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Kylie Accused of Stealing Travis Scott From Justine Skye & KENDALL Jenner+Tyga Demands Dna Test?
Nas Says JAY-Z Was Aware of R. Kelly’s Pedophilia in Unearthed 2002 Interview
Things are getting more and more interesting a week following the premiere of the Surviving R. Kelly docuseries. Many people who have collaborated with the disgraced singer in the past have joined the #MuteRKelly movement, meanwhile, others assured that they been hopped on the wave decades ago when his pedophilia was made public knowledge.
JAY-Z was one of the people who opted to not participate in the documentary for whatever reason. According to an unearthed 2002 interview with Wendy Williams and Nas, Hov seen a “14-year-old girl come in the studio sit on R. Kelly’s lap” during the production of the Best of Both Worlds. Wendy agreed to say that anyone who has worked with him witnessed disgusting acts of sexual misconduct.
Dame Dash recently made headlines for claiming he was allegedly against his former artist collaborating with R. Kelly because of the nature of the relationship between his late fiance, Aaliyah, and Kells.
“I remember having the conversation with Aaliyah. And I was like ‘Yo, tell me what happened.’ And she was like ‘uh.’ She just couldn’t,” Dame said. “What you think I felt? I’m human, bro. I had to look the other way. All these years. Publicly, that man did a record with that n*gga that raped my girl, that he liked as well. But no one said nothing.”
Article via TheSource
50 Cent Continues Wendy Williams Outburst With “E.T.” Lookalike Photo
50 Cent will never stop trolling Wendy Williams.
50 Cent and Wendy Williams have a complicated history. The talk show host and the rapper have been at odds for as long as we can remember and recently, Fiddy has tried to catch her attention again. After their beef came to a standstill, 50 reignited the flame when he heard the rumors of Wendy’s husband having a baby with another woman. On top of all that, Kevin Hunter has reportedly been seeing his mistress for the last decade. Williams is currently on a hiatus from her show and she’s set to return next week but Curtis wanted to continue to kick her while she was down.
Perhaps the most savage man on the internet went in on Wendy Williams again, this time opting to compare her to everybody’s favorite extraterrestrial. Fiddy shared a side-by-side comparison of Wendy in a Brooklyn Nets cap next to E.T. trying to come across as a human woman. He fired off a few more shots this morning before deleting those and claiming that he’s off to a positive start of the day. Pure Jekyll and Hyde stuff.
The rapper’s fans are all for the incessant trolling. Given the comments being left on the photo of Wendy, he’s likely to continue going in on her. Do you think she’ll have something to say when she returns to her show?
Article via HotNewHipHop
Tidal Is Being Investigated For Allegedly Inflating Beyoncé’s And Kanye West’s Numbers
The investigation comes after a report that the streaming service was artificially boosting music play numbers by tens of millions.
Tidal is under criminal investigation in Norway for allegedly inflating streaming counts for new music by Beyoncé and Kanye West.
Dagens Næringsliv (DN), a Norwegian financial publication, first reported Monday that the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation And Prosecution of Economic And Environmental Crime, known as Økokrim, is probing the music streaming service, which is based in Norway. The agency confirmed the fraud investigation in a press release, adding that three Norwegian music companies had filed criminal complaints against Tidal last fall.
Tidal, however, denied that it is the target of the investigation.
“Tidal is not a suspect in the investigation,” a representative for the company said in a statement. “We are communicating with Økokrim.”
DN reported in May that Tidal allegedly inflated the number of times its users had streamed Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo by tens of millions of streams. University computer scientists confirmed DN’s report with a forensic analysis of Tidal’s data.
The newspaper reported that four former Tidal employees have been questioned so far as part of the investigation. Økokrim did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News’ request for comment.
DN, meanwhile, is hoping the legal power backing a government agency will force Tidal to be forthcoming.
“Tidal has throughout this never answered any concrete question about their streaming figures. These are questions the whole music industry want answers to. We’re eagerly waiting to know if Økokrim will get more answers from Tidal than we’ve been able to,” DN investigative editor Gry Egenes said in a statement.
Tidal, however, took aim at DN’s reporting methods.
“From the very beginning, DN has quoted documents that they have not shared with us in spite of repeated requests. DN has repeatedly made claims based on information we believe may be falsified,” a Tidal representative said in a statement. “We are aware that at least one person we suspected of theft has been questioned.”
Tidal launched an internal investigation, conducted by a third-party cybersecurity company, eight months ago, though the findings have not been made public. The streaming service has also been accused of paying royalties months late and lying about its total number of subscribers.
Tidal’s 2015 relaunch under Jay-Z’s ownership made a splash with A-list celebrity endorsements and the promise of higher-definition streaming and exclusive access to high-profile albums like The Life of Pablo. Since then, however, the company has failed to slow the momentum of Spotify and Apple Music, the two dominant players in streaming music.
Article via BuzzFeed
P&G’s Gillette ad asks men to shave their ‘toxic masculinity’ and a big backlash ensues
A 30-year-old tag line selling Gillette razors to men is having its own #MeToo moment, and some of its whiskered target audience and the women behind them are outraged that a big consumer brand stepped outside of grooming.
There’s little that bristles men, and many women, like trying to define manhood.
The Gillette brand that claims it’s “The Best A Man Can Get” this week launched a campaign around the sexual harassment movement, and with the idea of “toxic masculinity” already in the zeitgeist, the ad got plenty of response. Most came in a Twitter uproar and pledged product boycott, though included some observers — of all genders — saying the timing is right.
P&G said it has no plans to pull the spot in the face of some negative reaction, The Wall Street Journal reported. “We recognize it’s sparking a lot of passionate dialogue — at the same time, it’s getting people to stop and think about what it means to be our best selves, which is the point of the spot,” said Pankaj Bhalla, Gillette brand director for North America.
P&G shares were up slightly early Tuesday. The stock is down about 0.8% so far in January, but up over 1% for the past year.
The ad, created by the brand’s agency Grey and titled “We Believe,” opens with audio of news about the #MeToo movement, bullying and uses the hot-button phrase “toxic masculinity.” A narrator goes on to dispute the notion that “boys will be boys,” asking, “Is this the best a man can get? Is it? We can’t hide from it. It has been going on far too long. We can’t laugh it off, making the same old excuses.”
“The video is sad and depressing while putting ALL men in a bad light,” one Twitter user wrote. “Men aren’t just waking up to bad things that are going on. There have always been good men. Bad ones too, yes, but the same can be said about women.”
Article via MarketWatch
Resurfaced R. Kelly video proves singer knew Aaliyah’s age at 14
Clip appears to debunk earlier claims that Kelly was unaware Aaliyah was underage when they married
Footage has emerged that appears to incriminate R. Kelly for knowingly marrying Aaliyah when she was underage.
Kelly’s lawyer has in the past denied that his client knew that the late pop star, who died in a plane crash in 2001, was just 15 when they married in secret in 1994.
However, a documentary filmed earlier that same year hears Kelly discussing Aaliyah’s age as he worked on her debut album. Footage of Kelly in a recording studio is overlaid with a voice recording in which he says: “Right now I’m producing a very talented lady – a young lady. She’s 14, Aaliyah. She’s real street.”
Kelly and Aaliyah also appeared in a Video Soul interview later in 1994 where they were asked about the nature of their relationship. In the footage, Aaliyah refuses to tell host Leslie Segar her real age, saying that it’s “a secret”.
It was reported shortly after the interview that they married in an Illinois hotel room on August 31 1994. A Cook County marriage certificate that was published by Vibe magazine, The New York Times reports, listed Aaliyah’s age as 18. She would have been 15 years old at the time.
Kelly’s new attorney Steven Greenberg last week denied that his client knew of Aaliyah’s real age at the time of their illegal wedding, which was annulled a short time after.
The news comes in the wake of Lifetime’s recent docu-series Surviving R Kelly, which sees multiple women accuse Kelly of sexual abuse.
Kelly has denied these claims as he has done with numerous sexual misconduct allegations in the past but he issued a fresh denial through Greenberg last week.
According to TMZ, Chicago police officers have visited Kelly’s Trump Tower apartment to question two women over claims he was holding them against their will.
Last year, Kelly denied accusations of holding young women in an abusive cult.
Article via NME
‘Nothing to lose’: Saudi teen Rahaf Mohammed details family abuse
After gaining asylum in Canada, Rahaf Mohammed says she was exposed to violence and locked up for months in the kingdom.
Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, who was granted asylum in Canada, said she was physically and mentally abused by her family since the age of 16, forcing her to risk her life and flee the kingdom.
Speaking to the media for the first time since landing in Toronto on Saturday, the 18-year-old detailed the mistreatment by her family saying she hoped her story would encourage other Saudi women to be “brave and free”.
Last week, she fled to Thailand while visiting Kuwait with her family. Her case drew international attention on social media after she barricaded herself in a Bangkok airport hotel room after Thai authorities threatened to deport her and live-tweeted her desperate attempt to flee.
“My life was in danger and I felt I had nothing to lose. I wanted to tell people my story and about what happens to Saudi women,” she told Canada’s CBC news and the Toronto Star on Monday.
Mohammed, who has dropped “al-Qunun” from her name after learning about her family disowning her, said she was beaten up for not praying and locked in the house for six months for cutting her hair short.
“I was exposed to physical violence, persecution, oppression, threats to be killed,” she said. “I felt that I could not achieve my dreams that I wanted as long as I was still living in Saudi Arabia.
“It’s daily oppression,” Mohammed added. “We are treated as an object, like a slave. We could not make decisions about what we want.”
Following a 48-hour standoff at Bangkok’s airport, Mohammed was allowed to enter Thailand and was then processed as a refugee by the UN’s refugee agency.
The teenager claimed she had contemplated ending her life during the ordeal, as her father and brother travelled to retrieve her in Thailand.
“I was scared of being captured, arrested and sent back home, and no one would know anything about [me],” she said.
‘Born again’
On Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada had accepted a request from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to take in Mohammed.
Several other countries, including Australia, had been in talks with the UN’s refugee agency to accept the Saudi citizen before she flew to Canada.
She was welcomed by Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland at Toronto’s airport on Saturday.
“I feel very happy. I feel born again from feeling the love coming from everyone waiting for my arrival,” she said.
Mohammed told reporters she plans to learn English, rejoin school and find work in her adopted homeland.
She said she hopes that her story that has garnered international attention will be a catalyst for change in Saudi Arabia.
“I think the number of women fleeing from the Saudi administration and abuse will increase, especially since there is no system to stop them,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“I’m sure that there will be a lot more women running away … I hope my story prompts a change to the law, especially as it’s been exposed to the world.”
Article via Aljazeeria
US judge rules that feds can’t force fingerprint or face phone unlocks
All logins are equal, regardless of whether they’re a passcode or a biometric unlock.
Authorities can’t force people to unlock devices with their faces, fingers or irises, a magistrate judge from California has ruled. Forbes has uncovered a nine-page order denying the search warrant for an investigation looking into a Facebook extortion crime. While the judge admits that investigators were able to establish probable cause for the warrant, she called their request to unlock any phone on the premises with biometrics “overbroad.” The request wasn’t limited to a particular person or device, and authorities would’ve been able to get everyone in the house to open their devices.
Magistrate judge Kandis Westmore stressed that law enforcement doesn’t have the right to force people to unlock their phones even with a warrant, thereby declaring that biometrics are equal to passcodes. Courts commonly allow biometric unlocks, because judges don’t consider body parts “testimonial.” The reason being, people have to give up passwords and passcodes verbally and willingly, so they’re covered under the Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination. Westmore wrote in her ruling:
“If a person cannot be compelled to provide a passcode because it is a testimonial communication, a person cannot be compelled to provide one’s finger, thumb, iris, face, or other biometric feature to unlock that same device.
The undersigned finds that a biometric feature is analogous to the 20 nonverbal, physiological responses elicited during a polygraph test, which are used to determine guilt or innocence, and are considered testimonial.”
Westmore noted that “technology is outpacing the law” and that the government has other means to solve the case. In this particular instance, investigators can obtain Messenger communications from Facebook itself with a proper warrant under the Stored Communications Act. According to Forbes, Facebook had been willing to hand over messages to authorities for a significant number of previous cases, so there’s really no reason investigators can’t go that route. While Westmore’s decision is out of the norm and can still be overturned, EFF senior staff attorney Andrew Crocker said it’s worth noting that “courts are beginning to look at these issues on their own terms.”
Article via EnGadget
