allegedly took place last October and earlier this month.
That case remains open and active. Detectives are investigating what is described as a simple rape — or sexual assault — complaint. Officials did not provide any specifics, such as where the incident happened, but sources told WDSU the encounter between Sharper and the alleged victim took place at a private residence in the Warehouse District.
Beyonce was asked to sing for Michelle Obama for her 50th Birthday at the White House this past weekend. She brought her daughter along for the visit. Check out the photos in the gallery.
UPDATE: Reps for Nipsey Hussle have refuted that anybody in their camp were injured in the events in Chicago. They maintain the rapper had left the city and was headed to St. Louis when the shooting occurred. (AHH)
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AllHipHop reports:
Shots were fired at a concert date for Nipsey Hussle in Chicago, AllHipHop has learned exclusively. Additonally, one of Nipsey’s friends was stabbed. The rapper was out for the “Proud 2 Pay” tour (also known as “The Crenshaw Tour”) when shots were fired around the vicinity of his tour bus. Nipsey wasn’t injured in the disruption, but a member of his crew was stabbed. Rimpau, a member of Nipsey’s rap collective, suffered a punctured lung after he was stabbed in the chest. He appears on “That’s What Hoes Do” with Nipsey. A total of 6 shots were fired. No suspects have been arrested at press time.
Giant Food made a huge mistake in an advertisement for their sales paper which comes out every week, using a White student to welcome back those attending Howard University (a well-known HBCU). Check out the backlash below.
Vlad TV reports:
According to a report by Fox News, a startling new piece of statistics reveal that 92% of black youth in Chicago are unemployed. While the overall trend of dropping employment rates for all race-ethnic groups continued through 2012, black teens had the lowest employment rates across all geographic areas.
Statistics show that in 2012, “only 16 out of 100 black teens in Illinois were employed and only 11 out of 100 black teens in the city of Chicago were employed.” Black male teens, in particular, faced challenges in their ability to obtain employment in the U.S., Illinois and the city of Chicago. Black male teens in Chicago experienced the bleakest employment rates with the number of “black male teens with jobs dropping from 10% in 2006 to 8% in 2012. A startling 92% of all black males ages 16-19 in Chicago were jobless in 2012.”
Minority, low-income teens continued to “face more challenges in obtaining employment with Blacks and Hispanics experiencing significantly lower rates of employment than other race-ethnic groups.” Across the nation in 2012, only 13% of black teens from low-income households were employed and “slightly less than 16% of low-income Hispanic teens had jobs.”
During their report, Fox News interviewed a fortunate 19-year-old student who has two part time jobs. “It’s a very shocking number. If anybody else see them numbers, like, hopefully they come together, and be like, we need to do something,” said Dvante King.
(ITV) A family who kept a vulnerable man in modern day slavery treated him “like a dog”, a judge said today.
Craig Kinsella, who has learning difficulties, was forced to live in a garage where he suffered regular beatings and scavenged for food in bins, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
CCTV footage of members of the Rooke family assaulting Mr Kinsella was shown to Judge Peter Kelson QC, who said it was impossible to watch without wincing.
David Rooke, 44, was jailed for six-and-a-half years after he admitted falsely imprisoning and attacking Mr Kinsella.
His son Jamie, 19, admitted affray and counts of causing actual bodily harm. He was jailed for four years.
Rooke’s wife Donna, 40, admitted a specimen count of battery. She was sentenced to four months in jail.
Judge Kelson told the defendants that Mr Kinsella’s will “had been completely broken by the way you treated him”:
He [Mr Kinsella] was fed very little – fed by way of food left out.
He was kept hungry. He was constantly beaten and battered.
He was treated horrendously. He was treated like a dog.
The conditions were grotesque and you were just exploiting him.
He was just your punch bag, all three of you. If you were in a bad mood you would just go and kick and punch Craig Kinsella.
– JUDGE PETER KELSON QC TO DAVID, JAMIE AND DONNA ROOKE
The judge called it “absolutely staggering” that this could happen in modern society, adding, “It is almost unbelievable”.
He ordered Rooke to pay Mr Kinsella £15,000 that police had found in cash in his home.
“Quite clearly this in no way reflects the pain and suffering inflicted on Craig Kinsella but it’s better than nothing,” Judge Kelson said.
Speaking outside court, Detective Inspector Vicky Short of South Yorkshire Police said her officers could easily have been investigating a murder.
DI Short said: “The physical and mental abuse meted out by the Rooke family on a highly vulnerable man plumbed the depths of depravity.
“I am confident that if we had not received that phone call that day last July we would have been investigating a murder.”
Apparently, inquiring minds want to know why Ariana Grande wears her hair the same way. I guess she’s tired of being asked (somebody cue the India.Arie music)….from her Facebook:
Since people give me such a hard time about my hair I thought I’d take the time to explain the whole situation to everybody. I had to bleach my hair and dye it red every other week for the first 4 years of playing Cat… as one would assume, that completely destroyed my hair. I now wear a wig on Sam & Cat. My real hair is back to brown and I wear extensions but I wear it in a pony tail because my actual hair is so broken that it looks absolutely ratchet and absurd when I let it down. I tried wigs, they looked RIDICULOUS. Tried a weave because I am working on a new project and want to try some different looks and literally wanted to rip my scalp off. So as annoying as it is for y’all to have to look at the same hair style all the time, it’s all that works for now (AND I’m comfortable for the first time in years)…. And trust me, it’s even more difficult for me to have to wait forever for my natural hair to grow back and to have to wear more fake hair than every drag queen on earth combined. So PLEASE gimme a break about the hair (or just don’t look at me lol). IT’S JUST HAIR AFTER ALL. There are way way way more important things. Love y’all very much.
From TMZ:
Deongelo Holmes — one half of the rap duo Ying Yang Twins — was busted in Georgia … after Holmes’ wife accused him of punching her in the head.
Prosecutors say Holmes socked his wife Porsche Holmes in the head back in November … and the rapper hit her so hard she got a big bump over her left eye.
Authorities charged Holmes with “family violence” and two counts of simple battery. Deongelo was released on bond after agreeing to stay away from his wife — among other restrictions.
A rep for Deongelo had no comment.
The rapper was also previously arrested for marijuana and DUI back in 2012.
From TMZ:
If you’re disappointed Miley Cyrus didn’t show at the Miami South Beach Outdoor Festival on New Year’s Day …. you’re not alone, because the promoters of that event have filed a lawsuit claiming one of Miley’s people took a huge amount of money but never delivered the singer.
A Florida concert promotion company says it sent $125K to a woman claiming to be Miley’s booking agent — a deposit to secure Miley for the shindig. The money was wired to a bank account while the deal was being finalized.
The lawsuit claims the booking agent cleaned out the bank account and on New Year’s Day … no Miley.
The promoters seem to believe they really were dealing with Miley’s agent. We spoke with the woman, who says she does NOT work for Miley but was acting as an intermediary. She claims she forwarded the money to Miley’s real agents.
Miley’s people tell TMZ Miley has no involvement in this matter — and tells us the woman has no connection to her actual booking agent.
From TMZ:
Dennis Rodman is in rehab to treat his never-ending addiction to booze … TMZ has learned.
Sources connected to Rodman tell us the 52-year old basketball Hall of Famer checked into a treatment center a few days ago in New Jersey … on the heels of his disastrous trip to North Korea.
We’re told Rodman is “beyond exhausted and overwhelmed” … and he will be in treatment for 30 days.
The Worm has had multiple stints in rehab. Dennis checked into a Florida treatment facility in 2008 … and in 2009 he appeared on the third season of “Celebrity Rehab.” He relapsed shortly after the show premiered.
Rodman blamed booze for his explosion during a recent CNN interview from N. Korea.
You can check out the tweets (including some backlash and Liam’s response) above. From MTV:
Those of you who didn’t spend your Saturday evening obsessively refreshing Twitter might be interested to know what the heck is going on right now: Liam Payne, 20 percent of boy band One Direction (maybe you’ve heard of them), is having a really eventful night, 140 characters at a time.
Payne tweeted at beleaguered “Duck Dynasty” star Willie Robertson, saying, “huge love to you/your family huge respect for your business prosperities and the family values you still all behold. big fan.”
Of course, Robertson is the brother of Phil Robertson who also appears on “Duck Dynasty.” Phil Robertson recently expressed homophobic opinions in an interview with GQ Magazine, calling homosexuality a “sin” and “not logical,” then relating it to bestiality and promiscuity. After public outcry, Phil Robertson was briefly suspended from the show by A&E.
An hour and a half later, after a barrage of tweets directed at him, Payne clarified: “Being a fan of someones show and the way they still hold a family together doesnt mean i am ok with all they say.”
Payne, however, never explicitly said which parts of the Robertsons’ views he did or did not disagree with, and never tweeted a statement expressly in support of equality. The farthest he went was to say, in a response to a fan, was that “people can love who they want , its none of my business.”
He instead took the opportunity to have a mini fan Q&A, sharing his views on cheesecake (pro), “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (pro) and dentistry (anti, it’s scary). He also broke the news that he’s thinking about more tattoos, and said that the outcry about his tweet at Robertson was “just ruining twitter for [him].”
Eventually, Payne made his exit without referencing the night’s events again, merely saying, “Im off ! Love you all :)”
From Edinburgh News:
Hundreds of people turned out for a vigil and a memorial service less than a mile from Mikaeel Kular’s home.
Balloons were released at the vigil in West Pilton Park while there was a large queue to get into the Muirhouse St Andrew’s Church well in advance of the service. The crowds ultimately filled the 300-capacity building and an overflow room which could hold another 80 people.
Men, women and children of all ages lined up to attend the memorial gathering. Some very young children clutched soft toys while a handful of people held lanterns.
At the end of the gathering, all those who had attended exited carrying the remains of candles they had been holding during the service.
Some people hugged each other and a Chinese lantern could be seen floating in the skies above the chapel.
Among those attending the service was Edinburgh Western MSP Colin Keir.
Speaking ahead of the event, he said recent events had shattered the whole area, but also galvanised a sense of community spirit.
He said: “The emotional attachment that the communities round here have had to this investigation has really brought them all together.
“I’m really proud of them. I’m in a privileged position being able to sit in the Scottish Parliament representing these people. The community’s not had its problems to seek over the past 50-60 years but you can see what happens when one of their own is affected, particularly a three-year-old kid. They’ve acted sensationally.”
He also said: “Police Scotland here have done a phenomenal job. There’s nothing can be more difficult than trying to find a missing child. “
Also attending the service was Akeel Umar. He said: “I think everyone in the community is very sad. Today is an opportunity for everyone to come together on an issue that touches everyone. It’s just a very concerning time for everyone.
“Everyone is touched and shocked by what’s happened. Thousands of people came out searching yesterday and the day before. Today’s really just as a mark of respect.”
Mr Umar was accompanied by Nasim Azad, who added: “When you take everything away there’s nothing between us. We are a community, we care. The fact that we’re here today is because we care. It’s as simple as that.”
During a recent episode of The Voice, contestant Leo The Lion told the judges that he was part of the group The Streets….welp, The Streets Mike Skinner responded with the above blog entry:
“Leo the Lion wasn’t in the streets he was a session singer on a few album tracks, he also sang on the tour for a bit but he wasn’t part of any songwriting”
Click past that above to see Leo The Lion’s less-than-positive responses.
The Jamaican bobsled team may be headed to another Olympics.
The catch: It needs a lot of money, and it needs it fast.
Olympic organizers said Saturday that Jamaica has qualified for the two-man competition at next month’s Sochi Games, though it remains unclear if the fledgling squad will get a chance to race. Funding is a serious problem and sled driver Winston Watts told The Associated Press on Saturday that he’s trying to raise as much as $80,000 in the next couple weeks to cover travel and equipment costs.
“Right now,” Watts said, “we’re at zero.”
They are certainly among the world’s most storied bobsled teams, and that has little to do with results. Jamaica first competed in Olympic bobsledding in 1988 at the Calgary Games, a story that inspired the “Cool Runnings” film. For a nation lacking bobsled tradition, or snowy winters, Jamaica has often fared quite well on the international circuits.
It’s been 12 years since Jamaica has had a sled in the Olympics, with Watts finishing 28th at the Salt Lake City Games with Lascelles Brown – now a key part of Canada’s national team. Brown won a medal at the 2010 Vancouver Games, one where the Jamaicans were hoping to compete but were again thwarted by funding issues.
Still, the 46-year-old Watts – who called himself “retired” from sliding for nearly a decade – has held on to hope of sliding again on the sport’s biggest stage.
“We’re pretty good,” Watts said. “We’re not there with the rest of the world, of course. But we if had some more sources for funding, we’d have a better chance.”
He started the season thinking he could get a four-man sled ready for Sochi, before quickly realizing that was too expensive. His focus then shifted to the two-man sled and by racing in a number of lower-tier events at tracks in Park City, Lake Placid and Calgary in recent months, Watts and brakeman Marvin Dixon piled up enough points to get into the Olympic mix.
Sochi officials tweeted word Saturday that the Jamaicans were in, but the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation – the sport’s governing body – is not expected to confirm before Sunday at the earliest how many nations qualified for the Olympic fields.
Watts said he’s confident that Jamaica is qualified.
“I’m not a person who likes to quit,” Watts said. “I put my heart into it and I know for a fact that people are going to help this team.”
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Spotted on People:
Madonna is apologizing for an Instagram photo caption in which she used the n-word.
The comment was quickly removed according to Buzzfeed, and replaced with this one: “Ok let me start this again. #get off my d-ck haters!”
But the singer changed her tune on Saturday. “I am sorry if I offended anyone with my use of the N word on Instagram,” the pop star said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.
“It was not meant as a racial slur … I am not a racist. There’s no way to defend the use of the word. It was all about intention.”
“It was used as a term of endearment toward my son who is white,” Madonna continues. “I appreciate that it’s a provocative word and I apologize if it gave people the wrong impression. Forgive me.”
Former NFL superstar Darren Sharper — a 5-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champ — has been arrested in L.A. on suspicion of rape … TMZ Sports has learned.
Law enforcement sources tell us … the 38-year-old was arrested on Friday — and he’s been linked to 2 sexual assaults … one that occurred in Oct. 2013 and the other in January 2014.
The identity of the alleged victim or victims has not been released.
Sharper was booked at an L.A. jail — and was released on $200k bail.
Sharper — a hard-hitting safety who played for the Packers, Vikings and Saints — is currently an analyst for the NFL Network.
A rep for the NFL Network just released a statement saying Darren has been “suspended without pay until further notice.”