Month: March 2022

TDE’s Doechii Shares Her Colorfully Futuristic ‘Persuasive’ Video

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Top Dawg Entertainment is entering its next era soon and has been rolling out its latest wave of artists to take advantage of the vacuum that will be left by Kendrick Lamar’s departure after he releases his final TDE album. Last year, the label introduced Long Beach native Ray Vaughn to the fold with the harrowing “Tap” video and earlier this month, announced that it had signed Doechii with the release of her house-influenced single, “Persuasive.”

Today, Doechii doubled down on the new single, releasing a colorful, futuristic-looking video for the single. In it, Doechii displays her quirky fashion sense and leads a troupe of dancers as they vogue for the camera in a ballroom-inspired sequence that plays off the single’s upbeat instrumentation.

Prior to officially signing to the label, Doechii appeared on Isaiah Rashad’s The House Is Burning single “Wat U Sed” and on his Lil’ Sunny’s Awesome Vacation tour, prompting speculation that the LA-based label had picked up the eclectic new artist for its roster. While the confirmation wouldn’t come until recently, the positive reception of Doechii’s guest spots certainly helped, and fans are certainly intrigued to see what she does with the label next.

Watch the “Persuasive” video above.

A Documentary On Ol’ Dirty Bastard Is Coming To A&E

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Ol' Dirty Bastard 1995 Shimmy Shimmy Ya Video
Getty Image / Al Pereira

A two-hour documentary on the late rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard will air on A&E. Approved by the “Got Your Money” rapper’s estate, the documentary, tentatively titled Biography: Ol’ Dirty Bastard, will feature never-before-seen archived footage filmed by his wife, Icelene Jones, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“I am thrilled to tell the full story of my husband. With this documentary the world will learn about the son, the husband, the father and the artist,” Jones told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m proud of the team that we built, including Pulse, my producing partners Nicole Beckett and Messiah Jacobs at Four Screens, and our directing team, the Pollards.”

Produced by Pulse Films, alongside Four Screens, the documentary will showcase ODB from the beginning of his solo career in 1995 up until 2004, when he died of a drug overdose. The documentary will also provide looks back to the Wu-Tang Clan founder’s “trauma-filled” childhood and how it influenced his craft. Fans, close friends, and family will also share stories of ODB.

“Biography: Ol’ Dirty Bastard will present viewers with the untold story of the man and the musician who made an immense cultural impact across just a few short years,” said A&E’s executive vice president and head of programming, Elaine Frontain Bryant, to the magazine.

The Game Unsurprisingly Doesn’t Think The Oscars Should Investigate Will Smith Over That Slap

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the game will smith
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Will Smith smacking Chris Rock at this Sunday’s Oscars ceremony remains the hot topic of conversation on social media as more celebrities and guests share their thoughts on the surprising (but not that surprising) incident. While some, like co-host Amy Schumer, continue to pretend that it was the most traumatizing event of their lives, others, such as Daniel Radcliffe, are “dramatically bored” by the overblown kerfuffle, which distracted from other meaningful conversations like celebrating Questlove and his collaborators’ Summer Of Soul win.

And while the actors are all seemingly aghast that a man from West Philadelphia would physically confront another man from Brooklyn (two places where such things are a fairly regular occurrence, to be honest), Will’s fellow rappers seem less distraught on the whole. While 50 Cent, Drake, Nicki Minaj, and others either expressed sympathy for Smith or made jokes about the slap, others like Lil Nas X trolled the hilarious overreactions by fans on Twitter who brought up weird and frankly unlikely hypotheticals to score woke points. Now, another member of that fraternity has weighed in.

Compton rapper The Game posted a long caption pointing out the hypocrisy of the Academy for launching a disciplinary investigation. “They didn’t even want to give it to him in the first place,” he posited. “He acted off impulse & imposed a slap down out of frustration & embarrassment on behalf of his wife. Most people with opinions on the situation don’t have a committed relationship let alone a marriage of over 20 years to weigh against his feelings in the matter. He’s human & comedy is not always an excuse to publicly humiliate people especially while sitting front & center. Although violence anywhere is & should always be depicted in a negative light, this was a lul ass slap in defense of a woman battling a very delicate health issue. I’ll close by saying, they don’t want us to be equal, never have & never will.”

Of course, it’s unsurprising that The Game would side with Will in this situation, considering he got in hot water for a similar situation at the Drew League a few years ago. But he also makes some strong points, especially in calling out how several prior winners, including Harvey Weinstein and Roman Polanski, were allowed to keep awards even after being investigated by police — and in Weinstein’s case, convicted — of way worse things than delivering a love tap to a fellow member during a live broadcast.

In any case, I’m probably with Harry Potter on all of this. There are way more important things going on in the world; maybe we should focus on those.

Rihanna Shows Off Her Date To Oscars Afterparty In Sheer Black Dress

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Following “one of the greatest nights in the history of television,” stated by Chris Rock himself, hundreds of celebrities attended Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s 2022 Oscars afterparty. After two years of virtual award shows, many A-list celebrities attended the Gold Party event hosted at the Chateau Marmont, including the pregnant superstar, Rihanna.

Mike Coppola/Getty Images

The Barbadian singer made sure to show off her sheer black Valentino dress from every angle as she posted her ‘fit to IG for everyone to admire. She tied this sequin-covered look together with a pair of diamond-accented earrings by Wilfred Rosado. 

Captioning the Instagram carousel, “me and my date for Oscar Gold Party #bump2022,” Rih revealed her date to the party was actually her baby bump. Rihanna has been proudly flaunting her bump since revealing her and A$AP Rocky were expecting. 

Rihanna and many more celebrities like Snoop Dogg, French Montana, P Diddy, DJ Khaled and more attended the event. Many of these celebrities were met with protestors outside of the building calling for a boycott of the iconic hotel. The party was protected by police and security hired by Jay-Z and the Chateau. 

Check out Rihanna’s Instagram post below. 

 

The Academy Lied About Will Smith Refusing To Leave The Oscars

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The week is almost over and the Oscars’ altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock is still buzzing. As everyone continues to dish their own opinion on the incident, new sources have come out about Smith being asked to leave the event. 

According to TMZ, Will Smith was never asked to leave the Oscars after slapping Chris Rock. He was actually told by the show’s producers that he could stay for the rest of the event. The Academy said Wednesday (March 29) that they asked Smith to leave but he refused. Sources told TMZ that there was a heated conversation between his reps and Academy officials backstage and that the decision for him to leave was mixed. Ultimately, they never reached a decision on giving him the boot. 

Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

TMZ was told that during one of the commercial breaks, Oscars producer Will Packer told Smith, “We do not want you to leave.” Packer approached Smith a little over thirty minutes after the slap and told Smith that he could stay. The King Richard actor would win the Best Actor Award around five minutes later. 

It’s unsure why the Academy released its initial statement that clearly wasn’t true. Later that day, the Academy claimed that Smith had become aggressive in his stance and refused to leave.

Chris Rock has since responded to the slap, telling Variety, “I don’t have a bunch of shit about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend. I’m still kind of processing what happened. So, at some point, I’ll talk about that shit. And it will be serious and funny.”

[Via]

New Video Shows Jada’s Reaction After Will Smith Slapped Chris Rock

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As the clip of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars covers headlines worldwide, a new POV has been released revealing what happened once Will headed back to his seat to sit down. The video, which had been posted to TikTok, was shot from a few tables behind the Smith couple, shedding some more light on one of the most unforgettable nights in television history. 

While the point of view doesn’t show the faces of the two, Pinkett Smith can be seen eyeing Chris Rock down as her husband walks back to their table. She is then seen throwing back her head in laughter as she reacts to Rock’s reaction, “Wow. Will Smith just smacked the sh*t out of me.” 

Pinkett Smith then glances at her husband for a brief second as he shouts, “Keep my wife’s name out your f**king mouth.” She then kept her eyes on Rock as Will shouted again, repeating himself. As Chris keeps his composure, he makes another joke, calling the incident “the greatest night in television history.” Pinkett Smith appears to chuckle after this comment, as she puts her hands together. 

Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

After the incident, the 53-year-old actor went on to win Best Actor for his first-ever Academy Award. Smith has since apologized to the Academy, his fellow peers, and to Chris Rock himself, through a lengthy post on Instagram stating that the actor was “out of line and wrong.” 

Chris Rock has also broken his silence about the situation during his comedy show in Boston last night (March 30). Rock revealed that he was “still kind of processing what happened,” so when he is ready to talk about it, “it will be serious and funny.”

Check out the video of Jada’s reaction to the slap below.