Rapper Boosie Badazz is calling on the Black community to boycott the new Netflix series: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, based on the fact that many of the serial killer’s victims were Black.
Boosie first took to Twitter Thursday morning to express his feelings about the biographical crime drama, calling on the streaming giant to remove the show from its programming.
“AS BLACK PEOPLE WE SHOULD BOYCOTT THE JEFFERY [sic] DAHMER MOVIE,” the rapper wrote. “WHAT HE DID TO OUR BLACK KIDS IS F***KING SICK #NETFLIX TAKE THIS MOVIE DOWN ITS SICK.”
He followed up with a 40-second video in which he repeatedly calls the series “sick” and urges Black people to ban the project.
“This is some sick s**t, what he did to our race!…The victims’ families should be getting paid off every dollar Netflix make.”
Boosie’s reaction comes after Rita Isbell, a family member of one of Dahmer’s victims, spoke out about the trauma caused by watching the horror play out on television, yet again.
“When I saw some of the show, it bothered me,” Isbell told Insider. “Especially when I saw myself — when I saw my name come across the screen and this lady saying verbatim exactly what I said,” she said, referring to the reenact of her 1992 court statement.
Isbell told Insider she only watched the part of the episode she appeared in. “I didn’t watch the whole show. I don’t need to watch it. I lived it. I know exactly what happened.”
Fans on social media expressed mixed reactions to Boosie’s request; some agreed with the rapper, while others say it “shines a light on what was done to the black community and how it was allowed due to racism and police negligence.”
There’s a new generation of wannabe witches in Hocus Pocus 2, out today on Disney+.
Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo and Lilia Buckingham join Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy in the scary-funny new sequel. Buckingham tells ABC Audio the 90s original was a staple in her house growing up.
“I watched it for the first time, I think, probably when I was about seven. It was one of the things that made me love Halloween in the first place,” she shares. “I think it’s just so comforting knowing that you have a movie that you can go back to, that you can kind of escape into, and it’ll always make you feel a certain way.”
That wasn’t the case for Peak, though, who admits she had “never seen the movie” before getting an audition, but decided to after hearing “it was this huge thing and everybody grew up watching it.”
“Then I watched the movie, completely understood, the energy was just so magnetic and it’s just a fun movie, and I can’t believe I didn’t watch it when I was younger,” Peak says.
It’s been almost 30 years since the first Hocus Pocus was released, and director Anne Fletcher says that taking on a cult classic was “terrifying.” Ultimately, though, she hopes fans of the original are pleased.
“The whole movie is an homage to the first one, because you can’t ignore the first one. It’s there for the taking,” she says. “And so all we’re doing is continuing the story of our Sanderson sisters with new cast members and having fun and winking at the audience of like, we’re here with you, like, let’s have fun.”
As part of their current fall tour, 311 will playing a number of full-album shows in select cities, during which they’ll be performing one of their first six albums in its entirety. For a band that’s known for experimenting with their set lists, the full-album shows will give you the opportunity to hear that one song you’ve been dying for them to play.
“Certain people are, like, ‘I love this one song that they don’t play very much, but if I go to that album show, they have to play it,'” frontman Nick Hexum tells ABC Audio. “So it’s just a way to have a cool nostalgia and really just concentrate on one era for that particular show.”
That nostalgia isn’t just for the fans, either. Hexum is looking forward to revisiting some of 311’s earlier material, especially their 1993 debut, Music, and the “experimentation” of its follow-up, 1994’s Grassroots.
“There’s always gonna be a special place for Music, for our first album,” Hexum says. “It was just so much energy to those songs and to those shows.”
311 will play Music and Grassroots at New York City on October 1 and 2, respectively. Fittingly, that era of the band was deeply tied to the City That Never Sleeps — they loved playing the now-defunct NYC venue Wetlands so much that they named it in a lyric on the Grassroots song “Silver.”
“There’s a lot of history that we have with the city of New York and those albums in particular and those times,” says vocalist/turntablist Doug “SA” Martinez. “Just so much fun over the years that we’ve had there.”
Here are 311’s other full-album shows:
10/22 — Chicago, 311
10/23 — Chicago, Transistor
11/11 — Los Angeles, Soundsystem
11/12 — Los Angeles, From Chaos
Ashley McBryde and her gang of collaborators will invite fans to Lindeville this week with a new batch of story songs and collaborations.
Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville was produced byBrothers Osborne’s John Osborne, who says he jumped at the chance to lend his skill set to the project. In fact, he tells ABC Audio, he was so excited about the concept that he would’ve been happy to be involved with it on any level.
“Honestly, when I was asked to be just the bandleader on it, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to do it,’” John recounts. Once he signed on as producer and got to listen to all the work tapes, he only got more enthusiastic.
“And no one’s doing anything like that in Nashville at the moment, too,” he points out. “They nailed it on that record.”
John’s brother and bandmate, TJ Osborne, wasn’t about to pass up a trip to Lindeville, either: John says he and Ashley immediately agreed that one of its tracks, “Play Ball,” would be perfect for TJ to sing.
“It fits his range perfectly. We know how well he can sing anything, but this part of his range is just butter,” John says, also saying it reminds him of childhood memories he and his brother share. “TJ and I grew up playing Little League Baseball in our hometown. So every time we hear that song, it takes me back to the ball fields where we would play baseball,” he adds.
As for TJ? It’s just fun to step into a new musical character, he notes. “Cool story. I like the lyrics and it’s really, really country,” the singer adds. “That’s where I cut my teeth, singing really country songs.”
Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville arrives on Friday.
If you couldn’t get tickets to see Billie Eilish‘s Happier Than Ever world tour, you can enjoy it from home Friday night at 10 p.m. ET, when Apple Music streams one of her shows at London’s O2 Arena. And in advance of the show, Billie explains why this particular tour really has made her “happier than ever.”
Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Billie says, “This show is my favorite thing I’ve almost ever done…I think this is my best show that I’ve ever put on. It’s the best live version of myself I’ve ever been…I can’t tell you how much I am proud of this show.”
She also says she’s “excited” to “give” the show to people who didn’t get to see it in person, because she’s been there herself.
“The shows that I didn’t get to see when I was younger, either couldn’t afford them or just didn’t get a chance, the idea that I would’ve been able to go and watch them professionally shot in a theater would’ve been my absolute dream,” the Oscar winner raves.
“Performing is the thing that I have wanted to do more than anything else in my life and that’s the thing that I give the most with, I feel,” she adds. “It’s so important to me and I want people to have that.”
Billie’s tour officially wraps up on Friday in Perth, Australia, and she’s definitely not happy about that.
“It’s crazy. It’s kind of sad. It’s that post-concert depression, but post-tour depression,” she tells Zane, explaining, “I’ve been not thinking about it because I don’t want to get in my head about it and freak out. But when I do think of it, it’s a little bummy. It bums me out.”
Forty years ago today, Bruce Springsteen took fans on an unexpected detour down the sonic equivalent of a bleak, deserted rural highway with the release of his sixth album, Nebraska.
Nebraska is a 10-song collection of sparse songs that were recorded as demos on a four-track tape recorder in the bedroom of his Colts Neck, New Jersey, home. The Boss initially intended to present them to The E Street Band and rerecord them with his group in a studio, but decided instead to put them out in their raw, original form.
Arriving between Bruce’s first two chart-topping albums, 1980’s The River and 1984’s mega-smash Born in the U.S.A., Nebraska peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200. Not surprisingly, the record yielded no pop hits, although the songs “Atlantic City” and “Open All Night” reached #10 and #22, respectively, on Billboard‘s mainstream rock tracks tally.
Recorded at a time when Springsteen was dealing with bouts of depression, the album delves into a number of dark themes, focusing on various lost souls, criminals and killers. The title track is about the teenage mass murderer Charles Starkweather, who was executed by electric chair in 1959. “Atlantic City” looks at the decay of the New Jersey resort town before its revival as a gambling mecca. “Highway Patrolman” tells the story of a police officer who helps his brother get away with murder.
Nebraska is among Springsteen’s most critically acclaimed albums, described on his official website as “a raw, haunted acoustic record populated by lost souls searching not for salvation through music but simply a reason to believe.”
The record was ranked #150 on Rolling Stone‘s 2020 list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”
Here’s Nebraska‘s full track list:
“Nebraska”
“Atlantic City”
“Mansion on the Hill”
“Johnny 99”
“Highway Patrolman”
“State Trooper”
“Used Cars”
“Open All Night”
“My Father’s House”
“Reason to Believe”
Sinéad O’Connor in NOTHING COMPARES; Andrew Catlin/Courtesy of SHOWTIME.
She topped the charts, won a Grammy and sold millions of albums. She also shaved her head, tore up a picture of the Pope live on TV and banned the U.S. national anthem at her concerts. Even Madonna thought she went too far. Sinéad O’Connor is the subject of a new documentary, Nothing Compares, streaming Friday on Showtime.
The doc focuses on the years 1987 to 1992, when Sinéad became a superstar thanks to her #1 hit “Nothing Compares 2 U,” but then unapologetically torpedoed her career by speaking out against the Catholic Church’s complicity in child sexual abuse, as well as racism and music business hypocrisy.
Director Kathryn Ferguson says it’s important for young people to watch Sinéad’s story, explaining, “I feel like we need people to be speaking truth to power as much as humanly possible.” Ferguson would like Sinéad to be “a new icon” for young people, teaching them that they, too, “can use their voice and their power.”
Speaking of voices, you never see Sinéad in the film — you only hear her voice.
“I just wanted her voice to be the most prominent thing in the film — y’know, an artist who’s had her voice so reduced over the years,” Ferguson explains to ABC Audio. “To me, it was critical that that was the key takeaway: that you could hear her.”
Despite its title, the song “Nothing Compares 2 U” is also absent from the film. Prince wrote the song and his estate wouldn’t give Ferguson permission to use it.
As for Sinéad’s opinion of the film, Ferguson admits she doesn’t know if the singer’s watched it.
“It has been offered to her. We certainly have her blessing. And from what we can see on her Facebook page, she’s very supportive of the film — and, I’m hoping, proud.”
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Thursday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Detroit 10, Kanas City 3
Chi White Sox 4, Minnesota 3
Boston 5, Baltimore 3
Cleveland 2, Tampa Bay 4
LA Angels 4, Oakland 0
Seattle 10, Texas 9 (11)
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Chi Cubs 2, Philadelphia 0
Florida 4, Milwaukee 2
LA Dodgers 5, San Diego 2
San Francisco 6, Colorado 4
NATIONAL LEAGUE FOOTBALL
Cincinatti 27, Miami 15
NATIONAL HOCKY LEAGUE PRESEASON
Winnipeg 4, Montreal 3
Carolina 5, Florida 2
New Jersey 5, NY Rangers 2
St. Louis 4, Columbus 2
Minnesota 5, Dallas 2
Nashville 2, Tampa Bay 0
Seattle 4, Vancouver 3 (OT)
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden’s administration is scaling back his federal student loan cancellation program to protect against legal challenges, including two suits filed this week — with new guidelines now excluding at least hundreds of thousands of borrowers initially told they qualified for the forgiveness.
On Thursday, the Department of Education quietly updated its instructions on who qualifies for the debt forgiveness program of up to $20,000 for some Americans. (NPR first reported the change.)
The new guidance excludes people who took out federal loans that, while they were guaranteed by the government, were technically handled by private banks. As of Thursday, those borrowers — with Perkins loans and Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) — can no longer qualify for the forgiveness program.
That change was made the same day as a lawsuit was filed by six Republican-led states targeting that very part of the program. The complaint argued that the debt cancellation would decrease revenue from interest payments for the private banks who manage those loans.
While about 4 million Americans in total have FFEL or Perkins loans, an administration official told ABC News that only about 770,000 of those borrowers will be affected by the change in the debt cancellation policy.
Forty-three million people are expected to qualify overall for the loan forgiveness, according to the Biden administration.
In a statement responding to the change, the Department of Education said it intended to provide relief “to as many eligible borrowers as quickly and easily as possible” — indicating the shift in their guidance was intended to protect as much of the entire program as possible amid the legal challenges.
The Department of Education said it was continuing to “explore additional legally-available options to provide relief to borrowers with privately owned FFEL loans and Perkins loans, including whether FFEL borrowers could receive one-time debt relief without needing to consolidate.”
There will still be FFEL and Perkins borrowers who do qualify for the relief, however, because anyone who had consolidated their education debt into federal direct loans before Thursday will still be eligible for the program — a nuance that is expected to be litigated in court.
Two lawsuits have so far been filed against the federal student loan forgiveness program.
The first, announced Tuesday in Indiana by the California-based Pacific Legal Foundation, is being argued on behalf of Frank Garrison, an Indiana resident and Pacific Legal Foundation attorney who says that his loans being forgiven would force him to pay state taxes on the canceled amount that he otherwise wouldn’t have to pay.
While the merits of the complaint have yet to be decided – and as Garrison seeks a temporary restraining order to halt the forgiveness program — the case’s mere existence shows conservatives believe they have found specific plaintiffs who can allege injury under the forgiveness program and so have standing to sue.
In statements this week, Pacific Legal Foundation said its suit was in response to the White House’s “flagrantly illegal” decision, which the firm cast as a violation of Congress’ authority.
In response, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre argued on Tuesday that no one has to get their debt relieved and that the plaintiff could “choose to opt out” rather than be stuck with a tax bill.
“We want to be really clear here: Opponents of the Biden-Harris administration student loan plan are trying to stop it because they know it will provide much needed, again, relief for working families. Anyone who does not want to get that debt relief can choose to opt out,” she said.
On Thursday, in an escalation of the GOP’s emerging legal fight with the administration on student loan forgiveness, six Republican-led states filed suit against Biden in a bid to block his plan.
Governors for the six states — Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina — claimed Biden is unfairly citing a national emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the president has said the pandemic is “over.”
“President Biden’s student loan forgiveness scheme is fundamentally unfair and would harm the American families forced to pay for it. Additionally, the Executive branch does not have unilateral authority to impose a sweeping student loan cancellation plan,” Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said in a statement.
The White House, for its part, has accused the Republicans of “standing with special interests” versus a program that an administration spokesman said will boost working- and middle-class families.
ABC News’ Luke Barr and Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.
As his outfits often do, Machine Gun Kelly‘s look on the Billboard Music Awards red carpet earlier this year turned some heads. That time in particular it was his “diamond manicure,” valued at $30,000, that garnered attention.
Kelly is now turning those diamonds into a new ring collection created by jewelry brand Marrow Fine. All profits from the 18-piece line will be donated to MGK’s alma mater, Ohio’s Shaker Heights High School.
“Machine Gun Kelly’s red carpet moment at the Billboard Awards was such a viral moment for Marrow Fine, and I am so excited to share the final collection with the world,” says Marrow Fine founder and creative director Jillian Sassone. “The collaboration with Nails of LA and Machine Gun Kelly was an exciting opportunity and I am thrilled it’s supporting those in need here in the United States.”
The rings retail between $1,950 and $5,000. For more info, visit MarrowFine.com.
