music blog
Elon Musk’s First Grand Plan for Twitter? Charging $20 Per Month for a Blue Checkmark
It’s day three of Elon Musk’s reign over Twitter, and beyond seeing an influx of racists tweeting, one big development is Musk’s plan for verification. According to The Verge, Twitter will soon start charging users as much as $19.99 per month for that little blue check mark. Under the proposed plan, Twitter will make verification one of the core features of its premium subscription service, Twitter Blue. Current Twitter Blue subscribers pay $4.99 per month for features like an edit button, a custom reader mode, bookmarks, and more. Musk will reportedly triple the price with the added carrot of giving unverified users the opportunity of adding a blue checkmark next to their handles. Advertisement Related Video Existing verified users would have 90 days to subscribe to Twitter Blue or lose t...
Drake Makes Special Guest Appearance During Lil Wayne’s Lil WeezyAna Fest
Lil Wayne surprised fans with a special guest appearance from Drake during the former’s set at Lil WeezyAna Fest 2022. Taking place at Champions Square, Drizzy called New Orleans “one of the few cities that shaped my career” and proceeded to perform “She Will” with Weezy, “The Motto,” a bit of “In My Feelings” and other tracks such as “God’s Plan,” “Knife Talk,” “Jimmy Cooks” and “Nonstop.” In addition to Drake’s appearance, this year’s Lil WeezyAna Fest also saw the likes of Rick Ross, Babyface Ray, Cam’Ron and Quavo and Takeoff perform for Wayne’s annual festival, which has been on hiatus since 2020. Its 2019 edition featured Travis Scott, Megan Thee Stallion, Meek Mill, Saweetie and more. Watch the full festival above. Elsewhere in music, take a listen to the new posthumous Juice WRLD t...
Issa Rae, Spike Lee, ‘Wakanda Forever’ Cast Honored at Ebony Power 100 Gala
“Moving Black Forward” was the theme marking this year’s return of Ebony Media Group’s signature event, the Ebony Power 100. Personifying that mission in celebration of Black excellence were the special awards presented Saturday night (Oct. 29) at Milk Studios in Los Angeles. Among the honorees: Issa Rae, Spike Lee and the cast of the upcoming film sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Prior to the gala/special award presentations, Ebony Media Group had earlier announced its 100 Power honorees encompassing business, entertainment, science and technology. Among 2022’s Black trailblazers were artists Usher, Tems and H.E.R., Emmy Award-winning writer/producer Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary) and TikTok in...
Fans Choose BTS Member Jin’s ‘The Astronaut’ as This Week’s Favorite New Music
Jin‘s latest solo single “The Astronaut” has topped this week’s new music poll. Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Oct. 28) on Billboard, choosing the BTS superstar’s upbeat pop-rock song as their favorite new music release of the past week. “The Astronaut,” co-written by Jin and Coldplay, beat out new music by Rihanna (“Lift Me Up”), SZA (“Shirt”), Dove Cameron (“Bad Idea”), Polo G (“Bag Talk”), and others. Jin’s latest offering, which features the K-pop idol singing in both English and Korean, features wistful lyrics about a love that transcends earthly limitations. The track reveals the stadium-sized rock sound that Coldplay is known for as a perfect bed for Jin’s steady, soothing vocals. The singer’s past solo work (“Awake,” “Epiphany”) has proven that he can bring raw emotio...
Jack Harlow as ‘SNL’ Host: Watch His Monologue & All His Sketches
Jack Harlow pulled double duty as host and musical guest of SNL and was part of an episode with some of the most memorable sketches of this season of Saturday Night Live, so far. As host of Oct. 29’s Saturday Night Live, he set the scene for the night ahead with a laid-back monologue that showed he has no problem playing around and making fun of himself. Bringing up some of the top jokes about himself he’s seen on the internet, Harlow said, “One guy said, ‘I don’t know why y’all think Jack Harlow is so special. You can find somebody who looks like him at any local gas station.” “I’ve heard them say I look like ‘If you tried to draw Justin Timberlake from memory,’” he recalled. The rapper added, “I think my favorite one might be ‘Jack Harlow looks like the guy who rips the tickets in ...
Cardi B Wants a Third Kid: ‘I Can’t Wait’
Cardi B and Offset have two kids together, and Cardi seems to be planning for a third. Already a mom to 4-year-old Kulture and 1-year-old Wave, she mused over adding another baby to the family on Twitter Sunday (Oct. 30). Cardi shared three new photos of baby Wave with fans this weekend, gushing, “My son so fire.” “I can’t wait to get business finish and have my third,” the rapper revealed in her tweet. Fans left supportive messages in the comments, though some suggested that they’d really love to hear a new album before the Invasion of Privacy hitmaker focuses on expanding her family. “Nah sis, we need that album first!” one wrote. The hip-hop power couple, who got married in 2017 and had a few bumps in the road over the years, welcomed Kulture on July 10, 2018 and Wave on Sept. 4, 2021. ...
Use of N-Word Jumps 500% After Elon Musk Buys Twitter
Self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk officially bought Twitter on October 27th, and in the hours following the deal, a slew of bigoted troll accounts appeared to test the limits of his moderation policies. According to The Washington Post, in the 12 hours after Musk acquired Twitter, use of the N-word surged 500%. “Elon now controls twitter. Unleash the racial slurs. K—S AND N—–S,” one account said, using slurs for Jewish and Black people. “I can freely express how much I hate n—–s … now, thank you elon,” another said. One account, created this month, used a swastika as its profile picture and tweeted antisemitic memes alongside retweeting posts from Musk. Much of this hate speech was organized on platforms like 4chan, said the Network Contagion Research Institute, which anal...
Evan Peters Stayed in Character as Jeffrey Dahmer for Months While Shooting Netflix Show
Hollywood’s constant deluge of serial killer content stems from fascination: How could anyone drug, strangle, dismember, and cannibalize a fellow human being? That’s why when Evan Peters finally wrapped his head around it as he prepared to portray Jeffrey Dahmer in Ryan Murphy’s Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, he stayed in that place, remaining in character during the Netflix show’s six-month shoot. Peters and Murphy discussed the process of making the Milwaukee Monster biopic at a recent panel, Variety reports. After Murphy proclaimed that Peters “basically stayed in this character, as difficult as it was, for months,” the actor explained that he wore lead weights around his arms and lifts in his shoes to get Dahmer’s strangely proper physicality down. “He has a very straight ...
Free Thinker Kyrie Irving Stands By Suspect Tweet, Not Going To “Stand Down”
HipHopWired Featured Video CLOSE Source: Elsa / Getty Kyrie Irving is going to Kyrie Irving. The superstar NBA point guard with the questionable social media decision-making skills is mired in controversy due to one of his latest tweets, and apparently, he’s not backing down. In case you need to get up to speed, Irving shared a tweet on Thursday (Oct. 27) of ‘Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,’ with a link to purchase the film (it’s still up) and the doc is widely described as antisemitic, or at least per Rolling Stone. Considering the spiral everyone is witnessing with Kanye West due to his antisemitic rhetoric, the timing of the tweet couldn’t be any worse. Nets owner Joe Tsai took to Twitter the next day to essentially slam Irving for the tomfoolery, and the NBA would issue a st...
Diddy Dressed Up As Heath Ledger’s The Joker For Halloween, Twitter Approves
HipHopWired Featured Video CLOSE Source: @Diddy / Instagram You can tell that Sean “Diddy” Combs goes all in for Halloween. This year, the Hip-Hop mogul got dressed us as The Joker of Batman infamy, and he absolutely snapped. The man known as Love took his aesthetic cues from Heath Ledger’s version of the Clown Prince of Crime from The Dark Knight Rises. If you didn’t know it was Diddy, who wouldn’t know it was Diddy. Even crazy ass himself Tyler, The Creator was smiling in appreciation. “This is top tier,” said Tyler after bumping into Joker Diddy while in an SUV. The laugh does need a bit of work, though. And in other news, Diddy is now officially a billionaire—after replacing Kanye West on the list. Cold world. See more reactions below. 5. For any haters in the back…
Taylor Swift Scores 11th No. 1 Album With Midnights, Achieving Highest Sales in Almost 7 Years
Taylor Swift has, for the 11th time, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with massive first-week sales, Billboard reports. Midnights has sold more than a million copies since its release last Friday, including more than half a million vinyl sales, thanks in part to an array of sleeve designs that encouraged fans to purchase multiple copies. Its total of 1.578 million equivalent album units makes it the biggest-selling album in almost seven years, including the most physical sales since Luminate began tracking them in 1991. The last album to achieve larger first-week sales was Adele’s 25, which debuted with 3.482 million units in December of 2015. As of now, Swift ties Barbra Streisand for the most No. 1 albums among female artists. She is also the sixth musician with more than 10 N...
Tom Hanks Returns As David S. Pumpkins on SNL: Watch
Just in time for Halloween, David S. Pumpkins made his long-awaited return to Saturday Night Live. Tom Hanks made a surprise appearance on last night’s episode of SNL (Oct. 29th) to reprise the beloved character alongside his skeletal comrades played by Mikey Day and Bobby Moynihan. (SNL alum Moynihan also appeared earlier in the episode to reprise his Drunk Uncle character). Hanks previously portrayed David S. Pumpkins twice during SNL’s 42nd season in 2016. The success of the character led SNL to create an animated Halloween special that aired in 2017. However, because of Moynihan’s departure from the show following Season 43, there had not been another opportunity for Hanks to reprise the character — until last night. Related Video Below, you can watch SNL’s new David S. Pumpkins sketch...
