New Hip Hop News

Sacha Baron Cohen says that the Biden Campaign was “very happy” to see Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in Baron Cohen’s most recent film, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. In the scene, he is caught with actress Maria Bakalova in a very compromising position.

“Suddenly he was having to try to explain that he wasn’t playing with himself,” Baron Cohen told the Guardian. “It was such a close election that everything in those final weeks was crucial.”

Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

The Guiliani scene dominated the headlines following the film’s release in October 2020. The former Mayor of New York City had to deny the implication of the film’s ending in the press.

“The government was always proud of its misogyny,” says Baron Cohen. “It got elected after it was publicized Trump suggested grabbing women’s genitalia. He appealed to people with a feeling of emasculation, who were threatened by the rise of women. Predominantly white men who felt that they had lost their advantage.”

During a Fox News appearance, Guiliani berated a reporter who asked him about the scene: “You better apologize for that! I’ve been a United States attorney, associate attorney general, mayor of New York City, and a member of the bar for 50 years. I’ve never been accused of anything, and you’re accusing me of being Christopher Steele.”

[Via]

The Minnesota Timberwolves are moving on from head coach Ryan Saunders, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The team announced their decision following the Timberwolves’ 103-99 loss to the New York Knicks, Sunday. No interim coach has been named.

“We would like to thank Ryan for his time and commitment to the Timberwolves organization and wish him the best in the future,” said President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas. “These are difficult decisions to make, however, this change is in the best interest of the organization’s short and long-term goals.”

Steph Chambers / Getty Images

Under the leadership of Saunders, the Timberwolves currently maintain a disappointing 7-24 record on the season. After over two years with the organization, he finishes with a 43-95 overall record.

Saunders is the son of Timberwolves’ legendary coach Flip Saunders, who coached the Timberwolves from 1995-2005, as well as 2014-2015. Flip was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2015 and passed away on October 25, 2015, at the age of 60.

Rosas says the Timberwolves will announce the next head coach on Monday, February 22. Under their new head coach, the team will travel to Milwaukee to play the Bucks on Tuesday night.

The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports that the Timberwolves will hire Toronto Raptors’ assistant coach Chris Finch.

[Via]

The mother of an 11-year-old child who died last week as a result of hypothermia when they lost power in Texas is suing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and Entergy Corporation for gross negligence causing wrongful death. The lawsuit alleges the companies “put profits over the welfare of people.”  The mother’s suit is for $100 million.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Over 4 million Texas customers were left without heat and electricity as the historic blizzard swept through the state.

“Despite having knowledge of the dire weather forecast for at least a week in advance, and the knowledge that the system was not prepared for more than a decade, ERCOT and Entergy failed to take any preemptory action that could have averted the crisis and were wholly unprepared to deal with the crisis at hand,” the lawsuit claims, according to ABC.

Both ERCOT and Entergy responded to the lawsuit with separate statements. 

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of life in our community,” wrote Entergy.

“We haven’t yet reviewed the lawsuits and will respond accordingly once we do. Our thoughts are with all Texans who have and are suffering due to this past week,” ERCOT said in its statement. “However, because approximately 46% of privately-owned generation tripped offline this past Monday morning, we are confident that our grid operators made the right choice to avoid a statewide blackout.”

[Via]

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who came under fire last week for abandoning his home state during a historically dangerous winter storm, is attempting to repair his image on social media with a photo of himself handing out water bottles. Many online have criticized the photos as being staged.

“#TexasStrong,” Cruz captioned the photos.

Win McNamee / Getty Images

Many compared the move to NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign to raise more than $4 million for the people of Texas.

“Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon,” Cruz wrote in a statement explaining his decision to travel to Cancun. “My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas. We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm.”

Texas GOP Rep. Michael McCaul recently criticized Cruz telling CNN, “Look, when a crisis hits my state, I’m there. I’m not going to go on some vacation.”

The winter storm caused millions of families to lose power and almost half of the state’s population were affected by water shortages during the last week.

President Joe Biden recently declared the blizzard a “major disaster,” which will result in federal funds being allocated to the state.

[Via]

Shots were reportedly fired in southwest Atlanta on-site at a music video shoot for 42 Dugg and Roddy Ricch that left three people injured, two of whom were hospitalized. WSB-TV Atlanta reports that it is unconfirmed whether both rappers were on the set during the shooting.

Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images

Police responded to the call of shots fired around 4:00 PM, Sunday, at a scrap yard on Wells Street. Grady EMS treated one victim who was merely grazed by a bullet at the scene, while the other two victims were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. Their current condition has not been announced.

The victims’ names have not been revealed and a shooter has not been arrested. An investigation is currently underway.

“Three victims don’t seem to be seriously hurt according to witnesses we talked to who were on set,” local WSB-TV reporter Steve Gehlbach, who was on the scene, said.

DJ A-Tron recently confirmed on Twitter that Ricch was not one of the victims and is doing well. 

“My n***a Roddy good, all the homies good,” he tweeted.

“The Box” rapper recently celebrated the massive success of the hit single on Instagram by posting a giant plague for going seven-times platinum.

[Via]

DaBaby has responded to the internet fervor caused by his apparent diss to Jojo Siwa, by saying that it’s “all love” and the controversial lyric was never intended as a diss. DaBaby even says his daughter is a huge fan of the YouTuber.

“I love Twitter bruh,” DaBaby tweeted, Sunday night. “@itsjojosiwa my 3-year-old princess is your number 1 fan. I bought her every product you have out. She think she you. Don’t let em trick you into thinking id ever have a problem with you. My word play just went over their heads. All love on my end shawty, Keep shinning!”

“I don’t ‘Siwa’ they so mad either bae,” he added, replying to a fan.

Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

The controversy originally started after the rapper dropped his new “Beat Box” remix on Friday, which includes the lyrics: “Turn me up, n***as gon’ see why/N***a, you a bitch, JoJo Siwa (Bitch).“

From there, YouTubers James Charles and Nikita Dragun came to Siwa’s defense, calling DaBaby out on Twitter for the line.

“Can someone please explain why da baby [sic] is dissing Jojo Siwa when she’s 12 years younger, 10 times richer, and 2 inches taller than him,” James Charles tweeted.

[Via]

The United States has surpassed 500,000 total deaths related to COVID-19, as we approach the one-year mark since the deadly virus was first discovered in the country. White House COVID-19 medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared on CNN’s State of the Union program, Sunday, to provide the latest updates on the pandemic.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

“It’s nothing like we’ve ever been through in the last 102 years since the 1918 influenza pandemic… It really is a terrible situation that we’ve been through – and that we’re still going through,” Fauci explained, regarding the severity of the pandemic.

The nation’s top infectious disease official went on to estimate that mask usage could be commonplace through 2022, depending on how efficiently vaccines are administered.

“When the overwhelming majority of the people in the population are vaccinated, then I would feel comfortable in saying, you know, ‘We need to pull back on the masks,'” Fauci said. “The better we do at getting vaccine into people’s arms … that will be another important tool against preventing spikes.”

“We want to get that baseline really, really, really low before we start thinking that we’re out of the woods,” he added.

Congress is currently working to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package.

[Via]