Music

Jason Derulo‘s ex-girlfriend Jena Frumes, with whom he shares a child, is publicly accusing him of infidelity.  

She took to Instagram on Thursday to post a thirst trap of herself posing in a blue bikini and captioned it, “You are beautiful, you are worth it and YOU are irreplaceable. Don’t forget that.”

An internet troll slid into the comment section and fired off, “Worth it in what way? You’re not married, which means your child is a b*****d and you’re playing the wh*** role.”

Jena took exception to the comment and responded, “It’s unfortunate my situation didn’t work out because we once did aspire to be married. But maybe it’s best to be single than to be in a relationship & constantly be disrespected & cheated on and lied to.”

Jena then said in an Instagram Story, “Women really don’t deserve to be treated and judged the way they are. No one aspires to be a single mom, it’s the biggest heartbreak and failure for me personally knowing I’m alone in this when I wanted love and wanted marriage & the happy family unit.”

“But if your non-negotiables are being tested you’ll ever find peace in that relationship,” Jena added. “I’ll never be okay with sharing a lover that I love with all my heart!!! I don’t receive child support all I wanted was a family to love and experience life with.”

Jena said, “If the streets come first I can’t change that so stop blaming the women like we chose the single mother life…  It was never about money or dating someone famous.  I was in love & we planned a baby & life together!  It didn’t work out and life must go on.”

Jena shares a 1-year-old son named Jason King with the “Trumpets” singer.

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The Kid LAROI’s mother, Sloane Howard, is being investigated for credit card fraud. Authorities accuse her of using a man’s credit card to obtain cosmetic services costing over 800 Australian dollars ($545).

Daily Mail reports the incident happened in 2018, when Howard somehow obtained the credit card information and spent AU$849 at a laser clinic. She turned herself in to police when LAROI’s tour brought her back to Australia in late May.

Authorities also implicated a man who lived close to Howard at the time and said he used the stolen credit card to purchase over AU$9,200 in clothing, plumbing tools, digital accessories and accommodation. He has been found guilty and was sentenced to serve 18 months under a community correction order.

It is not known at the time how these two are linked.

LAROI has been open about the struggles his mother faced when he was a child, noting his parents divorced in 2007, and his mother raised him and his younger brother, Austin, in public housing. When honoring her on Mother’s Day in 2020, LAROI called Howard “the strongest woman I know.”

“I’ve seen you literally put your own life on the line to make sure I always had the best, even in the worst,” he added.

Howard has pleaded not guilty to the charge, and a hearing has been set for July 11.

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Wyclef Jean is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his 1997 debut solo album, The Carnival, by performing a concert over the holiday weekend that will be livestreamed.

The three-time Grammy winner’s show on Sunday, July 3, will be streamed live on the Amazon Music channel, on Twitch and on the Amazon Music app at 9 pm ET from the Toulouse Theatre in New Orleans.

“When I created The Carnival album my idea was to show, through my music, a world without borders,” The Fugees member said in a statement. “25 years later, please join me and let’s celebrate the culture!”

The Carnival included the Platinum single “Gone till November” and featured Fugees members Lauryn Hill and Pras, as well as The Neville Brothers and Celia Cruz. Jean promises that there will be surprise performances from “some amazing guests.”

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Chris Stapleton’s Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit, called Chris Stapleton: Since 1978, opens Friday. The exhibit chronicles Chris’ career from a songwriter into country superstardom.

Dustin Lynch has a new song out Friday called “Fish in the Sea.”

Morgan Evans has been teasing that he’s at work on a new album. Called The Country & the Coast Side B, it’ll follow Side A of that project, which Morgan put out in late 2021.

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A new music center is open in Suffolk, England, thanks to Ed Sheeran‘s generosity.

BBC reports the “Bad Habits” singer raffled off one of his guitars, and the funds were enough to help open the SRH Music Ark at a primary school in his hometown. The guitar helped raise £52,765, which is roughly $63,000, for the charity auction.

The Grammy winner had the acoustic guitar specially designed for the fundraiser and worked with Northern Ireland instrument maker George Lowden. Ed had an equals sign etched into the piece’s fretboard inlays in honor of his new album =. Ed then promised to sign the guitar for whoever won it at the raffle.

A local hospital worker named Kellie Myers took home the guitar and said her two teenage sons, 14-year-old Harry and 13-year-old Jacob are thrilled to bits — especially since the “Shivers” singer wrote on it, “Henry + Jacob! Play this guitar!”

The center will now open at Sir Robert Hitcham’s Primary School in Framlingham; the school’s students are thankful for Ed’s good deed. The elementary schoolers say their new center is a “beautiful place.”

One youngster told BBC, “It’s such a privilege to have our own music space for our school and there’s many thanks for Ed Sheeran and all his team.”

Head teacher Helen Picton adds the center was made in mind for each and every student. “We have a music pod that is open to all to our neurodivergent children, we have a disabled toilet so we can have disabled facilities for the children,” she explained. “Music is the heart of our school and to actually have this wonderful resource here is a very emotional thing.”

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Day two of the 2022 Essence Festival of Culture began at the Essence Eats booth with a cooking demo by New York’s chef JJ Johnson, who was joined by P-Valley actress Brandee Evans. Together they prepared a salmon dish using plant-based cheese — inspired by a favorite at Johnson’s rice bowl restaurant, Field Trip — and discussed the importance of healthy eating in the Black community.

Evans was motivated to convert to a plant-based diet after her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018. Considering her role as a star exotic dancer on the hit Starz show P-Valley, Evans said healthy eating also helps to get and keep her in shape.

Johnson inquired about Evans’ full regime, asking, “Some people say if you go plant-based, you can’t work out, you need lots of protein.”

Evans said she doesn’t drink protein shakes at all. “I work out all the time, I’m a workout fanatic. I don’t need it, I feel like I get the energy that I need from eating better now.” She jokingly adding, “Y’all see what I gotta wear [on the show] – nothing, so that’s another reason we had to go plant-based.”

As for Johnson, a man of Black and Puerto Rican descent, he infuses plant-based ingredients into the variety of special rice dishes created at Field Trip.

“The goal is to bring rice culture back to America and also put respect back on the rice grain,” he said. But also, “A lot of Black people don’t eat dairy,” so fresh products like the plant-based cheese used during the cooking demo are important to the community.

“I call ourselves a community-based restaurant, especially in Harlem,” he said. Johnson says he’s proud to be a Black business owner with the ability “to open the doors and [create] a safe space for all.”

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As the takes about the second volume of Stranger Things season 4 are pouring in, we finally have the most important review: the one from Kate Bush.

The English artist, whose 1985 song “Running Up That Hill” has been a huge, resurgent hit over the past month due to its placement in the first volume of season 4, has now revealed her thoughts on the final two episodes, which premiered Friday on Netflix.

“They’re just through the roof,” Bush writes in a spoiler-free post on her website. “I’d only seen the scenes that directly involved the use of [‘Running Up That Hill’] and so I didn’t know how the story would evolve or build.”

Bush adds that she was “so delighted” when Stranger Things creators, the Duffer Brothers, reached out about using “Running Up That Hill” as a “totem” for the character Max. But now that she’s finished the season, she feels “deeply honored that the song was chosen to become a part of their roller coaster journey.”

“I can’t imagine the amount of hard work that’s gone into making something on this scale,” she writes. “I am in awe. They’ve made something really spectacular.”

Since “Running Up That Hill” was first used in the Stranger Things episodes that premiered in May, the song has run up many, many charts, reaching the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 — a career first for Bush — and #1 on the U.K.’s Official Singles chart, where it’s stayed for three straight weeks.

The song’s resurgence led the normally press-shy Bush to issue several public statements and even give a rare interview.

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