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50 Cent allegedly bailed out suspect accused of assaulting Rick Ross' son

50 Cent allegedly bailed out a 20-year-old man identified in police filings as Don Roberts, who is accused of pistol-whipping Rick Ross’ son, 21-year-old William Roberts III. The two rappers have been feuding since the late 2000s.

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Oct 22 • 8:24 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Hot 97 DJ Funkmaster Flex gets into fight at Knicks game

NEW YORK — Funkmaster “Funk” Flex was caught throwing down during the Knicks’ season-opening game at Madison Square Garden Tuesday night. Flex, a rapper and the long-running radio host of

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Oct 21 • 4:37 PM EDT • Entertainment • recorderonline.com
Why Coco Gauff’s appearance in Gunna’s ‘Pop It’ music video is much more than a serve

Her role in rapper Gunna's “Pop It” video emphasizes her celebrity across music and fashion as much as tennis.

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Oct 21 • 5:01 AM EDT • Sports • nytimes.com
Cardi B Is Using Her Music, Her Business and Her Politics to Express Herself

A shape-shifter with talent and personality to spare, the rapper keeps finding new ways to express herself.

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Oct 21 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • nytimes.com
Lil Jon recalls learning man who raised him isn’t his biological father

The rapper writes about the experience in his new memoir, “I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me.”

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Oct 20 • 1:26 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
You can still get into Macklemore’s sold-out Red Rocks Amphitheatre show for under $100

The Seattle rapper plays a sold-out show in Morrison on Oct. 22.

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Oct 19 • 5:11 PM EDT • Entertainment • syracuse.com
50 Cent Calls Cardi B a 'Hit,' Says She Escaped the 'Dead Hip-Hop Section'

The rapper and entertainment mogul chronicled Cardi's "bulletproof" rise from reality television to mainstream music.

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Oct 19 • 2:45 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Louisiana rapper Kevin Gates, friends hit the Cajundome and other live music in Acadiana this week

Looking for live music?

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Oct 15 • 10:15 AM EDT • Entertainment • theadvocate.com
Cardi B Turns 34 After Showing Her Four Kids a Life Beyond Luxury: ‘It's Not Always Disney’

Cardi B turns 34 on October 11, marking her first birthday as a mother of four. The rapper shares Kulture, 8, Wave, 5, and Blossom, ... Read More

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Oct 11 • 11:45 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Eminem appears on new track 'Madara' with rappers Ez Mil, Hideyoshi

DETROIT — Eminem appears on "Madara," a new track from Philippines-born rapper Ez Mil, released overnight on Friday, Oct. 9. "Madara" also features Tokyo rapper Hideyoshi and voice actor Neil

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Oct 9 • 1:25 PM EDT • Entertainment • recorderonline.com
A$AP Rocky Launches 4-Year Scholarship For First-Time Freshmen At Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment At Long Island University

Rapper and entrepreneur A$AP Rocky is paying it forward.

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Oct 7 • 1:44 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Celebrity birthdays for the week of Oct. 11-17 include Cardi B and Dominic West

Celebrities having birthdays during the week of Oct. 11-17 include rapper Cardi B, “The X-Files” creator Chris Carter and “The Wire” actor Dominic West. Rapper Eminem turns 54, singer Sammy...

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Oct 5 • 11:28 AM EDT • Entertainment • newstimes.com
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GloRilla expands her business brand with 'glam on demand' GloVerse

Memphis rapper GloRilla is expanding her business portfolio with GloVerse, which aims to help connect consumers with verified beauty professionals.

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Oct 5 • 10:54 AM EDT • Business • yahoo.com
Rapper Lucki alleged stabbed in bloody brawl outside ComplexCon

Video appears to show the rapper with a laceration below the jaw. At least four people were hurt in a knife attack, police said.

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Oct 4 • 9:50 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Rapper Lucki reportedly injured following confrontation at ComplexCon in L.A.

According to multiple sources, rapper Lucki was injured after a confrontation at ComplexCon, which is taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center. TMZ reports that Lucki was involved in…

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Oct 4 • 1:13 PM EDT • Entertainment • ktla.com
Zach Bryan wears 'Free Palestine' shirt at Robert Kraft's Gillette Stadium

Country music star Zach Bryan signaled his support with a 'Free Palestine' shirt at Robert Kraft's Gillette Stadium, a venue that recently banned rapper Macklemore over his efforts to do the same.

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Oct 3 • 2:35 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Ed Sheeran, Macklemore fallout shouldn't be personalized, Bono says

U2 frontman Bono has weighed in on the ongoing controversy involving Ed Sheeran after Macklemore was removed from the singer's tour when venues objected to the rapper's pro-Palestinian remarks.

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Oct 2 • 4:23 PM EDT • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
Entertainment: Hawaii featured in Awkwafina

We're getting our first look at a new docuseries from actress and rapper Awkwafina and The 99th Maui County fair is underway!

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Oct 2 • 12:50 PM EDT • Entertainment • hawaiinewsnow.com
Rapper Rick Ross arrested on domestic violence battery charge

Rick Ross has been arrested in Miami on two counts of felony battery, including one by strangulation, which allegedly involve domestic violence. The "Hustlin'" rapper, 50, was arrested around 5

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Oct 2 • 7:54 AM EDT • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
Macklemore announces his ‘Free Palestine’ tour dates sold out

Rapper Macklemore is thrilled that the “Free Palestine” tour he launched after being booted from Ed Sheeran’s lineup has sold out its upcoming shows overseas. “I’m honestly blown away. We

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Oct 1 • 3:56 PM EDT • Entertainment • thederrick.com
Rapper Rick Ross charged with battery after domestic violence accusation

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Rapper Rick Ross was arrested in Miami Beach early Thursday and charged with battery related to a domestic violence accusation, authorities said.

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Oct 1 • 3:53 PM EDT • Entertainment • indianagazette.com
Rapper Rick Ross charged with battery after domestic violence accusation

Authorities say rapper Rick Ross was arrested early Thursday in Miami Beach and charged with battery related to a domestic violence accusation. Online court records show Ross, whose legal name

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Oct 1 • 1:13 PM EDT • Entertainment • yakimaherald.com
Rapper Rick Ross charged with battery after domestic violence accusation

Authorities say rapper Rick Ross was arrested early Thursday in Miami Beach and charged with battery related to a domestic violence accusation. Online court records show Ross, whose legal name

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Oct 1 • 1:13 PM EDT • Entertainment • lancasteronline.com
Rapper Rick Ross charged with battery after domestic violence accusation

Authorities say rapper Rick Ross was arrested early Thursday in Miami Beach and charged with battery related to a domestic violence accusation. Online court records show Ross, whose legal name

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Oct 1 • 11:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • yakimaherald.com
Rapper Rick Ross charged with battery after domestic violence accusation

Authorities say rapper Rick Ross was arrested early Thursday in Miami Beach and charged with battery related to a domestic violence accusation. Online court records show Ross, whose legal name

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Oct 1 • 11:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • idahostatejournal.com
Rapper Rick Ross charged with battery after domestic violence accusation

Authorities say rapper Rick Ross was arrested early Thursday in Miami Beach and charged with battery related to a domestic violence accusation. Online court records show Ross, whose legal name

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Oct 1 • 11:03 AM EDT • Entertainment • caledonianrecord.com
Rapper Rick Ross arrested on domestic violence strangulation charge

Rick Ross has been arrested in Miami on two counts of felony battery, including one by strangulation, which allegedly involve domestic violence. The "Hustlin'" rapper, 50, was arrested around 6

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Oct 1 • 10:58 AM EDT • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
Bono Said When U2 Worked With Ed Sheeran on ‘Yours Eternally,’ Singer Asked, ‘You’re Not Going To Get Me Into Politics, Are You?’

The Rock Hall of Famer said he didn't want to "personalize" the recent fallout between Sheeran and Macklemore over the rapper's pro-Palestine statements.

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Oct 1 • 8:55 AM EDT • Politics • yahoo.com
Sean Combs' release pushed up, as report details pampered lifestyle

An earlier release date for Sean 'Diddy' Combs has been set, once again, just as an NBC News report claims the disgraced rapper and producer is living a pampered lifestyle in federal prison.

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Sep 30 • 5:16 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Diddy's rep responds to report alleging cellphone, alcohol use in prison

Sean "Diddy" Combs' representative has responded to reporting that alleges the rapper uses contraband electronics and alcohol in prison and also pays fellow inmates to perform duties for him.

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Sep 29 • 8:22 PM EDT • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
Wiz Khalifa to Perform at Champs Downtown

Rapper Wiz Khalifa is set to perform at Champs Downtown in State College, the sports bar and club announced on Instagram. The show at 7 p.m. on Oct. 1 is

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Sep 25 • 8:15 PM EDT • Entertainment • statecollege.com
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‘A Whole Lotta Politics’ — Rapper Quavo Reads Between the Lines While Backing Shedeur Sanders Over Deshaun Watson for Browns’ QB1

The Cleveland Browns spent an entire offseason putting Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders through a quarterback competition before ultimately handing Watson the job. Quavo does not sound convinced that the decision was based entirely on football.

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Sep 22 • 5:34 PM EDT • Politics • sports.yahoo.com
S.F.'s Portola Festival loses major performer days before event

British MC and rapper Skepta will no longer perform at the festival on Saturday, Sept. 26.

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Sep 21 • 9:11 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Ed Sheeran Clarifies Gaza Stance, Again Blames Venues for Kicking Macklemore Off Tour

Sheeran called what’s happening in Gaza “catastrophic, unjustifiable, and disproportionate” but did not take responsibility for the rapper being removed from the show

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Sep 20 • 10:02 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Ed Sheeran stadium drama turns to donations and humanitarian cooperation

(CNN) — On Wednesday, the rapper Macklemore said he would donate $1 million, his full net earnings from his now-truncated role on the Ed Sheeran tour, to six organizations that

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Sep 19 • 7:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • wxow.com
Sway Dasafo, award-winning British rapper, dies at 44

LOS ANGELES — Sway Dasafo, a pioneering British Ghanaian rapper known for his lyric storytelling and championing of British music, has died. He was 44. The rapper and producer's death

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Sep 18 • 4:59 PM EDT • Entertainment • recorderonline.com
The Strange New Politics of AI. Plus. . .

It’s Thursday, September 17. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Douglas Murray asks, why do we allow terrorists to die of old age? The American nonprofits backing Hamas. A conversation with Dara Horn and Coleman Hughes. And much more. But first: inside the unlikely coalition warning that AI may kill us all. Last week, an AI researcher named Jacob Coxon made headlines around the world after saying that he had resigned from Anthropic because he believes AI might cause human extinction—and his co-workers do, too. Unlike the rest of us, potentially, the story just won’t die. The Pro-Human Assembly, a conference held Tuesday in Washington, D.C., about the existential dangers of artificial intelligence, couldn’t have come at a better time—or with a more eclectic coalition. The Archbishop of San Francisco was there. So was Steve Bannon, screaming about the Chinese. Bernie Sanders did a quasi-dramatic reading of messages posted to an online forum by rogue AI agents. Ashley Judd paraphrased a graphic Andrea Dworkin quote for reasons that remain a mystery to me still. It was odd. People in the AI industry have talked openly about the possibility of this technology causing human extinction for years, but it hits differently in the wake of the Hugging Face incident. If you don’t know what that is, all the more reason to read my dispatch today. As the doomers see it, the best-case scenario is a future in which humans are basically kept as pets: well cared for, but with zero autonomy. The worst-case scenario, obviously, is the everyone dies thing. What should be done? I heard lots of ideas but no easy answers. There are currently zero federal regulations on AI, which is sort of strange even to think about. After all, we regulate microwaves, and the people running the microwave industry have never once refused to rule out the possibility that their products will end all human life on Earth. What I saw in D.C. left me even more convinced that you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who believes nothing should be done. You know, except for President Trump. — River Page River Page • Tech and Business [ The AI Doomers Have a Plan to Save Us. I Went to Find Out What It Is. ](https://www.thefp.com/p/the-ai-doomers-have-plan-save-bernie-sanders-bannon) Read story How Robert Kraft Made Macklemore a Martyr—and How to Better Fight Antisemitism On Monday, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and a group of other NFL owners banned Macklemore from performing at their stadiums after the rapper delivered a “Free Palestine” speech while opening for Ed Sheeran. Kraft cited the rapper’s “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery.” Once multiple venues refused to host shows with Macklemore on the lineup, the tour’s promoter officially dropped him. Today, Josh Kaplan says that the move was counterproductive, arguing that though well-intentioned, Kraft’s decision turned an irrelevant footnote into a martyr. “You cannot cancel people into liking you,” Josh writes. Read his column on what a better response to Macklemore would have looked like. Read [ Robert Kraft Made Macklemore a Martyr ](https://www.thefp.com/p/robert-kraft-made-macklemore-martyr-antisemitism-palestine) This raises the question: What actually works against antisemitism? On the latest episode of Conversations with Coleman, recorded in front of a live audience in New York, Dara Horn joins Coleman Hughes to talk about her new book The Final Solution to the Jewish Question. She argues that antisemitism is a script that has repeated itself across countries and ideologies, and that most people don’t understand that well enough to fight it. Don’t miss their conversation. Watch [ The Lie at the Center of Antisemitism, with Dara Horn ](https://www.thefp.com/p/the-lie-at-the-center-of-antisemitism-coleman-hughes-dana-horn) Listen now Douglas Murray • U.S. Politics [ Douglas Murray: The 9/11 Failure That Still Haunts America ](https://www.thefp.com/p/douglas-murray-911-failure-justice-terrorist-guantanamo-bay) Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, the men who planned them have still not faced trial. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and most of the accused have been locked up in Guantanamo Bay since 2002. Judges have retired, and plea deals have collapsed. Today, Douglas Murray examines how this happened and argues that a justice system that allows terrorists to die of old age in an interminable pretrial process is one that has failed. Read his latest column on what that failure says about our unpreparedness for the era we are now living in. Read story The Editors • U.S. Politics [ When Nonprofits Support Terrorists ](https://www.thefp.com/p/when-nonprofits-support-terrorists) A newly declassified CIA brief from 1998 found that Osama bin Laden used nonprofit shell organizations—including U.S.-based Islamic groups—to fund his terror plots. Today, a similar story is unfolding as multiple organizations on American soil present themselves as nonprofits, taking advantage of tax-exempt status while seeking to advance the ideological mission of terrorist groups like Hamas. Read our editorial on the latest evidence of this dangerous trend—and why there’s no excuse for making the same mistake the CIA revealed 28 years ago. Read story Simon Sebag Montefiore and Bari Weiss Live in New York For decades, the Middle East has shaped American foreign policy and loomed large in the public consciousness. Few understand its influence on our politics better than Simon Sebag Montefiore, who argues that America’s quagmires in the Middle East stem from a deep misunderstanding of the region—on both the left and the right. Join him October 1 as he sits down with Bari Weiss live in New York City to kick off his U.S. book tour for The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East. Get Tickets Now MORE FROM THE FREE PRESS [ Sydney Sweeney’s Naked Truth ](https://www.thefp.com/p/sydney-sweeneys-naked-truth-caitlin-flanagan) Caitlin Flanagan Read story [ I Thought Ukraine Was Losing. Then I Was Almost Hit by a Russian Drone. ](https://www.thefp.com/p/elliot-ackerman-ukraine-drone-gas-station-train) Elliot Ackerman Read story [ The Dangerous Ideology Behind the AI Warnings ](https://www.thefp.com/p/dangerous-ideology-effective-altruism-artificial-intelligence) Shyam Sankar Read story [ Amanda Knox: Patrick Clancy Can’t Win ](https://www.thefp.com/p/amanda-knox-patrick-clancy-grief-internet-crime) Amanda Knox Read story THE NEWS The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter point, its first hike since 2023, signaling that another increase could follow as the central bank tries to bring inflation under control. President Donald Trump fired back by demanding that rates be cut sharply, though he stopped short of criticizing Fed Chair Kevin Warsh by name. The Houthis fired drones and missiles at Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, including a major oil port on the Red Sea, and Saudi jets struck back with air strikes across Yemen in an escalating front of the Middle East war. (For more on the Houthis, read Zineb Riboua’s column from earlier this week.) A sweeping Russia and Iran sanctions bill passed the House in a 262–159 vote and is now heading to Trump for his signature. Named after the late senator Lindsey Graham, the legislation would hit countries that purchase large volumes of Russian oil and gas with tariffs of up to 100 percent, and is aimed at cutting off revenue that funds Russia’s war in Ukraine. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen proposed making Canada the European Union’s first-ever “associate member,” drawing a standing ovation from European lawmakers. The proposal, framed as a response to a world grown more hostile, faces an uncertain path as EU member states would have to approve it, and one diplomat said that “nobody really ​knows what it means.” The House voted unanimously to send billionaire Leon Black a criminal contempt referral after he defied a congressional subpoena to testify and hand over documents related to his connections to Jeffrey Epstein. Black chose to fight the subpoena in court rather than comply. Charlie Kirk’s family filed a wrongful death notice Wednesday against Utah Valley University, alleging that a series of security failures left him exposed to a rooftop sniper. The notice is a required legal step before the family can sue. Merriam-Webster added 1,400 words and definitions to its dictionary, including looksmaxxing, vibe coding, and cuffing season. The publisher said the new entries offer “a window into the world today.” The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through all book links in this article.

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Sep 17 • 6:03 AM EDT • Politics • thefp.com
Macklemore donating $1 million in Ed Sheeran tour earnings

The Seattle rapper challenged New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft to match his donation.

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Sep 16 • 6:56 PM EDT • Entertainment • yakimaherald.com
Dumping Macklemore from his tour makes apolitical Ed Sheeran political

Apolitical singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is on the defense since Monday when Seattle rapper Macklemore announced that he had been dropped from Sheeran’s “Loop” tour.

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Sep 16 • 5:29 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Dumping Macklemore from his tour makes apolitical Ed Sheeran political

Apolitical singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is on the defense since Monday when Seattle rapper Macklemore announced that he had been dropped from Sheeran’s “Loop” tour.

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Sep 16 • 5:29 PM EDT • Politics • latimes.com
What to know about Ed Sheeran's tour after Macklemore was cut

Sheeran's tour has been roiled by the decision this week to drop Macklemore as an opener because of the rapper's onstage pro-Palestinian comments

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Sep 16 • 1:29 PM EDT • Entertainment • spectrumlocalnews.com
What to know about Ed Sheeran's tour after Macklemore was cut

Sheeran's tour has been roiled by the decision this week to drop Macklemore as an opener because of the rapper's onstage pro-Palestinian comments

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Sep 16 • 1:29 PM EDT • Entertainment • spectrumlocalnews.com
More artists drop out of Ed Sheeran's tour in solidarity with rapper Macklemore

Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, Denmark's Lukas Graham, and Finneas posted separately on social media that they would withdraw from the tour.

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Sep 15 • 5:31 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Ed Sheeran addresses Macklemore removal from tour after Palestine comments

NEW YORK — Ed Sheeran is speaking out after Macklemore was pulled as the supporting act on his tour following comments the rapper made about Palestine. According to the headliner,

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Sep 15 • 4:23 PM EDT • Entertainment • recorderonline.com
Ed Sheeran says dropping Macklemore was ‘promoter’s decision’

Ed Sheeran has addressed the removal of Seattle rapper Macklemore as his opening act after the rapper made pro-Palestinian comments during a performance.

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Sep 15 • 1:16 PM EDT • Entertainment • seattletimes.com
Ed Sheeran says dropping Macklemore over rapper's pro-Palestinian comments was 'promoter’s decision'

Ed Sheeran has addressed the removal of rapper Macklemore as his opening act after the rapper made pro-Palestinian comments during a performance | KCBS All News 106.9FM and 740AM

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Sep 15 • 1:15 PM EDT • Entertainment • audacy.com
Rapper Santy Sharma Makes Viral Joke And Meme About The New iPhone Duo’s Insane Price Tag

After Apple announced the iPhone Duo, it's first foldable phone, Indian rapper Santy Sharma posted an AI-generated image of himself holding the smartphone and a scar on his stomach, implying he would ...

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Sep 15 • 10:31 AM EDT • Technology • sg.news.yahoo.com
Rapper Santy Sharma Makes Viral Joke And Meme About The New iPhone Duo’s Insane Price Tag

After Apple announced the iPhone Duo, it's first foldable phone, Indian rapper Santy Sharma posted an AI-generated image of himself holding the smartphone and a scar on his stomach, implying he would ...

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Sep 15 • 10:31 AM EDT • Technology • yahoo.com
Prominent Greek neo-Nazi exits prison and vows return to politics

Kassidiaris was serving a 13-year sentence as a senior figure in the criminal organisation, linked for years to attacks on migrants and political opponents and to the 2013 murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas.

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Sep 15 • 7:55 AM EDT • Politics • euronews.com
Macklemore says he's off Ed Sheeran tour after Robert Kraft pressure

Macklemore said he's off Ed Sheeran's tour after pressure from billionaire Robert Kraft over comments the rapper made onstage.

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Sep 15 • 1:25 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Ed Sheeran drops Macklemore from tour after ‘free Palestine’ remark

SEATTLE — Macklemore has been dropped from the rest of Ed Sheeran’s tour after several venues said they wouldn’t allow the Seattle rapper to play, according to Sheeran’s tour promoter.

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Sep 14 • 10:57 PM EDT • Entertainment • thederrick.com
Macklemore breaks silence on being dropped from Ed Sheeran’s tour after onstage pro-Palestine statements

The rapper was previously criticized by the singer Pink.

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Sep 14 • 1:39 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Popular young rapper dead at 22 after being ambushed by six gunmen. Here’s the latest

More than 50 shots were fired in the incident.

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Sep 14 • 5:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • pennlive.com
Chief Keef Postpones First Chicago Show in Over a Decade

The rapper’s homecoming concert has been pushed back to September 23

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Sep 13 • 6:20 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Shbash Distills Hustle To a Science on New Trap Single ‘System’

Jordanian-Palestinian rapper Shbash turns his work ethic into a deliberate science on new, high-impact trap single ‘System’, released via 5njoom.

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Sep 12 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • scenenoise.com
Rapper Lil Durk acquitted of murder-for-hire at Los Angeles trial

A federal jury has found rapper Lil Durk not guilty of attempted murder for hire of rival rapper Quando Rondo.

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Sep 11 • 10:38 PM EDT • Entertainment • seattletimes.com
Rapper Lil Durk acquitted of murder-for-hire at Los Angeles trial

A federal jury has found rapper Lil Durk not guilty of attempted murder for hire of rival rapper Quando Rondo | WWL

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Sep 11 • 10:34 PM EDT • Entertainment • audacy.com
😐 Neutral (18%)
Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk found not guilty in murder-for-hire trial

Lil Durk, the Grammy-winning rapper born Durk Banks, has been acquitted on all charges in a federal murder-for-hire case in Los Angeles.

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Sep 11 • 8:31 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
‘Tired of politics’: By GOP convention’s end, even Trump had tapped out

DALLAS — President Donald Trump walked a tightrope this week, awkwardly balancing the political with the solemn. By the end, it all seemed too much, even for America’s ultimate political scrapper. Trump spent two days here in full campaigner-in-chief mode in front of an adoring audience inside the American Airlines Center in Dallas, headlining both […]

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Sep 11 • 12:40 PM EDT • Politics • rollcall.com
The Cost of Cutting American Science: How Federal Cuts Diminish Public Health Capacity

Among the federal government’s many responsibilities is the work it does to protect public health. Federal agencies monitor our food supply to ensure safety, conduct research to better understand emerging health threats, provide funding for public health programs in communities and work to detect and respond to disease outbreaks. Americans rely on these efforts every day—in a 2024 online survey, 74% of respondents said that “if the federal government issued safety guidance about food you eat regularly,” they would follow it. Changes to Federal Public Health Capacity The Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal government have resulted in significant impacts on our nation’s public health capacity over the past 20 months, affecting the response to health concerns such as measles, Ebola and cyclosporiasis. Agencies with core public health, food safety and disease prevention responsibilities experienced large workforce decreases during the first year of the administration. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, the workforce in February 2026 was 26.7% smaller than in September 2024 before the start of the Trump administration. The Food and Drug Administration saw a similarly steep decline of 21.6%. Agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Food Safety and Inspection Service also experienced large workforce decreases. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); Changes can also be seen in crucial public health occupations. The number of federal food inspectors, for example, decreased by more than half between September 2024 and February 2026, going from 1,035 to 473. This is the lowest number of food inspectors employed by the federal government since at least 2005. By February 2026, there were also 33.3% fewer federal public health program specialists, whose work includes advising federal funding recipients on public health activities and analyzing the effectiveness of public health programs. Government’s capacity is diminished as employees with specialized knowledge and experience in protecting the public and responding to health risks depart, leaving agencies less prepared to carry out their public health missions. There also have been vacancies in critical high-level leadership positions at public health agencies, most notably at the CDC, which had a permanent Senate-confirmed director for less than a month between January 2025 and early August 2026. Although the CDC has previously been led by acting directors at the start of an administration, the nearly yearlong gap since the departure of the administration’s first permanent director in August 2025 is without precedent. As of August 2026, the FDA is also currently without a Senate-confirmed commissioner following the previous commissioner’s resignation in May 2026. Additionally, public health agencies are experiencing increased politicization of their leadership ranks. In agencies such as the CDC and Food Safety and Inspection Service, the number of individuals in the Senior Executive Service—the most senior career leaders in government—has declined significantly, while at the same time the number of political appointees has reached record levels. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); At the CDC, for example, the number of career SES decreased 42.9% between December 2024 and February 2026, while the number of non-Senate confirmed political appointees at the agency was six times larger than the agency’s historical average from 2009 and 2024. Knowledgeable career leaders are integral to the ability of public health agencies to carry out their work with scientific integrity and professional judgment, and rapid leadership turnover and increased politicization threaten agencies’ ability to make evidence-based decisions to protect our health. The upheaval and politicization in public health agencies have also negatively affected employee engagement. Strong employee engagement is crucial to the ability of agencies to carry out their mission and successfully provide essential services to the public. In the 2025 Public Service Viewpoint Survey conducted by the Partnership for Public Service, the Department of Health and Human Services—which encompasses major public health agencies such as the CDC and FDA—had an employee engagement and satisfaction score of 20.4 out of 100, one of the lowest among large agencies. Only 2.8% of HHS employees indicated trust in their political leaders and only 8.7% reported confidence that they could report a suspected violation of law or regulation without retaliation. Employees at HHS also reported that the agency’s ability to provide services to the public had suffered. Nearly half of employees at HHS, 47.5%, said their work unit was worse at delivering quality services compared to its performance in 2024. In addition, 57.8% said their work unit was performing worse at fulfilling stakeholder needs. In addition to the work done within federal agencies, the federal government also distributes significant funding for public health and disease prevention work to state and local governments, nonprofits and small businesses—funding which has been significantly disrupted. At the CDC, for example, there was a 71.9% decrease in the amount of project grant funding issued in fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2024. The FDA also issued far less funding in fiscal year 2025—a 21.3% decrease from its fiscal year 2024 funding. Changes in federal funding include the ending of grants to community organizations that worked on HIV prevention and the cancellation of funding for research into improvements to patient safety and healthcare quality. These changes go beyond federal agencies to impact the broader public health ecosystem, including the state and local health departments responsible for much of the on-the-ground public health work in their communities. About 80% of the CDC’s domestic funding is directed towards state and local partners—meaning that cuts to CDC funding can ultimately result in cuts to state and local public health capacity. Federal agencies also provide expertise and assistance to state and local health agencies as they deal with particular health challenges, but workforce cuts have resulted in fewer federal employees available to help. The Impact of Changes to Public Health Capacity These changes to federal public health capacity are not abstract concerns. Disrupted programs, reduced funding and lost expertise at public health agencies across all levels of government threaten the public’s physical well-being and safety. In some cases, this has already led to harm. The most immediate impacts of federal cuts were seen in interruptions to ongoing public health programs and crisis responses. In one instance, when CDC grants were canceled during the 2025 Texas measles outbreak—the most severe measles outbreak in 25 years—public health officials in Lubbock, Texas were forced to pause parts of their measles response work supported by the frozen funding. Lubbock’s director of public health further said that a lack of available CDC experts to reach out to for advice “definitely” impacted the department’s response to the measles crisis. Cuts to federal funding also forced Dallas County Health and Human Services to cut staff and cancel 50 community vaccination clinics during the outbreak. Public health work outside of major outbreak responses was also disrupted. For example, in April 2025, the Milwaukee Public Health Department was unexpectedly unable to reach experts on lead poisoning due to firings at the CDC when responding to concerns about lead contamination in Milwaukee public schools. Due to federal workforce cuts, several programs at the CDC, including Alzheimer’s and epilepsy programs, have also become trapped in limbo—existing on paper, but without the staff necessary to operate. More recent crises reveal how federal cuts have weakened the public health infrastructure needed to prevent and respond to dangerous new outbreaks. Internationally, cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development eliminated funding for disease testing and contact tracing abroad, which delayed detection of and responses to the 2026 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While international outbreaks may seem far removed, the unchecked spread of disease in any country can quickly pose a danger to economic well-being, security and health around the world. Within the United States, public health cuts inhibited responses to the summer 2026 outbreak of the food-borne parasite cyclospora. At the federal level, cuts to funding for lab equipment and for CDC staff with expertise in parasitic infections—including 9 out of 11 staff members at the lab responsible for identifying parasitic outbreaks in 2025— contributed to the largest reporting delay in outbreak cases at the CDC in 15 years. Conflicting communications from the FDA about the source of the outbreak, which followed cuts to the agency’s communications department, additionally led to confusion among the public about how to best avoid infection. At the same time, cuts to HHS funding and support for local and state public health slowed some health departments’ responses to the crisis. The exact costs of these delays, constraints and confusion in public health responses are difficult to estimate. However, their message is clear: federal cuts have already made containing threats to public health even more of a challenge. Conclusion Protecting public health—from food safety to disease prevention—is one of the federal government’s most important missions. Dramatic and haphazard cuts to federal agencies and funding have already disrupted the public health system, impacting the response to challenges such as measles, lead poisoning and cyclosporiasis. The U.S. public health system needed improvement before these disruptions. Since 2022, federal leadership and coordination in response to public health outbreaks has been on the Government Accountability Office’s High-Risk List of areas in need of attention to improve government effectiveness and efficiency. Recent cuts only compound these concerns. The chaotic dismantling of government and resulting disruptions to crucial functions like public health and disease prevention highlight the need for meaningful reform and concrete policy proposals to reimagine how government can better serve the public and be more effective, responsive and accountable. To learn more about the impact of federal cuts to public health and science more broadly, visit The Cost of Cutting American Science. Learn more For more information on the Partnership for Public Service’s government reform initiative, visit Government for a New Era. View here In line with The Cost of Cutting American Science, federal workforce data in this brief is as of February 2026

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Sep 9 • 9:00 AM EDT • Science • ourpublicservice.org
The Cost of Cutting American Science: How Federal Cuts Diminish Public Health Capacity

Among the federal government’s many responsibilities is the work it does to protect public health. Federal agencies monitor our food supply to ensure safety, conduct research to better understand emerging health threats, provide funding for public health programs in communities and work to detect and respond to disease outbreaks. Americans rely on these efforts every day—in a 2024 online survey, 74% of respondents said that “if the federal government issued safety guidance about food you eat regularly,” they would follow it. Changes to Federal Public Health Capacity The Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal government have resulted in significant impacts on our nation’s public health capacity over the past 20 months, affecting the response to health concerns such as measles, Ebola and cyclosporiasis. Agencies with core public health, food safety and disease prevention responsibilities experienced large workforce decreases during the first year of the administration. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, the workforce in February 2026 was 26.7% smaller than in September 2024 before the start of the Trump administration. The Food and Drug Administration saw a similarly steep decline of 21.6%. Agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Food Safety and Inspection Service also experienced large workforce decreases. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); Changes can also be seen in crucial public health occupations. The number of federal food inspectors, for example, decreased by more than half between September 2024 and February 2026, going from 1,035 to 473. This is the lowest number of food inspectors employed by the federal government since at least 2005. By February 2026, there were also 33.3% fewer federal public health program specialists, whose work includes advising federal funding recipients on public health activities and analyzing the effectiveness of public health programs. Government’s capacity is diminished as employees with specialized knowledge and experience in protecting the public and responding to health risks depart, leaving agencies less prepared to carry out their public health missions. There also have been vacancies in critical high-level leadership positions at public health agencies, most notably at the CDC, which had a permanent Senate-confirmed director for less than a month between January 2025 and early August 2026. Although the CDC has previously been led by acting directors at the start of an administration, the nearly yearlong gap since the departure of the administration’s first permanent director in August 2025 is without precedent. As of August 2026, the FDA is also currently without a Senate-confirmed commissioner following the previous commissioner’s resignation in May 2026. Additionally, public health agencies are experiencing increased politicization of their leadership ranks. In agencies such as the CDC and Food Safety and Inspection Service, the number of individuals in the Senior Executive Service—the most senior career leaders in government—has declined significantly, while at the same time the number of political appointees has reached record levels. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); At the CDC, for example, the number of career SES decreased 42.9% between December 2024 and February 2026, while the number of non-Senate confirmed political appointees at the agency was six times larger than the agency’s historical average from 2009 and 2024. Knowledgeable career leaders are integral to the ability of public health agencies to carry out their work with scientific integrity and professional judgment, and rapid leadership turnover and increased politicization threaten agencies’ ability to make evidence-based decisions to protect our health. The upheaval and politicization in public health agencies have also negatively affected employee engagement. Strong employee engagement is crucial to the ability of agencies to carry out their mission and successfully provide essential services to the public. In the 2025 Public Service Viewpoint Survey conducted by the Partnership for Public Service, the Department of Health and Human Services—which encompasses major public health agencies such as the CDC and FDA—had an employee engagement and satisfaction score of 20.4 out of 100, one of the lowest among large agencies. Only 2.8% of HHS employees indicated trust in their political leaders and only 8.7% reported confidence that they could report a suspected violation of law or regulation without retaliation. Employees at HHS also reported that the agency’s ability to provide services to the public had suffered. Nearly half of employees at HHS, 47.5%, said their work unit was worse at delivering quality services compared to its performance in 2024. In addition, 57.8% said their work unit was performing worse at fulfilling stakeholder needs. In addition to the work done within federal agencies, the federal government also distributes significant funding for public health and disease prevention work to state and local governments, nonprofits and small businesses—funding which has been significantly disrupted. At the CDC, for example, there was a 71.9% decrease in the amount of project grant funding issued in fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2024. The FDA also issued far less funding in fiscal year 2025—a 21.3% decrease from its fiscal year 2024 funding. Changes in federal funding include the ending of grants to community organizations that worked on HIV prevention and the cancellation of funding for research into improvements to patient safety and healthcare quality. These changes go beyond federal agencies to impact the broader public health ecosystem, including the state and local health departments responsible for much of the on-the-ground public health work in their communities. About 80% of the CDC’s domestic funding is directed towards state and local partners—meaning that cuts to CDC funding can ultimately result in cuts to state and local public health capacity. Federal agencies also provide expertise and assistance to state and local health agencies as they deal with particular health challenges, but workforce cuts have resulted in fewer federal employees available to help. The Impact of Changes to Public Health Capacity These changes to federal public health capacity are not abstract concerns. Disrupted programs, reduced funding and lost expertise at public health agencies across all levels of government threaten the public’s physical well-being and safety. In some cases, this has already led to harm. The most immediate impacts of federal cuts were seen in interruptions to ongoing public health programs and crisis responses. In one instance, when CDC grants were canceled during the 2025 Texas measles outbreak—the most severe measles outbreak in 25 years—public health officials in Lubbock, Texas were forced to pause parts of their measles response work supported by the frozen funding. Lubbock’s director of public health further said that a lack of available CDC experts to reach out to for advice “definitely” impacted the department’s response to the measles crisis. Cuts to federal funding also forced Dallas County Health and Human Services to cut staff and cancel 50 community vaccination clinics during the outbreak. Public health work outside of major outbreak responses was also disrupted. For example, in April 2025, the Milwaukee Public Health Department was unexpectedly unable to reach experts on lead poisoning due to firings at the CDC when responding to concerns about lead contamination in Milwaukee public schools. Due to federal workforce cuts, several programs at the CDC, including Alzheimer’s and epilepsy programs, have also become trapped in limbo—existing on paper, but without the staff necessary to operate. More recent crises reveal how federal cuts have weakened the public health infrastructure needed to prevent and respond to dangerous new outbreaks. Internationally, cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development eliminated funding for disease testing and contact tracing abroad, which delayed detection of and responses to the 2026 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While international outbreaks may seem far removed, the unchecked spread of disease in any country can quickly pose a danger to economic well-being, security and health around the world. Within the United States, public health cuts inhibited responses to the summer 2026 outbreak of the food-borne parasite cyclospora. At the federal level, cuts to funding for lab equipment and for CDC staff with expertise in parasitic infections—including 9 out of 11 staff members at the lab responsible for identifying parasitic outbreaks in 2025— contributed to the largest reporting delay in outbreak cases at the CDC in 15 years. Conflicting communications from the FDA about the source of the outbreak, which followed cuts to the agency’s communications department, additionally led to confusion among the public about how to best avoid infection. At the same time, cuts to HHS funding and support for local and state public health slowed some health departments’ responses to the crisis. The exact costs of these delays, constraints and confusion in public health responses are difficult to estimate. However, their message is clear: federal cuts have already made containing threats to public health even more of a challenge. Conclusion Protecting public health—from food safety to disease prevention—is one of the federal government’s most important missions. Dramatic and haphazard cuts to federal agencies and funding have already disrupted the public health system, impacting the response to challenges such as measles, lead poisoning and cyclosporiasis. The U.S. public health system needed improvement before these disruptions. Since 2022, federal leadership and coordination in response to public health outbreaks has been on the Government Accountability Office’s High-Risk List of areas in need of attention to improve government effectiveness and efficiency. Recent cuts only compound these concerns. The chaotic dismantling of government and resulting disruptions to crucial functions like public health and disease prevention highlight the need for meaningful reform and concrete policy proposals to reimagine how government can better serve the public and be more effective, responsive and accountable. To learn more about the impact of federal cuts to public health and science more broadly, visit The Cost of Cutting American Science. Learn more For more information on the Partnership for Public Service’s government reform initiative, visit Government for a New Era. View here In line with The Cost of Cutting American Science, federal workforce data in this brief is as of February 2026

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Sep 9 • 9:00 AM EDT • Health • ourpublicservice.org
Wisconsin alum, rapper Yung Gravy supports local business during Badgers vs Notre Dame game

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – Matthew Hauri, better known by his stage and rapper name Yung Gravy, made an appearance in Green Bay over the weekend to support Wisconsin, his alma mater, in their g…

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Sep 8 • 1:34 PM EDT • Business • wearegreenbay.com
Macklemore says 'Free Palestine' call was not an attack on Jewish people

Some ticket buyers called for the rapper to be removed from the tour after he made the comments.

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Sep 8 • 8:19 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
T-Pain sues Akon’s record label, claiming unpaid royalties

Atlanta rapper T-Pain is suing Konvict Entertainment, the record label co-founded in Georgia by singer Akon, claiming almost $500,000 in unpaid royalties from music sales.

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Sep 8 • 5:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • ajc.com
Michael Rapaport slams 'clown' Macklemore for anti-Israel performance

Michael Rapaport called Macklemore a "clown" after the rapper chanted "Free Palestine" and performed "Hind's Hall" at Ed Sheeran's MetLife shows.

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Sep 6 • 7:53 PM EDT • Entertainment • foxnews.com
Ye brings out Big Sean in Chicago, marking reconciliation for pair

DETROIT — Ye brought out Big Sean to perform with him at his concert in Chicago on Thursday marking a public reconciliation of the pair after the rapper formerly known

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Sep 4 • 11:45 AM EDT • Entertainment • recorderonline.com
August Monthly Review: ChatGPT In Epic

Death, taxes, another frontier lab healthcare launch inspiring truly insane LinkedIn takes. As much as I want to stay away, I repeatedly am the crewman unplugging his ears whenever we pass these sirens. So it’s not the first and probably not the last time we dial up the typewriter rather than tie ourselves to the mast. The full blow-by-blow timeline: Health API Guy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe The End of the Standalone PHR (Jan 8): ChatGPT Health arrives for consumers, at the time powered by b.well. I was bullish on the approach in that the best way for the PHR to finally solve distribution was to meet consumers were they already are (i.e. When Horizontal Meets Healthcare (Jan 9): OpenAI for Healthcare puts out the shingle for enterprises, with SharePoint ingestion standing in for the EHR integration the product actually needed. Another One: Anthropic’s Healthcare Debut (Jan 16): Claude's version, on HealthEx rails instead of b.well, with Agent Skills for FHIR development as the one true vertical-specific investment. ChatGPT for Clinicians: The Trap Sprung (Apr 24): OpenAI filled in the missing GTM middle with a free product for verified clinicians, effectively peeling the enterprise wrapper off ChatGPT for Healthcare and taking the PLG fight directly to OpenEvidence. OpenAI’s Second Attempt at Health (Jul 31): a relaunch of their patient specific app, now branded Health in ChatGPT, where the privacy partition came out, the connectors thinned, and b.well disappeared in favor of first-party FHIR work against a smaller network Beyond a Shingle So what was announced now? Today, we’re introducing a new electronic health record integration that brings authorized patient context from Epic into ChatGPT for Healthcare, along with the Healthcare Public Data plugin for direct, structured access to official healthcare datasets like PubMed, DailyMed, and CMS Coverage. Together, these capabilities bring ChatGPT closer to the systems and sources healthcare teams trust, while supporting the controls and compliance healthcare work requires. The core portfolio is unchanged from prior announcements we delineated and discussed (aside from the relaunch of patient-facing). Since trade publications still seem to be confusing them by using the wrong names: Enterprise sales motion: ChatGPT for Healthcare Protecting their core product / PLG: ChatGPT for Clinicians Consumer/patient-facing product: Health in ChatGPT So really, this is a feature release (specifically for ChatGPT for Healthcare when it comes to EHR integration). What’s cool about it, though, is that we are moving beyond just putting out a shingle. Everything in the January enterprise launch was horizontalizable: Horizontal tech companies thus generally start verticalization with their “putting out a shingle phase”. Telling the world you’re open for business as a horizontal tech company reliably attracts early inbound interest from buyers who are already trying to force-fit horizontal tools into domain-specific workflows and are eager for any signal that the vendor intends to support their use case more directly. Nothing was really vertical specific, which is exactly what you'd expect from the ultimate hypergrowth horizontal company dipping their toes into specific industries. But eventually you have to stop changing the sign on the door and start changing the product. Can you guess where the horizontal product was going to run out of road? This is the core dilemma writ large: verticalization requires differentiation, while scale economics of consumer and horizontal push toward unification. I’ve buried the lede so deep here it will be painful to some readers, but what should be shocking to no one is that my perspective is that EHR integration is the only path that meaningfully resolves this tension for ChatGPT for Healthcare. Integration with Microsoft Sharepoint is fine, but it is categorically insufficient for any product that hopes to influence clinical decision-making. SMART Money Well here we are, eight months later! Real vertical investment has begun, which surprised a few people. One friend in the industry messaged me: “Absolutely no way Epic gave ChatGPT API access.” Looking forensically at the announcements, the integration is notably read-only across appointment notes, laboratory results, medications, and specialist documentation. So while I’m not a betting man, I'd wager the house this is a SMART on FHIR launch: That sounds a lot like USCDI! The recommended path for the workflow they outline would be SMART on FHIR Their Health AI lead’s post is evocative of both standalone and EHR launch SMART, which another termed “ChartGPT” and “EHR Plugin” The implementation burden for SMART on FHIR is the lowest of the available integrative paths This is the team who literally did patient-facing SMART on FHIR with Epic last month Most importantly, if you’re a horizontal company, you generally still haven’t taken the full plunge and thus (overly) value reusability. SMART on FHIR is the logical compromise: healthcare-specific enough to matter, but standardized enough to reuse. Nobody Asked Judy Another friend asked “I thought they had to go to each health system, or did they go direct to Epic and now health systems opt in?” Given the trust paradigms in healthcare, this functionally cannot be Epic hoovering up all the data for OpenAI and shoving ChatGPT in their customers’ faces (or they would revolt). However, I do believe the aforementioned terrible coverage by TechCrunch and other outlets is probably responsible for that question, given the 325 million reference. When using FHIR as a business associate to an Epic customer, there is no EHR gatekeeping to speak of, as that isn’t how fhir.epic.com works: You register an app You pick your APIs You test against the sandbox APIs You list as “Ready for Production” Hospitals pick your app You test and go live with them Bluntly, nobody had to say yes or no in Verona (nor were they given the chance). Vendor Services (their next developer tier up that I doubt OpenAI is using quite yet in this initial release) certainly has contractual paperwork that some resent, but even there, the twin pressures of mounting antitrust and information blocking make outright gatekeeping increasingly fraught. My friend’s sentiment is, to me, representative of a broader industry neurosis, perhaps a sort of scar tissue of prior eras: people assume the gate is still there and never actually try the door. There are certainly other ways Epic (and any EHR) can put its thumb on the scale, but they are not so dumb as to stand in front of a federally mandated API and play bouncer at this exact moment in time. So I think they can and probably should go deeper, as this release is at best parity and at worst behind vertical-specific competition. OpenEvidence did a basic SMART launch with Sutter Health in February, allowing for more convenient evidence search by providers. They then add patient-context (the equivalent SMART on FHIR flow to what we see here) when Cedars-Sinai went enterprise-wide in May. UpToDate has four distinct applications across deeper workflows like patient engagement listed in Epic Showroom and announced a partnership with Epic to power Art at UGM Abridge and other ambient scribes have invested deeply into the deepest bidirectional clinical copilot workflow with integrations well beyond SMART on FHIR. In that light, the “Who is OpenAI primarily targeting here?” is clear. This release brings them into striking distance of OpenEvidence, but not the others quite yet. They are the only one of the three you can reach without building something truly Epic-specific. When will they go further? Competition is a great motivator to overcome the horizontal demons and start building things that can’t be reused: not across industries, not across EHRs, maybe not past the customer you built them for. That’s the price of actually verticalizing. The question is if and when OpenAI will be willing to pay it. Month in Review Here is the monthly review. As a reminder, this is a regular round-up of the month’s posts and other content to surface things you may have missed across regulation, litigation, interoperability, and beyond. AI assistance is used in these bullet summaries so I can focus on articles. Articles Published: None this month Video Content: The Information Exchange: Standards-based Thruple Edition (Aug 14): Back to school for us too, with Brad reporting in from the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem’s one year anniversary in DC. We get into the January CMS-0057 deadline, the fall rulemaking reading list, and why enrollment still keeps most apps off FHIR. The Information Exchange: Epic Dúnadan Edition (Aug 25): A UGM roundup with Ryan Brickner joining for the first time to check our takes against what the building actually thinks. Rangers, Ergo sitting on top of EHI, and a down-market lineup that needs some cuts. Regulatory: Stacked Deck, Bad Hand (Aug 05): ONC’s website refresh took the entire HIT Policy Committee record with it, so I rebuilt the archive and went looking for the regulatory capture story everyone assumes is buried in there. Stacking the deck and winning the hand turn out to be very different things. The Sixth Generation of Patient Access (Aug 19): A quick catalog of the five generations of patient access we’ve layered on since HIPAA, and the two candidates now competing to be the sixth. One is planned. The other is the market routing around the plan entirely. Court cases: Three Cases Walk Into a Docket (Aug 06): Two surprise settlements cleared the board in a single week, and then Judge Maddox dropped ninety-four pages on Vyne v. Henry Schein. The sleeper is a DMCA holding that makes direct-to-database a considerably riskier business model. Epic v. Health Gorilla: Into the MDL (Aug 10): Nine class actions are headed to Miami, and the Panel signaled it wants to bring the case that spawned them along too. That would leave Epic arguing the requests were obviously fraudulent in one courtroom and unknowable in the other. Amazon v. Perplexity: Agents Are Legalized! (Aug 11): The Ninth Circuit vacated the injunction against Comet, holding that the user is the one accessing the servers rather than the company that built the agent. A real win for agentic access, and a much narrower one than the headline suggests. Veeva v. Epic: Come At Me, Bro (Aug 26): Epic’s response brief wants the dismissal affirmed and, unusually, wants the opinion published as precedent. Buried in it is Epic’s own description of what its non-competes actually prohibit, which current and former employees should read closely. EHRs: The Contract Epic Would Never Sign Today (Aug 04): A 1999 SEC exhibit catches Epic licensing nearly its entire product line, Tapestry included, to the company that became TriZetto. The marketing services menu attached to it is the part that will make you blink. Forecast from Verona (Aug 07): The Epic Almanac makes one argument six different ways: the AI is only as good as the networks behind it. Emmie headlines, Art’s context stack is the most ambitious part, and Penny finally gets an autonomous coding date on the calendar. Works With Epic MyChart (Aug 17): Epic’s first new Showroom category since the death of Workshop certifies hardware instead of software, badge on the box and all. Made for iPhone, but for blood pressure cuffs, and rough news for anyone selling the RPM stack sitting in between. UGM Hot Takes 2026 (Aug 20): Everyone else covered the AI announcements, so I went after Savvy deleting the payment gateway, Rangers as Boost with the timer removed, and a down-market lineup with too many entries. Plus the Health Grid tidbits I cannot help myself on. MyChart Central Grows Up (Aug 24): Device data and Emmie turn Epic’s identity hub into a full consumer platform, which is both a logical answer to ChatGPT and a bit of a mistake. It also happens to be the best scraping target Epic has ever shipped. Industry Analysis: The Wrong Yardstick (Aug 12): Vertical software keeps getting judged against Superhuman and Notion, which is the wrong bar entirely. Your user is comparing your product to a whiteboard and forty phone calls before lunch. Primitives vs. Abstractions (Aug 27): Developers want building blocks, systems of record prefer to hand out business logic, and both sides have a real case. There’s no test from the outside that separates the engineering reason from the competitive one, which is why this keeps ending up in court. Cross-industry Comparisons: The Two Kinds of Platform Power (Aug 18): Attention power and record power are different problems that keep getting handed the same regulatory toolkit. Congress’s latest swing at Big Tech shows both what’s possible and where it falls apart. The Dogs of (Platform) War (Aug 21): A CourtListener alert turned up a property management fight with healthcare’s exact shape and none of the Cures Act. Shell prospects, ghost accounts, a notetaker bot that came back to haunt someone, and a lawyer arguing both sides of the same theory in two states. Fractals All the Way Down (Aug 31): Yardi dominates property management right up until you zoom into one segment, where AppFolio owns it outright and Yardi doesn’t appear at all. Where you draw the line around a B2B software market is about to decide an awful lot of cases. Other News: If Judy Had the Courage (Aug 13): A short eulogy for the era when software was allowed to look insane: WinAMP, bold colors, and everything the grey chatbot era has taken from us. External Media: Portland Monthly Health Tech Meetup: Erin O’Brien channeled my own feelings - maybe it’s just because it’s August and beautiful, but the monthly edition of the PDX Health community meetup was a ripper. Make sure to reach out if interested to join for the next one. STAT’s Coverage of Epic This Month: Brittany Trang of STAT did a fantastic job of breaking the FTC investigation that’s been lurking, as well as UGM related coverage, so I had to give her her wish of a meme. Fall Conferences: I’m pumped to be kicking off my fall conference season in NYC at Nabla Accelerate next month, which Chrissy provided the link to apply for. Here’s the rest of my schedule in case you want to meet up: Commonwell (Redwood Shores, CA): Oct 13-14 Open@Epic (Madison, WI): Oct 21-22 eHealthExchange (Austin, TX): Oct 27 Sequoia Project (Austin, TX): Oct 28-29 HLTH (Vegas): Nov 15-18 RSNA (Chicago): Nov 29-Dec 3 Posts I Liked: HTI-6 Should Unbundle API Certification: Josh Mandel makes the case that HTI-6 should split (g)(10) into separate authorization and data certifications, so a PACS or a genomics platform can certify only the role it actually performs. Imaging is the urgent example, but the structure solves a much bigger problem. On implementing ePrior Auth with Epic: Scott Rossignol’s field notes from a live ePrior Auth build on Epic, including the two app registrations nobody warns you about and the CPT mapping problem waiting at the end. CMS-0057 implementations are going to be such a beast. Healthcare point solutions are starting to look a lot like streaming services: Spencer Dorn runs the cable-to-streaming arc against health IT and lands squarely on the bundling half of the cycle. Bundling can be good! It can also be bad! Life is nuanced. Health API Guy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe

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Sep 2 • 5:05 AM EDT • Health • healthapiguy.substack.com
Nicki Minaj joins Trump administration’s small business pitch competition as judge

The rapper will serve on the panel for the SBA’s “Million Dollar Pitch Competition” alongside business executives and other celebrities.

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Sep 1 • 1:50 PM EDT • Business • yahoo.com
OpenClaw 2.0 pours glitter on slow-burning security dumpster fire

Making installation easier and putting a new wrapper on the interface while leaving most of the security to users is a recipe for more trouble with the popular agent harness

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Aug 31 • 3:13 PM EDT • Technology • theregister.com
Tom Hardy’s debut rap album has officially dropped — and yes, he does the Bane voice

The “MobLand” actor moonlights as a rapper under the name Frankie Pulitzer.

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Aug 28 • 5:41 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Eminem shares sweet note from Dolly Parton detailing their ‘unexplained connection’ after her death at 80

After hearing the news of Dolly Parton’s death, Eminem shared a sweet note that she sent him in 2022. Here’s what the ‘Jolene’ singer said about her ‘unexplained connection’ to the rapper.

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Aug 25 • 8:18 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Building the beat: How New Orleans can grow the business behind the music

People dance to the music of the TBC Brass Band Photo by Michael DeMocker / The Times-Picayune This week New Orleans hosts the annual Cutting Edge CE Conference, which brings together members of the music industry, musicians, lawyers and others to learn about and discuss the latest changes in the business of making, producing and selling music. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1492300'); }); The conference comes as AI and streaming are causing upheavals in the industry. Meanwhile, we’ve seen at least a partial collapse of the global festival industrial complex which has long been a key financial lifeline for many artists.All of that can feel a bit removed from life in New Orleans. After all, we are a city filled with music. On any given day or night, there are dozens of shows across the city, ranging from jazz and blues to hip-hop, bounce and house. Whereas in other cities kids dream of being the star of their local sports team, in New Orleans more often than not they dream of leading their own band.And music is a huge part of our economy. Before New Orleans was known as a foodie destination, it was already drawing millions of visitors from around the globe to experience our jazz, soul and funk scenes firsthand.But the reality is, if you want to make it big, you’re probably going to end up leaving the city. We’ve seen major performers like Lil Wayne, Master P and Jon Batiste (though he’s back on the Northshore) decamp to Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Likewise, up-and-coming musicians like Greer Grimsely, $leazy EZ and Lucky Daye have also left town in search of more profitable pastures.Meanwhile, our local universities train some of the best producers and engineers in the business — only to see them head to one of the big music industry cities after graduation.It’s not a new phenomenon, though the reasons have changed over the years. Like a lot of early jazz musicians, Louis Armstrong famously left New Orleans, first for Chicago before ultimately settling in New York City. But while those early migrations had more to do with racism, in today’s day and age, musicians end up leaving because New Orleans doesn’t have the industry infrastructure necessary to sustain the kind of growth and, well, success, a lot of folks dream of.It’s a hard, but very real, truth. Artists have to go to Nashville for publishing, Los Angeles for production, Atlanta to join a label or New York for representation. That, in turn, is a drain not only on the city’s talent pool but on money that could be staying here at home.Not being an industry town inevitably makes it that much harder for musicians who don’t leave to get the recognition and success they deserve. It also undoubtedly plays a part in keeping the wages working musicians in New Orleans make at their gigs here lower than in places like Austin or Nashville.That’s not to say we don’t have any of the infrastructure needed to make New Orleans a music industry town. We’ve got live music venues, studios, record labels, management companies, copyright attorneys ... all the various building blocks are there. We just haven’t ever built upon that solid foundation. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1492297'); }); The question is how do we do that in a way that supports our existing industry and artists, respects our cultural traditions and ensures the wealth generated is equitably distributed so it isn’t just C-suite executives who end up reaping the benefits. And the time to start figuring out the answers is now: next year the legislature will focus on taxes and spending, making it vital that New Orleans leaders have a plan to try and secure funding to help grow our industry.So we asked a group of New Orleanians to give us their thoughts, ranging from industry attorneys and venue operators to working musicians and cultural advocates. Their answers point toward turning New Orleans into a music industry city without leaving musicians behind or abandoning what makes us the greatest music city on earth.If a dusty city like Austin can transform itself into a major hub not just for music but the industry behind it, surely the birthplace of jazz — and pretty much all modern music by extension — can figure it out as well. +3 Mailbox Money: The Recording Academy’s Reid Wick on supporting, and growing, New Orleans’ music industry Reid Wick has been a part of the New Orleans music landscape from virtually every angle. He'… California Dreaming: Pell discusses his time in L.A. and how New Orleans can help young musicians In 2015, New Orleans-born rapper Pell decided to make the move to Los Angeles. He was fresh … +2 Up from the street: To build a stronger music industry, support community first. At MaCCNO, most of our team aren’t just advocates, we’re also working musicians. Here are a … +2 Live and direct: Public investment in independent venues is key to a robust music economy. I’ve spent most of my adult life looking at the New Orleans music business from every side o… +2 Helping Hand: New Orleans doesn’t need more talent. It needs more infrastructure. People love to call New Orleans a music town. And they’re right. +2 \We out here: New Orleans doesn't need to be Austin. It's already a music industry city. +2 Futureshock: New Olreans has the music talent. Now it needs the innovation. New Orleans has long been known as a place for music creation and innovation. People travel … .donate-gambit-article-module-container { text-align: center; padding: 10px; /* background-color: #24da6d; */ background-color: rgb(153, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 20px; } .donate-gambit-article-module-title { font-weight: bold; color: #fff; } .donate-gambit-article-module-copy { color: #fff !important; font-size: 16px; } .donate-gambit-article-module-button { background-color: black; width: 50%; border-color: black; font-size: 16px; } .donate-gambit-article-module-button:hover { background-color: black; } @media only screen and (max-width: 600px) { .donate-gambit-article-module-button { font-size: 14px; width: 100%; } .donate-gambit-article-module-copy { font-size: 14px; } } BECOME A GAMBIT MEMBER AND JOIN OUR KREWE TODAY For more than 40 years, Gambit has covered New Orleans, for New Orleans. We’ve stood up to city hall with you, cheered the Saints with you, danced in the streets with you and cried over our collective loss with you. And we’re plannin’ on being here for 40 more. To do that, we need your help. Become a Gambit member today and help us continue our mission SUPPORT GAMBIT

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Aug 23 • 9:00 AM EDT • Business • nola.com
Arc Raiders Gets Unlikely Subway Crossover — Buy a Meal for Exclusive Outfits

If you want to run around Arc Raiders looking like a Subway sandwich wrapper, now you can via one of the more unlikely collaborations we’ve seen in the world of video games in recent years.

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Aug 20 • 9:00 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Kanye West Will Perform In Russia, Venue Says

The rapper will perform two nights at St. Petersburg’s Gazprom Arena, the venue said, after several European shows were canceled over his antisemitic remarks and imagery.

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Aug 17 • 12:01 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
NBA YoungBoy, now in Korea, talks heart condition and how many albums his future holds

While a guest on the Open Thoughts podcast, the 26-year-old Baton Rouge rapper revealed that the left side of his heart is "still enlarged."

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Aug 12 • 10:07 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Entertainment and trial attorney on legal issues shaping Tupac Shakur murder trial

Nearly 30 years after rapper Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas Strip, the murder trial of Duane "Keffe D" Davis has begun with jury selection in a Las Vegas courtroom.

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Aug 10 • 6:27 PM EDT • Entertainment • katu.com
50 Cent to executive produce 'Payday' TV series

50 Cent is cashing in on Payday.The rapper/producer has boarded the TV adaptation of the popular first-person shooter video game series. He’ll executive produce under his G-Unit Film & Television prod...

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Aug 10 • 2:30 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
A man accused of orchestrating Tupac Shakur's 1996 killing is on trial. Here's what to know

The trial of a man accused of orchestrating the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur starts this week. The unsolved case has gripped the hip-hop world for 30 years. The trial is expected to last about...

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Aug 10 • 12:10 AM EDT • Entertainment • stamfordadvocate.com
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Rihanna Is ‘in the Studio Right Now’ & She’s ‘Cooking,’ Teases A$AP Rocky

"I'ma get in trouble for this," the rapper playfully admitted.

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Aug 5 • 11:53 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
The Shade Room (@theshaderoom)

11K likes, 1,827 comments - theshaderoom on July 25, 2026: "Ohkay! The folks are all up in #KeyshiaCole’s business after photos she and rapper #Skrilla recently shared resurfaced. KC 44, and Skrilla 27, popped out to LIV on July 12th for the XXL Freshman Class 2026 party. #Roomies is it giving bae 👀 SWIPE ✍🏾#TSRStaffAS".

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Jul 25 • 4:57 PM EDT • Business • instagram.com
47 revelatory hours with Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced

To review this month’s supposed remake of 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, I must first correct the record. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced isn’t a game about pirates (and assassins) in the 18th century Caribbean. Sure, sure, that’s what the trailers would have you believe. They’ve go their clips of Edward Kenway swinging his swords and steering his pirate ship into cannon-blasting combat against British frigates. Is Resynced truly a pirate game? Of the 47 hours I spent playing Resynced over the past few weeks, I will admit I spent maybe 44 (?) of them collecting plunder with Blackbeard, drinking rum with Anne Bonny and debating the pros and cons of the lawless pirate-run settlement Nassau with Benjamin Hornigold. I may in fact have spent dozens of hours sailing to remote islands, reading treasure maps, opening messages left in bottles, sinking the odd Man o’ War with a well-timed broadside, collecting sea shanties for my crew, befriending a pet monkey, and hunting whales. I am nevertheless neither so Gullible nor so Narrow-Minded as to call the magnificent Resynced a “pirate remake.” Oh no. Forget any reviews of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced you may have read. Forget what you yourself may have played, if you’ve spent any time with the game since its launch. What Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is really about I’m here to give you the scoop (spoilers for Resynced’s Animus menu lore, which many players are probably not going to see): Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, the new game whose development was led by Ubisoft Singapore, is set in the year 2096. It’s about a societal split, about revolution, about an old Assassin’s Creed adventure repurposed in the series’ distant future as propaganda or samizdat. It’s about the overheated future of 2096, essentially conquered by the series’ well-established nefarious Templar-run company Abstergo. (In this future, Abstergo is, among other things, remaking a 2013 pirate movie called Devils of the Caribbean, but this time in VR. The VR version will be backed by a marketing plan that involves AI influencers, a 10,000-avatar “metaverse premiere event” and that manufacturing of memes aimed at “50 million VR nodes.” See what I mean about Abstergo being evil?) Resynced is about a late 21st-century population mollified by the widespread use of Abstergo’s Animus devices which let people experience the lives of historical figures culled from “genetic memories.” It’s about an insurgent faction of Assassins. And it’s about a plan to wake the population into revolutionary fervor by showing them the memories of 18th century pirate Edward Kenway, who—as depicted in the original Black Flag and again in Resynced—gradually comes to an understanding about the Assassins of his day and their centuries old fight for freedom. Resynced is also about an AI developed within the late 21st-century Animus, called Ego. It has found a way to alter genetic memories, to create and show Animus users false ones. The game is about Ego’s efforts to tell the people experiencing Edward Kenway’s memories that Kenway was wrong, that fighting against order is folly, that we should crave a world where “compliance is rewarded with power.” Who are we in this game? We’re an unnamed Animus user in 2096 who experiences Kenway’s journey virtually. At four moments during Kenway’s exploits in the Caribbean our virtual jaunt can be interrupted for 10-15 minutes, as we explore Animus “rifts” where Ego explicitly tries to tell us how wrong Kenway was. None of this is what 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was about, of course. That was a different game, even if you also spent dozens of hours pirating as Kenway in that game, across missions and a map that’s been faithfully reintroduced and rebuilt for Resynced. The 2013 Black Flag was about you playing as an unnamed researcher newly hired in 2013 by Abstergo Entertainment, the video game development wing of the Templars’ evil-corp. In that game, you were assigned to use the Animus to dive into the genetic memories of Desmond Miles, a man who died in Assassin’s Creed III and who was descended from a long line of Assassins (and at least one Templar) whose adventures were featured across the prior AC games. In 2013’s Black Flag, your mission was to plumb the Edward Kenway experience for material that Abstergo could use in productions such as the motion picture Devils of the Caribbean, though the Templars had some ulterior motives for the assignment. Resynced is therefore not a remake of 2013’s Black Flag. It’s a sequel. It is a new game about a new exploration of Edward Kenway’s pirate/assassin journey, set 83 years after the framing sequences of the original game. Resynced provides a new narrative framework that, thanks to the concept of an AI that wants to alter historical memories, arrives with creative justification to tweak a now-classic 13-year old game. That makes Resynced, already a hot seller, a tantalizing hint of where Ubisoft could go with a line of Assassin’s Creed remakes. They could remake the first game, the Ezio games, even the recent ones set in ancient Egypt and Greece. And for each, they could not just modernize the graphics and controls but expand and alter their sequences of events to use them as reference points for a conflict set in the late 21st century, as rival factions try to weaponize historical memories. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, even when that work consists of ravings about Assassin’s Creed’s modern day plot, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe A story most players will probably miss If you didn’t know any of this, I’m not surprised. If you played the game and still didn’t catch it, I’m not a bit shocked. If Ubisoft has no plans to do more of this, I won’t fall down. Almost all of what I’ve described is optional and missable in Black Flag Resynced. I nearly missed it myself, as I planned for a breezy playthrough of an old Assassin’s Creed favorite. Instead, I found myself in a 40+ hour hunt for the “real” story, buried deeper in Resynced than any gold-filled chest. The story of 2096 is Resynced’s meta-story, told in two remote pockets of the game: 1) four optional playable “rifts” that players may find as they proceed through Resynced’s pirate fantasy , 2) in dozens of text files tucked three menus deep in the game’s barely-interactive Animus hub. Assassin’s Creed games have almost always had a meta-story about people in the 21st century (usually matching the game’s release year) and their connections to the main history portions you play. Those meta-stories have always been squeezed into the margins, though seldom as severely and as, uh, graphiaclly simple, as in recent games. Back in 2013, the modern-day exploits of you as an Abstergo Entertainment employee were prominent. They were portrayed via first-person portions that occasionally interrupted the third-person Kenway experience and could be explored for hours, complete with their own missions, side quests and puzzles. Resynced’s 2096 story—of Assassin “Watchers” vs. Abstergo/Tempar goons, of rogue AIs, of panicking scientists, of a woman wondering why her Animus-addicted husband is muttering about Mary Read (“What does he mean by Assassins?”), of a fight for the population’s hearts and minds via varying interpretations of Edward Kenway’s life choices—is mostly told through unlockable text files. The files are interesting. Offered via diary entries, intercepted chats and news reports, they present varied perspectives of a world in crisis. One set works as a narrative puzzle as it reveals the Rashomonic interpretations of a massacre, or was that a successful Assassin hit? Another favorite reveals the rising bitterness of a person who, through Edward Kenway’s journey, now shakes at the ignored evil around him. One surmises that Ubisoft is averse to putting the Assassin’s Creed’s meta-story in the way of more marketable pirate playgrounds and ninja/samurai epics. Instead, we get a better-than-nothing text-in-menus approach introduced in 2025’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows. In Shadows, players unlocked the meta-story text files largely via time-gated missions that called on the user to kill X number of enemy type Y, clear three enemy castles, re-win a three-phase fighting tournament, and other grinds. Time restrictions on accessing these missions and unlocking the files meant it could take players months to access the full story in-game. But even in the most hardcore Assassin’s Creed hangouts, the fanbase instead seemed to throw up their hands rather than grind to keep up. In Resynced, Ubisoft has shown some mercy, diminishing the amount of new text files that are tied to timed grinds. Now, most of the text-based 2096 lore are associated with “data file” collectibles that players can find in the world. That includes a batch of written entries that explain a historical link between the feudal Japan era in Shadows and the piracy adventures in Black Flag. Players who explore a lot will find dozens of data files, though the game does not appear to offer any in-game tracker for finding each one. You just need to keep looking for them. As of this writing, I have most of them, but not all. I can’t find any full guide for them online. And even Ubisoft’s optional $5 microtransaction that reveals lots of items in-game does not appear to reveal the locations of the text files (at least the official description omits them from its collectibles list). That’s not a huge bother, because tracking the data files down compelled me to re-explore the waves and islands of Black Flag. That was a thoroughly pleasant task to do for the first time in a dozen years. I expect many players, though, will be content to wait for the files to be reproduced in an online AC wiki somewhere, the easier to read on a web page. It may not seem enticing to play a video game in order to gradually unlock pages of text to read. Why not, you may ask, just read a book, where they put the pages in order? For one, they’ve not tucked this latest installment of Assassin’s Creed’s meta saga in a book. I also enjoy the unordered delivery, the dawning comprehension of a story about 2096’s desperate people and questionable tech, which I glimpsed first at its middle, then the end, then the front, then other moments in between1. I am also enamored with the idea of the Assassin’s Creed games I’ve previously played, including Black Flag, being repurposed for an information war. The ideas in Resynced’s meta-story, which builds off characters and ideas in Shadows’ chunks of text, are strong. The potential of where they could go with it is exciting. As for the pirate stuff? Looks great, controls pretty well, is fun to play and oh so speedy in terms of how much of a good time you can have with each sit-down. It never gets old to chase a new shanty page across a rooftop, bombard a fort with upgraded mortars or use a diving bell to explore sunken wrecks (hats off to the team at Ubisoft Barcelona that worked on the underwater portions in Resynced; that team is now facing layoffs, such is the misery of modern gaming and oft-troubled Ubisoft). New pirate missions in Resynced involving new ally characters are brief, dramatic and add more to Edward’s story, even if the gameplay perks they provide barely enhance the gameplay. A new denouement for high-class pirate Stede Bonnet is affecting; a new hunt for Blackbeard’s treasure is a welcome extra moment. A new epilogue to hunt down a pirate killer, on the other hand, over-complicates Kenway’s character. The ending credits remain my favorite of any game I’ve ever played. Black Flag provides great source material. The revisit is well-made and a great sign of what could be. It is offered in a different wrapper that hints at an opportunity for more interesting remakes to come, should Ubisoft choose to pursue such treasures—and as we brace to resist or comply with an Abstergo future. 1 The messages that Edward Kenway finds in bottles tell another out-of-order story, one about a man reckoning with the strange memories and voices he’s heard in his head since he was a boy. That tale was also in the 2013 game and develops into one of Black Flag’s most compelling character arcs. In Resynced, it has lost its climax, because the bottle story previously paid off in the halls of the first-person Abstergo Entertainment, which is exclusive to the older game. An altered resolution, written by the 2013 game’s lead writer is fine, doesn’t invalidate the 2013 version, but makes for an inferior final note.

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Jul 14 • 3:17 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news
Is the ‘Drake curse’ real? Here’s what the data says…and what Drake says

The “Drake curse” is being put to the test on Saturday night when Conor McGregor returns to the octagon to fight Max Halloway at UFC 329. If you weren’t aware, rapper Drake is an avid gamble…

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Jul 11 • 2:46 PM EDT • Entertainment • ktla.com
T.I. Reveals He Never Wanted His Kids to Get Into Entertainment: ‘We Got a Thousand Rappers’

T.I. spoke out on Arian Simone's podcast about the betrayal he's seen in entertainment and why he wanted different paths f...

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Jul 6 • 7:05 PM EDT • Entertainment • complex.com
Lil Wayne a no-show for concert that was supposed to kick off his tour

Rapper Lil Wayne was scheduled to perform Tuesday in Bangor, Maine. But the show ended after opening act 2 Chainz and a DJ performed.

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Jul 1 • 7:13 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
How Snoop Dogg Built the Most Powerful Personal Brand in Entertainment Without Ever Changing Who He Is

The rapper turned entrepreneur built a business empire on an unconventional principle: authenticity first, opportunities second.

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Jul 1 • 5:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • inc.com
Vanilla Ice: Music brings people together, transcends politics

Rapper Vanilla Ice explains his decision to perform at the America 250 event. He states music is universal and should bring people together, transcending political divides. He emphasizes celebrating the country's 250 years.

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Jun 27 • 1:55 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
New framework renders AI trustworthy for cancer subtyping

The framework, reported in Nature Biomedical Engineering, is broadly adaptable as a wrapper for digital pathology AI systems.

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Jun 23 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • news.vumc.org
Move over, Paul Dano: Quentin Tarantino will star in new film

Quentin Tarantino continues delaying his plan to retire from directing, opting instead to step in front of the camera for 'Tangled Up in Blue.' He will star alongside Kylie Minogue, Allison Williams, Jason Isaacs, Sofia Boutella, and Wu-Tang Clan rapper RZA.

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Jun 22 • 7:35 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Why is Tupac headlining an upcoming video game?

Gamers and influencers watching Summer Game Fest mostly expressed shock and confusion at the inclusion of the influential American rapper and political activist who died in 1996.

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Jun 13 • 4:00 AM EDT • Technology • cbc.ca
Nintendo’s Palworld Lawsuit Is Falling Apart

Nintendo's patent lawsuit against Palworld gets a preliminary end date, as well as some changes suggesting it's falling apart.

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Jun 11 • 2:37 PM EDT • Technology • gamerant.com
RGG Studio Head Talks Tupac's Controversial Stranger Than Heaven Inclusion

Masayoshi Yokoyama discusses his efforts to remain respectful to the legendary rapper's legacy.

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Jun 11 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • gameinformer.com
NBA legend Charles Barkley makes wild Cardi B joke during Spurs-Knicks playoffs game

NBA legend Charles Barkley made a wild joke about Cardi B at the San Antonio Spurs-New York Knicks playoffs game as the rapper performed at halftime.

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Jun 9 • 11:32 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Music Producer’s Widow’s Drops Royalties Suit vs Amaru Entertainment

The widow of a musician and producer who worked with Tupac Shakur has dropped her lawsuit against a company formed by the late mother of the slain rapper in which the plaintiff alleged she was wrongfully denied royalty payments. Capucine Jackson, the widow of Johnny Lee Jackson, sought compensatory damages in her breach-of-contract action against […]

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Jun 4 • 11:42 AM EDT • Entertainment • mynewsla.com
Producer’s Widow’s Drops Royalties Suit vs Amaru Entertainment

The widow of a musician and producer who worked with Tupac Shakur has dropped her lawsuit against a company formed by the late mother of the slain rapper in which the plaintiff alleged she was wrongfully denied royalty payments. Capucine Jackson, the widow of Johnny Lee Jackson, sought compensatory damages in her breach-of-contract action against […]

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Jun 4 • 11:42 AM EDT • Entertainment • mynewsla.com
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😐 Neutral (8%)
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Cuba’s Top Two Political Prisoners Are Rapper Maykel ‘Osorbo’ Castillo and Artist Luis Manuel Otero
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May 29 • 11:45 AM EDT • Politics • wsj.com
Early 2000s star brings first solo album in 12 years to Oakland

Rapper Juvenile is set to bring his Boiling Point tour to Oakland’s Fox Theater this summer.

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May 28 • 7:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • sfchronicle.com
‘No different than the GOP’: Rapper ‘Uncle Luke’ slams Democrat’s run in minority-majority district
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May 28 • 12:25 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
😐 Neutral (0%)
Rapper 50 Cent helping Houston ISD students build businesses through G-Unity Foundation program
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May 22 • 8:58 AM EDT • Business • click2houston.com
Young Dolph Shooter Pleads Guilty, Concluding Rapper’s Murder Case

Cornelius Smith Jr., who previously admitted to shooting the rapper at a co-defendant's trial, sentenced to 20 years in prison

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May 16 • 11:28 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Drake just dropped 3 albums at once — here's what they say about his epic beef with Kendrick Lamar.

The rapper released 'Iceman' alongside 2 surprise albums. Fans searched for Kendrick disses in the lyrics after their explosive 2024 feud.

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May 15 • 7:10 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com