Just last month, reports emerged that Suge Knight’s lawyer signed an affidavit claiming that Knight’s ex-wife was the one behind Tupac’s infamous and tragic death. The lawyer, Thaddeus Culpepper, quickly denied that he said any such thing — once again shrouding one of Hip Hop’s most mysterious casualties in darkness.
A recent interview with former Death Row affiliate Mob James appears to have shed some light on Tupac’s killer, backing up claims that the legendary rapper was killed by a young South Side Crip member Tupac had brawled with earlier on the evening of the shooting: Orlando Anderson.
“His name started coming cause he was taking credit for it,” James, a former member of the Blood gang known as The Mob, says. “He started tell people he did that. We decided, basically, it’s on. They just killed Tupac. This was my thing. Tupac was hanging with us. Everybody was looking at this as The Mob let Tupac get killed. We couldn’t have that.”
“If Tupac would have stand to the side and watched, and if Suge would have said, ‘No you my money, you ain’t finna get in no fight, get over there,’ Tupac would be still alive right now in the day. And this is the only reason why he died, he interfered in something he had no power in.”
Mob James is not the first person to speculate that Anderson was involved in Tupac’s death. Anderson had previously been named as a suspect in the investigation, including by former LAPD detective Greg Kading, whose findings are chronicled in the movie Murder Rap. Tupac’s mother Afeni Shakur also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Anderson.
Anderson himself was killed in an unrelated shootout at the age of 23 in 1998. However, he publicly denied any involvement in Tupac’s death and claimed he was a fan of ‘Pac’s music.
Noam Chomsky has argued the Republican Party is the most “dangerous organisation in human history” and the world has never seen an organisation more profoundly committed to destroying planet earth.
The eminent intellectual, who is famed for his radical views, said the Trump administration had shown total and utter disregard for the future of the planet and appeared dedicated to dismantling previous legacies to tackle climate change.
Chomsky, professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, argued the administration was prioritising “profits and power” and “systematically” destroying governmental institutions, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, which are in place to address global warming.
“Has there ever been an organisation in human history that is dedicated, with such commitment, to the destruction of organised human life on Earth?” he asked the audience at a Democracy Now! event.
“Not that I’m aware of. Is the Republican organisation – I hesitate to call it a party – committed to that? Overwhelmingly. There isn’t even any question about it.”
Chomsky argued that America was isolating itself as one of the only countries not to be engaging in efforts to tackle climate change.
The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued
“So there’s the whole world on one side, literally, at least trying to do something or other, not enough maybe, although some places are going pretty far, like Denmark, couple of others; and on the other side, in splendid isolation, is the country led by the most dangerous organisation in human history, which is saying, ‘We’re not part of this. In fact, we’re going to try to undermine it.’
“We’re going to maximise the use of fossil fuels – could carry us past the tipping point. We’re not going to provide funding for – as committed in Paris, to developing countries that are trying to do something about the climate problems. We’re going to dismantle regulations that retard the impact, the devastating impact, of production of carbon dioxide and, in fact, other dangerous gases – methane, others.”
Michael Moore says Trump has begun ‘extinction’ of humans
Last month, Mr Trump, who has previously called climate change a hoax invented by the Chinese, signed an executive order overhauling Obama-era rules directed at tackling climate change. The controversial order seeks to suspend, rescind or review more than a half-dozen measures in an effort to boost domestic energy production in the form of fossil fuels.
This is not the first time Chomsky, who is often described as “the father of modern linguistics”, has warned of the danger the Republican Party poses. In January, he warned the party has become so extreme in the policies it has proposed and the rhetoric it has spouted that it poses a “serious danger to human survival.”
The academic also weighed in on Mr Trump last month, saying the administration could stage a false-flag terrorist attack to hold on to the support of Trump voters after they become aware his “promises are built on sand”
Los Angeles, CA – As a member of the West Coast gangster rap collective, Compton’s Most Wanted, MC Eiht stepped onto the scene with the group’s seminal It’s A Compton Thang album in 1990.Two years later, their explosive breakthrough record, Music To Driveby, solidified Eiht’s status as a pioneering MC. One of his most well-known tracks, “Streiht Up Menace,” was featured on the soundtrack for the 1993 classic movie Menace II Society, which he also starred in.
Fast-forward to 2017 and Eiht is back with his first full-length solo album in 10 years, Which Way Iz West, a 15-track project executive produced by East Coast luminary, DJ Premier, a partnership that may have some people scratching their heads.
“People been knowing I’ve been associated with Preemo for a while now, so I don’t think that’s too much of a surprise,” Eiht explains to HipHopDX. “But to see that we actually sat down and worked on a full-length project together, that really caught a few people off guard. I guess they felt the whole project was going to sound East Coast and people were probably a little skeptical of the direction of the record with Preemo being the executive producer.”
With high-profile guest spots from The Outlawz, Lady Of Rage, Kurupt, B-Real, Xzibit, Bumpy Knuckles, Big Mike, WC, MayLay, and his old crew, Compton’s Most Wanted, it retains that original West Coast flavor, but simultaneously evolves with the times due in part to Preemo’s more golden era-style beats. Four years in the making, Eiht is hoping people recognize the hard work that went into creating the record.
“We put so much time into this record, I’m just hoping people respond to what the record really is about and can hear its diversity,” he says. “I’m expecting it does differently than all other MC Eiht records. I really tried to pick out the sound and craft this record into something that would be a good project, not just another West Coast veteran trying to sustain his career.”
Eiht hasn’t been completely quiet. He appeared on fellow Compton native Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, m.A.A.d. Cityin 2012, and contributed to DJ Quik and Problem’sRosecrans album earlier this month (which officially ended his vicious, long-running feud with Quik). On every cut, he manages to stay true to himself, something he factored into the naming of Which Way Iz West.
“For a minute, it seemed like all our West Coast veterans were trying to do what everybody else was doing to stay relevant,” he says. “I understand you gotta adapt to the times, but I felt people weren’t giving a damn about the originality of West Coast music. I know you can’t stay on the same page forever, but you can’t stray away from what our foundation is. I wanted to call the record ‘Which Way Iz West’ to let people know that maybe we lost our way and we need to get back to what West Coast music really was, and make some music that got me in the door for some of those fans who have been riding with me since the beginning.”
The first single, “Represent Like This,” finds WC of WC and the Maad Circle as well as Preemo throwing down over a Brenk Sinatra-produced banger, a little sliver of what to expect when the full album drops on June 9.
“I think when people hear this record it will be a breath of fresh air,” he says. “It’s not all about the hood. I think when people hear it, they will be like, ‘Wow, that wasn’t what I expected.’ Don’t judge the book by its cover just because you see Eiht and DJ Premier on it. Put the record on and listen to it.”
Check out “Represent Like This” above, and the single art and tracklist below.
1. Shut ‘Em Down f. The Outlawz 2. Represent Like This f. WC & DJ Premier 3. Compton Zoo 4. Heart Cold f. Lady Of Rage 5. Pass Me By f. B-Real 6. Runn The Blocc f. MayLAy 7. Gangsta Gangsta f. Kurupt 8. Got That 9. Medicate f. Xzibit 10. Born To Hustle f. Big Mike 11. Sittin’ Around Smokin’ 12. As I Proceed 13. Last Ones Left f. Compton’s Most Wanted & DJ Premier 14. “4 Tha OG’z” f. Bumpy Knuckles 15. “You Nia’z”
If one were to pinpoint the mission statement of Kendrick Lamar’s impassioned manifestos throughout his career, an accurate place to land would be Section.80‘s “Ab-Soul’s Outro” where he quips, “I’m not the next pop star, I’m not the next socially aware rapper, I am a human muthafucking being over dope ass instrumentation.”
Initially seen as a refuge from the external forces of peer pressure and street gang warfare, Kendrick’s dedicated work ethic has steered his own fate toward becoming the most compelling, acclaimed and widely debated MC of modern times. Routinely putting his conceptual mind to work, DAMN., the Compton scribe’s fourth credited studio album, is an extension of his running narrative of living through spiritual crises while managing stardom and success. Consistent with his themes while always experimenting with new sounds, his latest journey falls in line with urban airwaves and simultaneously sneaks in deeper messages, thus making for a nearly critic-proof final product.
A complete 180° turn from the intricate live arrangements that comprised the bulk of Lamar’s last masterpiece, 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly, simplistic piano keys and crisp programmed drums took Hip Hop’s preeminent savior figure soaring up the charts with lead single “HUMBLE.” A collaboration with blockbuster rap visionary Mike WiLL Made-It seems like a reach on paper, but Kendrick Lamar designs its catchy hook to amp a club audience up while still offering a lesson (or three) about modesty.
The newly formed collaboration also finds electric synergy on DAMN. opener “DNA.,” as the de facto king of L.A. details the complexities that make up his being before letting his ego run amok to demonstrate deductive reasoning why he should be considered among the all-time elite. Long embroiled in an unspoken war of subliminal jabs where popularity is stacked against quality and audiences have been practically forced to pick a preference, an educated guess can interpret the playful “ELEMENT.” as Kendrick drawing a line in the sand. Though he’s still unwilling to pull the pin from his figurative grenade, the sung hook could be seen as a cheeky imitation of Drake’s highly praised radio-ready vocals. Indulging his fantasies of crossing over while playfully getting his point across, he feeds the public’s frenzy for tension to result in an official beef on wax, with this being perceived as yet another declaration for Drizzy to tread lightly.
For all of his self-fulfilled bravado, Kendrick has made an equal habit of running full speed to bare his soul on wax. When left alone with his emotions over a minimalist production from chief conspirator Sounwave, a performance such as displayed on “FEEL.” is proof positive why diehards consider him peerless. Vulnerability takes center stage here as he rattles off a complex range of thoughts from hopelessness regarding the state of the world to his innermost struggles: the pressures of being a rapping savant whose personal well-being is rarely considered, boiling over with the sobering conclusion “ain’t nobody praying for me” (a phrase repeated throughout DAMN. that ties his storyline together, e.g. the opening words of “HUMBLE.”).
Puzzle pieces are further connected as the Bible-reciting phone call from Kendrick’s cousin referenced on the meditative “YAH.” surfaces on “FEAR.,” which is by and large the arguable highlight of DAMN. Stripping away the glamorous facade upheld by Hip Hop’s more ubiquitous influencers, he paints one of his most vivid pictures to date atop an Alchemist creation as listeners are taken through two decades of anxiety. Physical discipline keeps our protagonist walking a straight line in the early-to-mid ‘90s, then years later he’s forced to face the daily trauma of adolescent street terrors before fast forwarding to his present position, which includes phobias of frivolous spending and shady businessmen mismanaging his finances, all while facing concerns of how his art and legacy will be received.
Kendrick is generally averse to thriving within the mainstream via formulaic paint-by-the-number rhythms, but DAMN. marks the first time he dares to fully embrace the industry’s reindeer games. On “LOYALTY.,” introverted hitmaker DJ Dahi provides K. Dot and pop queen Rihanna with his distinct commercial bounce that’s normally found on songs with far less substance, so much that it’s easy to overlook the greater subversive message of placing God ahead of worldly things and people. “LOVE.” is a heartfelt new age ballad that finds Kendrick proclaiming undying devotion to a woman, and while it’s unlike anything that came before it, it doesn’t stretch boundaries as far as penultimate track “GOD.” By far the album’s least organic occurrence, here he goes hard at keeping pace with the status quo.
Diehard fans may scoff at DAMN.’s crossover ambitions but Kendrick rectifies matters toward traditionalism with the closer “DUCKWORTH.” A tale of Aesopian proportions (also one of the few places DJ Kid Capri’s sporadic drops fit best), 9th Wonder Ginsu chops the vocal samples of eclectic underground band Hiatus Kaiyote three times over on a track that reveals Kung Fu Kenny’s career exists due to his father being spared in a long-since-past chance encounter with TDE boss Top Dawg. The surprise ending takes us back to the LP’s intro where a fatherless Kendrick is murdered by a stray bullet, a callback to how the skits on good kid, m.A.A.d. city and spoken word intermissions on TPAB factor into overall concepts greater than how they appear alone.
In all, DAMN. makes baseless any claims that Kendrick Lamar isn’t an all-time great.
Fans who were skeptical seeing pop icons U2 on the tracklist can be relieved as “XXX” turns out to be an edgy diatribe without so much as scratching the surface on sex like the title suggests. Though he benefits from a lowered bar for achievement within this generation, each outing pushes the envelope to challenge listeners and competition to employ great attention to detail.
Cohesive as ever and undoubtedly his best project from a digestibility standpoint, if there’s any knock against DAMN., it’s that it may not enjoy the earth axis-stopping moments that his previous two releases did, generationally and culturally, respectively. Some fans already exposed their greedy side, having fallen victim to internet urban legends that the project was just the first part to a secret sequel, yet possibly implying that the album’s shelf life won’t be wholly immortal. Whether it’s a future classic or impenetrable catalog builder remains to be seen, but once more, King Kendrick has proved through linear vision he’s naturally able to outshine the rest of the mainstream while still working to figure out the world around him.
The New York Police Department is rolling out its body camera program, with the first wave beginning in Washington Heights.
An estimated 60 officers at the 34th Precinct in Washington Heights started wearing body cameras Thursday afternoon. By the fall, about 1,200 officers in 20 precincts will be outfitted with the cameras, with the ultimate goal being to eventually equip all 23,000 NYPD officers with the cameras over the next two years.
By the fall, about 1,200 officers in 20 precincts will be outfitted with the cameras, with the ultimate goal being to eventually equip all 23,000 NYPD officers with the cameras over the next two years.
Moving forward, police will be required to turn on their cameras during arrests and vehicle stops and will have to notify people that they are being recorded, unless it compromises the person’s safety or an investigation.
Prior to the pilot program’s start, New York residents opposed the policies on the body cameras, voicing their concerns that the NYPD did not address concerns from advocates and community members directly affected by police abuses.
There is also a skepticism surrounding the benefits of police body cameras.
In North Carolina, a police body camera captured an officer threatening to kill an unarmed man.
According to police in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area of North Carolina, James Yarborough was a passenger in a car that was pulled over during a traffic stop on March 26, 2016. Yarborough attempted to run from the police during the stop, with the cops ultimately apprehending him and using excessive force for four minutes — even threatening to kill him.
Following a review of the case, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division ultimately sided with Dunham, with Police Maj. Stella Patterson saying:
“When you look completely at the totality of the circumstances, you have to ask yourself ‘Was that reasonable in that situation?’ and, based on everything, it was reasonable.”
A Florida high school student has been suspended after advertising two of his black female classmates on Craigslist as “Two Slaves for Sale” in an ad.
The unnamed senior male student, who attends Fleming Island High School in Fleming, Florida, reportedly posted the advertisement to Craigslist on Wednesday night with the following written in it: “Two healthy slave gals for sale. Good condition hard work ethic. If you need another pair of hands in the farm or house you are in luck.”
How the post came to light was through Lexis Potter, who came across it while looking for farm and garden items on Craigslist.
“I was searching through the farms and garden section of Craigslist and stumbled upon this,” Potter said to CBS47. “It’s a sick, disgusting ‘joke’ and a horrible reflection upon this school and students.”
The post was shared over a hundred times and ultimately ended up being seen by the black girls feature in the offensive picture and post.
“I’m just really aggravated and I’m surprised somebody would do that to me,” Thalia Solomon said.
Along with being suspended, the male students has also been relocated to an alternative school.
The Clay County school district issued a statement on the incident, saying: “We do not tolerate this type of behavior and we are disheartened that any of our students would be subject to discrimination. Fleming Island High School administration and district leadership are working together to create a schoolwide plan of action to strengthen the climate and culture while celebrating the school’s diversity.”
In related news, two months ago came video of a white student in North Carolina hurling racist remarks at his black classmate.
The altercation, which occurred at Wake Forest High School and was caught on video by student Tyler Goodell, shows 15-year-old Micah Speed grabbing Larry Walsh by his backpack and throwing him backward. As the student gets back up you can hear him say the words “You black piece of s**t,” to which Speed grabs Walsh again and throws him to the ground. A teacher intervenes shortly after this.
Speed was suspended following the fight, to which some of his classmates protested to show their support of him.
Arlene Barnum, who once lived in New Orleans but now resides in Oklahoma, has been in the former to protest the city’s removal of Jefferson Davis, who was the President of the Confederate States of America.
Barnum has stated that her race has nothing to do with the support of the Confederacy, but rather “about being on the right side of history.”
“I felt I needed to be at the [monument] for Jefferson Davis because he was the one and only president of the Confederate States of America,” Barnum said in an interview with WGNO. “He’s the most significant of all the monuments to be taken down.”
Barnum has been documenting her time in front of the statue alongside other protesters through Facebook live. The Davis statue is one of three remaining statues in New Orleans that is slated to be removed. The others are monuments of Gens. Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard.
Early Monday morning, city workers started working on taking the Liberty Monument down first. The Liberty Monument was made in 1891 to honor the Crescent City White League, an organization created in 1874 to turn Republicans out of office and intimidate freedmen from voting and political organizing.
“There’s a better way to use the property these monuments are on and a way that better reflects who we are,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said in an interview Sunday with the Associated Press.
“The monuments are an aberration,” Landrieu added. “They’re actually a denial of our history and they were done in a time when people who still controlled the Confederacy were in charge of this city, and it only represents a four-year period in our 1,000-year march to where we are today.”
New Orleans has begun its removal of several Confederate statues throughout the city, as a means of reflecting the progress it has made since its inception.
Early Monday morning city workers started working on taking the Liberty Monument down first. The Liberty Monument was made in 1891 to honor the Crescent City White League, an organization created in 1874 to turn Republicans out of office and intimidate freedmen from voting and political organizing.
The statue even has the following written on it: “United States troops took over the state government and reinstates the usurpers but the national election November 1876 recognized white supremacy in the south and gave us our state.”
After the Liberty Monument, other monuments such as those of Gens. Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard, as well as Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis, are slated to be removed in the following several days.
“There’s a better way to use the property these monuments are on and a way that better reflects who we are,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said in an interview Sunday with the Associated Press.
“The monuments are an aberration,” Landrieu added. “They’re actually a denial of our history and they were done in a time when people who still controlled the Confederacy were in charge of this city, and it only represents a four-year period in our 1,000-year march to where we are today.”
The decision to remove the statues has its share of both critics and supporters, which is why the city has not revealed further information about the remaining statues that will be taken down
After all the IMF is the ultimate “globalist” institution derided by Trump and his anti-foreign, trade-restricting supporters and advisers. Trump has already ditched the long-negotiated TransPacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal with 11 other nations in the region, is threatening to rip up other accords like the North-America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and has even hinted he may try to yank the United States out the 164-member World Trade Organization.
On the sidelines of the meeting, economists and policymakers wondered what Trump might do next on trade. The Wall Street types who also flock to the event seem especially freaked out about whether his stock market-boosting tax cut promises might be compromised for good after an embarrassing flop on healthcare.
Yet here was IMF Managing Director Cristine Lagarde trying to put a brave face on the whole thing: “I have every reason to believe that we will make progress, that we will cooperate all together.”
The statement came just days after Trump signed a “Buy American, Hire American” executive order that pretty much runs directly against the open trade credo that the IMF and the United States itself have championed for the last 80 years.
Meanwhile, the Fund itself pushed back against Trumpism in its April 2017 report on global financial stability. The report directly warned against Trump’s plans to slash tax rates for corporations.
“Cash flow from tax reforms may accrue mainly to sectors that have engaged in substantial financial risk taking,” the IMF said. “Such risk taking is associated with intermittent large destabilizing swings in the financial system over the past few decades.”
“Risks of an abrupt tightening in financial conditions and increased protectionism pose new challenges for policymakers,” the report added in another direct allusion to Trump.
But again, some top officials tried to downplay the extent of disagreements.
“Almost everybody underscored the importance of open markets and free market access,” German central bank governor Jens Weidmann said following meetings among finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations, which central bankers also attend. “That was the consensus.”
Germany has been one of many direct targets of Trump’s accusations of unfair trading behavior. His key economic advisor on trade, Peter Navarro, has accused Germany of manipulating interest rates and currency to gain a trade advantage, ignoring the salient fact that the country’s membership in the eurozone means monetary policy is set by the European Central Bank not the German Bundesbank.
Amid the noise, it’s important to recall that the IMF, set up in the post-war period, was devised and built by the United States and in large part to help American firms succeed internationally. The notion that it is somehow standing in the way of US interests is ludicrous on its face.
“With the world’s economic policy elite converging on Washington this week, it would be hard to find an institution that plays a greater role in supporting the economic and strategic interests of the United States than does the IMF,” argued Douglas Rediker, a former IMF board member and Heidi Crebo-Rediker, ex-chief economist at the US State Department in a recent Foreign Policy article.
Cuba Gooding Sr., the lead singer of The Main Ingredient, one of the most popular and beloved R&B groups of the ’70s, was found dead in Los Angeles this afternoon. He was 72.
The singer was found in his 2012 Jaguar on Ventura Blvd. around 1 p.m. According to The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office, there were several bottles of alcohol and drug paraphernalia inside of the vehicle. They are still investigating, but officials are leaning towards either a drug overdose or natural causes as the cause of death.
What makes matters even more unfortunate is that he would have been 73 next week.
