Month: May 2021

Everyone wants a piece of Jake Paul these days and it seems like former UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley has locked in the opportunity to step into the ring with the YouTuber-turned-pro boxer. Per The Athletic’s Mike Coppinger, Woodley and Paul have agreed to a deal for a boxing match. News of the match-up comes after it was revealed that Paul locked in a multi-fight deal with ShowTime. This Friday, Woodley and Paul will face off in Miami to begin building anticipation around the fight ahead of Logan Paul vs. Floyd Mayweather on Sunday. 

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Tyron Woodley has been particularly vocal about fighting Paul over the past few months. Woodley, who holds a 19-7-1 record, said that Paul is a “culture vulture,” demanding that the YouTuber steps into the ring with him. “He keeps calling out everybody but me. I’m the one with the real smoke with you,” he told TMZ. “I’m in, and I can actually find him. People that keep talking about fighting him, they’re not even in position to fight him. I can actually fight him. I can fight him tomorrow if I want to.”

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Finally, Woodley will be able to square up against Jake Paul who recently earned a 3-0 win streak after his fight against Ben Askren in April.

Who’s your money on? Sound off in the comments. 

Anytime Jay-Z pops out for some sort of interview, there’s always a gem to takeaway. His appearance on LeBron James’ The Shop had the rapper opening up about everything from learning how to swim to his relationship with DMX. Though it’s been a few years since Jay released his last album 4:44, he touched on the importance of the album, especially to other rappers who’ve faced similar issues in their personal lives.

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“To be vulnerable in that space, after you’ve done all this work — and you don’t have to. Your ego will tell you, I don’t gotta do that,” he said. “But then, you know, no one else heals. So many super gangster rappers comin’ up to me like, ‘Yo, thank you for that.’ You know, they could tell me on the side, ‘Yo, you saved my relationship.'”

On a personal level, Jay-Z explained that the album played a role in the shift of their relationship. He said that when he first played “Smile” for his mother, who ended up on the song, she got “super defensive.”

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“What happened, I was in L.A.. She flew out to L.A. then she left and was like, ‘No.’ We talked through it and then, when she flew back to L.A., she had written a poem. She wrote that on the plane. It came with the American Airlines, like a little notepad. I was like, ‘You got bars, ma.’ Gloria got bars.”

Peep the clip below. 

We recently caught up with Fredo Bang for the latest edition of Rise & Grind where he shared a hilarious anecdote about the first time he ever met Kanye West. It was YNW Melly who brought Fredo to a session after revealing that Kanye West was actually in tune with his music.

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“I was calling him to congratulate [YNW Melly] for working with Kanye he like, ‘Yeah, I just talked to Kanye about the s***. He messing with the music.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah?’,” Fredo said. 

He went on to meet Kanye West but what happened afterward was an incredibly awkward encounter that left Fredo Bang confused to this day. “So, I see Kanye, I’m walking up in Hit Factory and you know me, I ain’t really no type of person to get fanned out, but this is Kanye. I walk up to Kanye to shake his hand and Kanye tell me, ‘Congratulations.’ I’m like, ‘For what?’ And he never said what,” Bang recounted. “So, I stopped shaking his hand and then I reached back out to shake his hand again, just on some in the moment type sh**, ‘cause I’m not even thinking.”

“He never told me why he congratulated me,” he continued. “I was very shaken by that. I ain’t know whether to be happy or sad or something [laughs].”

Check out Fredo Bang’s full Rise & Grind interview. 

T.I. and Tiny are currently facing several allegations — including claims of sexual assault and drugging — spearheaded by former friend of the couple Sabrina Peterson. Though the number of women has risen since the initial accusation surfaced, Tip and Tiny have remained adamant in their denial of every allegation leveled against them.

T.I. actually addressed the situation in a recent song “What It’s Come To,” accusing Peterson of attempting extortion and doubling down on his unwavering stance. Last week, Peterson actually claimed she would drop her lawsuit against the Harris couple provided they issued a public apology. “Tell the truth about me, tell the truth about what you did to me, and apologize. I’m gone,” she stated. “I don’t want one dime. And here’s the other stipulation: Do it within seven days.”

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Earlier today, Tip remained defiant and laughed at the prospect of acquiescing to Peterson’s request. “An Apology????” he captions, alongside a picture of him guffawing at Diddy’s party. “Drako voice #WhatItsComeTo.” Hardly substantiation but telling nonetheless. Enough that Peterson opted to issue a response to his response, warning that “pride comes before the fall.”

On her own IG page, Peterson shared a “Narcissist checklist,” implying that T.I. meets each one of the fourteen criteria. Emphasizing that he’s the target of her post is an attached picture of T.I. hanging out with R.Kelly, the implication speaking for itself.

With T.I unwilling to budge in his position of innocence and Peterson determined to make him, at the very least, apologize for his alleged wrongdoings, it’s uncertain as to how this one will play out. We will keep you posted on developments surrounding Peterson’s ongoing legal battle with the Harrises as the situation unfolds.

Kyrie Irving has been very honest about the way Celtics fans have treated him over the years and it was a massive concern just a few days ago as he and his Brooklyn Nets teammates arrived in Boston for Games 3 and 4 against the Celtics. While Game 3 went without an issue, Game 4 was a different story as Irving had a bottle thrown at him by a fan. The spectator was eventually arrested as has been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Now, players around the league are commenting on the situation, including Damian Lillard, who had a lot to say on the matter. In the tweet below, Lillard acknowledged that it is impossible to control how fans will act at the games. However, Lillard believes local arena bans aren’t enough. Instead, the fans should be permanently banned from all 30 NBA arenas.

This is certainly a great solution although it will certainly be difficult to enforce. The league would effectively need to give every single arena employee a list of names and headshots, where they would then have to enforce the rule at every single gate in the arena. It’s no easy task but it’s an effort that should at least be tried.

Hopefully, these sorts of incidents don’t happen again, as they are an embarrassment for the league, and the fanbases in which the perpetrators belong to.

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Brooklyn Drill rapper Supa Gates, real name Aaron Williams, has passed away at the age of 25. New York Daily News reports that Williams was shot on April 11th, and spent the next six weeks in the Kings County Hospital before succumbing to his injuries received in the shooting. His death was confirmed to have occurred on Thursday, May 27th.

The original shooting occurred on St. John’s place near Troy Avenue in Crown Heights. The Brooklyn rapper was sitting in the passenger’s seat of his Mercedes when he was shot multiple times. At this time, police have not made any arrests, with the report noting that they have yet to confirm any leads or suspects. Motivations for the shooting also remain unclear, though his mother believes that jealousy played a role.

“It really and truly was jealously,” says his mother Raquel Peters, as reported by the New York Daily News. “It wasn’t a gang-related issue, it wasn’t a drug-related issue. Nobody knows how hard I worked to make sure my kids are OK. People don’t know the devastation they’re causing, and how many lives they’re destroying when they take somebody’s child.”

The report also suggests that Supa Gates was on the cusp of taking his career to the next level, quoting a family member who claimed that the rapper was ready to sign with a major label and embark on a tour. It should be noted that his music was certainly making waves, with his “Yellow Bentley” song having scored rotation on Drake’s OVO Sound Radio. 

Rest in peace to Supa Gates. Our condolences go out to his family, friends, and fans in this difficult time. 

LISTEN: Shawny Binladen & Supa Gates – Yellow Bentley

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Rich Paul is one of the best agents in the entire NBA and his client list is beyond impressive. Klutch Sports has grown into one of the biggest entities in the sports agency world and fans have certainly taken notice. Over the years, there have been rumors concerning Klutch’s influence over the sport, although Paul has made sure to note that he does everything the right way, and that he is simply looking into the best interests of his clients.

Despite being one of the most well-known agents out there, Paul has noted that there have been issues trying to attract white clients. Paul claims that white American athletes have a bit of a bias when it comes to who represents them. As it stands, Paul has one white client in Jusuf Nurkic, although as Paul noted, Nurkic is European and simply has a different mindset.

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“It’s very difficult for me to represent a white player,” Paul said. “It just is. Look around. There’s very few. I represent a player from Bosnia. But, again, he’s international. He looks at it different.” Paul then went on to say that some players just don’t want a black agent, even though they would never actually allude to that kind of bias. “They’ll never say that,” he said. “But they don’t. I think there’s always going to be that cloud over America.”

American sports have suffered from diversity issues when it comes to both team executives and agents over the years. While Paul is a case of someone who has been able to overcome and be successful, there is no denying that biases still exist and that it could take quite sometime before attitudes change.

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According to multiple reports, Dallas rapper Lil Loaded has passed away at age 20. This story is developing and there is not a lot of information that has been released in regards to what happened. Lil Loaded’s death was confirmed by his attorney, Ashkan Mehryari, in a statement to XXL. “Sadly, the rumors are true and Mr. Robertson did pass away today,” Mehryari said.

The popular rapper is best known for his songs “6locc 6a6y” and “Gang Unit,” which have 45 million and 20 million streams on Spotify, respectively. The 20-year-old encountered a major legal setback last year when he turned himself in for accidentally murdering his friend during a music video shoot. The rapper was allegedly handling a loaded gun during the shoot when he accidentally fired the weapon, fatally striking his friend Savage Boosie. He was released from jail in December 2020 before getting indicted on manslaughter charges in March 2021. 

Loaded’s latest post on Instagram, which was uploaded three days ago, is presently being flooded by fans sharing their condolences to the rapper’s family.

We will keep you updated as more information is released. We send our condolences to Lil Loaded’s family during this very difficult time.

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