Afrika Bambaataa passed away in early April, reportedly of prostate cancer, at the age of sixty-eight. His legend is a split one: that of the street griot who molded the genre of the century from the primordial soup of funk, vinyl, and youth disaffection, and that of a predator who allegedly abused more than a dozen children and teen-agers.
Lil Tjay has not been shot, nor has Lil Tjay been charged with any shooting. Any reporting to the contrary is false. We encourage people to consult trusted news sources, and to verify the accuracy of any reporting, before reflexively sharing or repeating baseless rumors.
The appellate judges repeatedly voiced skepticism over the Manhattan sentencing judge's decision to hold the trial's ample evidence of coercion and force against Combs in sentencing.
Attorneys for Sean Diddy Combs asked a federal appeals court for a new sentence, arguing that the judge in his criminal case considered evidence he shouldn't have when ordering him to spend four years in prison.
Accused gunman Amuri Greene was allegedly targeting the baby's rapper father, Jamari Patterson, when he fired into a crowd in Williamsburg on April 1, killing little Kaori Patterson-Moore.
James Broadnax, who is 37, describes how he writes: 'I've been here umpteen days never forgetting To forget the absence of my fate. Sloppy ciphered sentences become rage, Provoking thoughts into words spoken Across this blank page.'
Tupac Shakur was released from prison on October 12, 1995, after Death Row Records paid his bail of nearly one and a half million dollars, allowing him to record three albums.
San Francisco police have made an arrest in the February 9 shooting of Bay Area rapper Curnal, aka Keonte Antonio Deshawn Woods, on Harrison Street in Rincon Hill. An East Bay man has been arrested in connection with the shooting that took place just after 2 am on February 9, in the hours after the Super Bowl, about a block from the freeway onramp to the Bay Bridge on the 500 block of Harrison Street.
In celebration of Black History Month, a photo installation at Brooklyn Borough Hall is putting "Brooklyn's Finest: Legends in Focus" in the spotlight, paying homage to Brooklyn's hip-hop history and the photographers who chronicled the evolution of the borough's hip-hop culture and the arts during the genre's most pivotal years. Images include the historic 1998 "Greatest Day in Hip-Hop History" photo by Gordon Parks, featuring influential rappers, DJs, producers and artists gathered on a Harlem brownstone stoop;
The rapper, known on his tax form as Charles Wingate and known by his old Harlem associates as Charley Rambo, made his name in the rap game during an all-too-brief run in the 2000s, as one of the most colorful members of Jim Jones' Byrdgang, his solo offshoot from the Diplomats (although due to his growing up with rappers Cam and Mase, Max is like honorary Dipset).
A deeply sensitive, unverified allegation is circulating in Hip-Hop after an interview aired on Doggie Diamonds TV, where a Staten Island woman identifying herself as Tai claimed she is related to members of the Wu-Tang family circle and described what she says was a traumatic, long-suppressed situation. Host Doggie Diamonds opened the segment sounding shaken, telling viewers: "In my whole 19-year career, I'm baffled." He added, "I don't even know what to say."
In a way, it was the Sgt. Pepper's of hip-hop. It's a record that changed the way that people thought about putting music together. I'm not a big hip-hop historian; I just know the stuff that I worked on.
