by duwaine smalling | Nov 17, 2017 | Dancehall, Music, News
Vybz Kartel highly anticipated appeal trial has been pushed back to a new date.
The dancehall artist’s appeal trial was originally set for February 19, 2018, but the case has been pushed back to July 9th next year. Vybz Kartel team of lawyers led by Tom Tavares-Finson filed a motion asking the appeal court judges for more time to prepare for the case. The motion was approved and a new date has been agreed upon. This means that the Gazanation deejay will have to wait an additional five months to know his fate.
Three weeks has been set aside for the July appeal trial where the defense will make its case that the artist was not given a fair trial due to the numerous issues with the case such as evidence tampering and witness intimidation. The prosecution team will also make their case for the conviction to stay in place by citing the numerous evidence against the four co-accused, Vybz Kartel, real name Adidja Palmer, Shawn “Storm” Campbell, Kahira Jones, and Andre St John.
All four men are serving life imprisonment with Vybz Kartel getting the longest sentence before he gets a parole hearing. He will have to serve at least 35 years and by that time he will be 72 years old. His dancehall protege Shawn Storm and close friend Kahira Jones will have to serve 25 years before parole, while St John will have to serve 15 years minimum. The four men have been behind bars since 2011 and were convicted in 2014, which means they would have already served six years. All four men have maintained their innocence.
Despite his incarceration for half a decade, Vybz Kartel continues to dominate dancehall with his music. At one point he was under investigation by the correctional department for illegally recording music in prison. But he is still putting out a consistent supply of new music.
by duwaine smalling | Nov 17, 2017 | Fashion, Hip Hop, Music, News
In recent months, there has been an onslaught of sexual harassment and assault allegations hovering over Hollywood as both women and men have come forward about their own traumatic experiences in the entertainment industry.
For The Hollywood Reporter’s latest actress roundtable, Mary J. Blige shared her experience growing up as a “tomboy” in the industry and the importance of women opening up about abuse. Blige says that while she herself hasn’t experienced sexual harassment in Hollywood — “I was always kind of like a tomboy and one of the guys”– she’s “happy” for the women who have shared their accounts of sexual harassment because it has allowed them to become free, and is optimistic about the future.
“I believe things will change because it’s making other women say, ‘Me too, me too,’ and that’s why it keeps happening every day,” she said. “And it will change things because people don’t want to be in bondage anymore.”
She admits that she concealed her femininity because of what she had experienced as a child and favored “baggier jeans and Timberlands” over more revealing clothes.
“It took me a very long time to even wear makeup and tight clothes because I’d been through so much,” she added, revealing that she still struggles with her own secrets, even though she opened up about being abused as a child on Oprah back in 2006.
“I’m happy that these women are hopefully free because it hurts,” she continued. “I’m happy people are being exposed and [are] exposing people.”
by duwaine smalling | Nov 17, 2017 | Hip Hop, Music, News
Meek Mill probation violation case gets more bizarre the more we learn about it.
Not only is the judge under investigation for corruption, but she also gave the rapper the okay to do business with a convicted felon, Charlie Mack, TMZ reported. Under the rules of his probation, Meek Mill cannot be around or do business with anyone who has been convicted of a crime. This means that judge Genece Brinkley broke protocol when she allowed the Philly rapper to do business with Mack who pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine back in 1997. He was sentenced to five years for the crime.
Thee are some reports claiming that Justice Brinkley tried to pressure Meek Mill to leave Roc Nation and sign with Charlie Mack as his manager. The rapper refused and she told him to “suit yourself.” The FBI is currently investigating whether or not she used her position of power to steer business towards Mack. Some excerpts from the January 2014 transcript revealed that Meek’s attorney at the time, Gary Silver, and prosecutor Noel DeSantis, going back and forth about the terms of his probation and whether or not he should be around convicted felons.
In the end, it was agreed upon and Meek signed parole documents that he cannot be around anyone who is convicted. But the judge made this one exception for him to do business with Charlie Mack. “Your Honor, [Meek]’s not supposed to be around anyone who is under supervision and be around known felons,” prosecutor Noel DeSantis said in court. “Your Honor made an exception back in the day with the management to Mr. Mac. That was the only exception that you made.”
Last week, Judge Genece Brinkley ruled that Meek Mill violated his probation this year when he was arrested twice. She sentenced him to serve 2-4 years in a state prison. The harsh sentence angered many of Meek’s supporters including some of his celebrity peers like Kevin Hart and JAY-Z.
Meek Mill Considering Applying for Pardon.
This might be a long shot, but Meek Mill and his attorneys are considering applying for a pardon to the governor of Pennsylvania. The judge is under corruption scrutiny but that may not help him get out of jail anytime soon, as far as we see it, he may end up spending the next 2-4 years behind bars.
There is no guarantee that he will even get an approval for a pardon before his sentence ends since it can take up to three years just to get approval. There is currently a petition calling for Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf to take a look at Meek Mill’s case and pardon him. The petition already has 300,000 plus signatures but there is one problem. The governor’s office is saying that he does not have the pardoning power to overrule the judge in the case.
by duwaine smalling | Nov 17, 2017 | Featured, Hip Hop, Music, News, Uncategorized
Recently, we premiered Chris Rivers’ intense video for “Fear Of My Crown,” and it’s safe to say it has recieved plenty of mixed reactions from his fans and his father Big Pun’s fans. The video highlights the painful reality of domestic violence victims, and how it can be passed down from generation to generation until someone is brave enough to stop it. After the video dropped, the overall meaning touched hearts everywhere, but it also led people to believe that the video was a literal reflection of Rivers’ childhood while growing up with his father Big Pun.
Rivers says that’s not the case at all. On the night before Pun’s birthday, Rivers took to Pun’s former producer Domingo’s Facebook page to clarify that “Fear Of My Crown” was not meant to depict his or his family’s life when Pun was alive and reiteraite the exact purpose of his “Fear Of My Crown” video.
“I want to first say that I’m super thankful for all of the positive feedback on all the people telling me [how much ‘Fear Of My Crown’] helped them,” Rivers said. “Really, we just wanted to raise awareness for domestic violence and other things like that: people that’s felt oppressed and people that felt like they couldn’t talk about this. This is why we do that. I always speak from a personal place, but I want to tell y’all that the video itself was not a depiction of my life. It wasn’t a depiction of my father. It wasn’t a depiction of my family. It was a depiction of abuse itself, and we’re trying to raise this awareness and we’re trying to bring it up. It’s been kind of marginalized, it’s been taken out of context, so I just wanted to clear the air real quick.”
On Pun’s birthday, Rivers dedicated a lengthy post to his pops and emphasized just how much he really means to him no matter what they’ve been through. Check out his full statement
