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Teenage rap sensation XXXTentacion brutally murdered

US rapper, XXXTentacion, has been shot dead. He was born Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy. The 20-year-old rapper was gunned down outside a motorcycle dealership

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US rapper, XXXTentacion, has been shot dead. He was born Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy. The 20-year-old rapper was gunned down outside a motorcycle dealership.

XXXTentacion first began making music as a teenager, uploading his first track to SoundCloud in 2014, titled “Vice City.” He continued releasing music independently and collaborating with fellow rapper Ski Mask the Slump God.

On December 30, 2015, XXXTentacion released “Look at Me!,” which would eventually become his breakout hit—but not before the rapper was arrested in October 2016 on charges of false imprisonment, witness tampering and aggravated battery of a pregnant victim.

As XXXTentacion spent time behind bars, his popularity surged. On February 14, 2017, “Look at Me!” entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 95; the following week, XXX rereleased the song through Empire Distribution. The track would ultimately peak at No. 34 on the Hot 100 and help usher “SoundCloud rap”—a hyper-distorted, lo-fi subgenre—into the mainstream.

In March 2017, XXX was released from jail on probation. That May, he released his debut mixtape, Revenge, via Empire. Despite receiving little promotion, the collection still peaked at No. 44 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The rapper appeared on XXL’s 2017 Freshman Class cover the following month, winning the fan-voted “10th Spot” by a landslide. It foreshadowed the massive commercial success he would soon experience.

On August 25, 2017, XXXTentacion released his debut studio album, 17. The album was an immediate hit, debuting and peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and earning praise from Kendrick Lamar. The following month, Pitchfork shared graphic excerpts of XXXTentacion’s ex-girlfriend’s testimony. She alleged multiple incidents of violence, including one where the rapper “head-butted her, punched her, stomped on her, and put her in the bathtub, where he continued hitting and kicking her.” His October 5 domestic abuse trial was postponed until December 11.

In December, XXXTentacion was jailed ahead of his trial; he was subsequently released and put on house arrest with permission from the judge to visit a local studio to fulfill his contractual obligations. The rapper kept a relatively low profile at the beginning of 2018, releasing his sophomore album, on March 16 through his own label, Bad Vibes Forever.

Last month, Spotify announced it would remove XXXTentacion’s music from its curated playlists as part of its new hate content and hateful conduct policy. The policy faced criticism from fans and other artists, who accused it of being too vague and selective. Spotify subsequently dropped the policy, and fans continued to stream XXXTentacion like crazy. His song “Jocelyn Flores” boasts more than 367 million Spotify streams, and “Sad!” has more than 270 million.

Over the course of his brief career, XXXTentacion continually defied music media’s traditional gatekeepers and attracted hordes of fans despite—or perhaps because of—the controversy surrounding him. In December, he said he planned to release three albums in 2018, titled, Skins and Bad Vibes Forever.

It is not yet known if the latter two albums will see a posthumous release.

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Zambian music star Yo Maps cries out over cyberbullying targeting wife, daughter

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Foremost Zambian music star, Elton Mulenga, popularly known as Yo Maps, has cried out over cyberbullying targeting his wife and young daughter.

Yo Maps who filed a case at the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court, accused a Facebook blogger, Elias Musyani, of orchestrating the cyberbullying and hate speech.

The singer who testified before the court, recounted how Musyani targeted his wife, Kidist Kifle, with derogatory names, referring to her as a “prostitute” and a “witch” in multiple social media posts.

He said the online attack also extended to his infant daughter, whom he said Musyani mockingly called “gumugumu”, a local Zambian word for a monitor lizard.

Yo Maps testified that Musyani’s harassment spanned several months, citing an incident on April 20, 2024, where Musyani allegedly posted threats of abduction and rape, claiming he knew the locations of Kidist’s gym and their child’s daycare.

“He said he could come and rape my wife in front of me,” he told the court.

He noted that despite an earlier attempt to resolve the issue amicably, Musyani allegedly continued his attacks, even posting recordings of phone conversations with him.

“In that conversation, he called my wife a prostitute and threatened to send thugs to kidnap my child,” he said, adding that he had preserved evidence of the posts and conversations on his phone and a flash drive.

Zambia Monitor reports that
Musyani faces charges under Zambia’s Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act No. 2 of 2021, which seeks to curb online abuse and protect victims of cyberbullying.

Though he pleaded not guilty, the court denied his plea bargain request, setting the stage for a full trial, as hearing has been adjourned to January 10, 2025, due to technical challenges in accessing audio evidence submitted by Mulenga.

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Rema, Ayra Starr, Tems make Rolling Stone’s Top 100 albums of 2024

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Nigerian music stars, Rema, Tems and Ayra Starr, have been named in Rolling Stone’s Top 100 best albums released in 2024.

A citation on Rolling Stone’s website states that Rema’s second studio album, ‘Heis‘, which secured the 11th spot, was a “unique, buzzy and visceral” project.

“Rema’s sophomore album ‘HEIS’ is the highest-ranked Nigerian album with a number 11 entry after enjoying commercial success that was recently capped by a Grammy nomination for Best Global Album Performance,” the citation said.v

Describing the album, Rolling Stone stated:

“Rema has taken to calling his own style of Afrobeats “Afro-rave,” in the tradition of Burna Boy and the like who have fought to differentiate themselves from what became a catchall for African music in general.

“Yet, there was no real sonic signifier for Rema’s Afro-wave — he seamlessly traverses hip-hop, house, R&B, and dancehall. Heis sounds more like a rave than almost anything Rema has made prior (excluding the excellent loosey “Bounce,” for example, raging while everything else simmers. The result is the buzzy, visceral, sweat-it-out music that no one else in the mainstream is making.”

On Tems, the platform said:

“Tems’ highly anticipated debut album ‘Born In The Wild’ was placed at number 37 following a successful tour and record-breaking Grammy nominations for Best R&B song and Best Global Album.”

Rolling Stone describes thealbum as so rich its listening experience offers both emotional and physical comfort.

“Tems has already remade Nigerian pop in her own image. Her debut album measures the soul work it’s taken to get here. All of it has paid off on an album so rich that the listening experience is a physical one as much as it is emotional.

“Wickedest” is primed for the dance floor, while the single “Love Me Jeje” is a masterpiece, soaked in the sun and major-key dopamine. Her vision is made timeless via a seamless blend of stripped-down ballads, the cool of 1990s R&B with flecks of SWV and Sade, joyous high life, Afro-dance music like amapiano, and rugged hip-hop.”

Writing on Ayra Starr, Rolling Stone said:

“Ayra Starr’s sophomore album ‘The Year I Turned 21’ was praised for being one of the finest Afrobeats projects of 2024 as it comprehensively displays her abilities and ambitions as a global popstar.

“With the follow-up to her 2021 debut, Ayra Starr asserts a musical maturity that could be considered far beyond her years, but perhaps more aptly serves as a reminder of the emotional depth, logical prowess, and enviable passion young people often possess. Across it, Starr refreshes tried-and-true.”

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