Since changing her controversial stage name from Mulatto to Latto, the Atlanta rapper says she’s ready to embrace her new name to reflect her upcoming music.
“Yes, I’m so, so, so excited for the new music. I feel like historically, the negative definition of Mulatto might have been holding me back,” she tells NME. “And this new name, Latto, short for “lottery,” can be forthcoming of good fortune; financially, spiritually, emotionally. I feel like this is [going to] be turning over a new leaf.”
Fans were first introduced to Latto as Mulatto on the first season of Jermaine Dupri‘s competition series, The Rap Game, in 2016. It wasn’t until last year that the 22-year-old considered changing her stage name after facing backlash over the term’s history due to its widespread use in the U.S. South during the era of slavery.
Latto says it’s been a “pretty smooth” transition from competing with others to earning her first platinum plaque for her 2019 breakout single, “B**** From Da Souf.”
“I want more plaques,” she declares. “I got my first plaque, and now I need to be in the studio more ‘cause I need to make more hits to get more plaques.”
“The Biggest” rapper says fans can expect to hear more elevation and growth on the follow-up to her gritty debut album,Queen of Da Souf.
“I’m actually in album mode right now, so the first project I’m about to drop is gonna be a plethora of flows, different [beats per minute],” Latto explains. “I’m from the South, so I tend to choose slower [beats per minute]. That’s very Southern or whatever. But I’m choosing different beats, working with different people, producers, artists. Everything is just [going to] be an elevation.”
For many bands, a best-of compilation marks a retrospective look at a career that’s at or close to the end. That’s why Dirty Heads vocalist Jared “Dirty J” Watson didn’t want to release one.
Watson admits to ABC Audio thathe was “so against” the idea of a Dirty Heads best-of when it was suggested by the band’s label.
“We’re not old,” Watson says. “They wanted to call it Greatest Hits, which is, like, ‘What?'”
“I think of, like, Led Zeppelin or Creedence Clearwater [Revival],” he adds. “It was just, like, ‘What are you talking about?'”
Watson eventually softened his stance when the label explained a best-of could be a “starter album” for new fans who’ve just heard Dirty Heads’ resurgent single, “Vacation” — which has gone viral in 2021 due to a TikTok trend — as well as a collector’s item for older fans.
Watson was still hesitant, though, especially since Dirty Heads is sitting on a brand-new, recently-completed album. So, he struck a deal.
“I said, ‘If you guys wanna do a best-of album — which I think is super weird, but I get it — you have to put on two or three of these brand-new songs,'” Watson recalls.
The result is The Best of Dirty Heads, which is out today. Along with past singles including “Vacation” and “Lay Me Down,” the compilation also features several new recordings, including “Rage” featuring Blink-182‘s Travis Barker and Aimee Interrupter of The Interrupters.
“There’s acoustic guitars, and there are these reggae verses, but it is more aggressive and uptempo,” Watson says of “Rage.” “There is like a ska feel to it, but then there’s also a punk feel to it. So there’s enough of each person it it to where the features are perfect.”
This Saturday, July 17, marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Journey‘s seventh studio album, Escape, which is the band’s only album ever to top the Billboard 200.
Escape is packed with memorable tunes, including four top-20 hits — “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Open Arms,” “Who’s Crying Now” and “Still They Ride” — and the classic-rock-radio staple “Stone in Love.”
Escape has just been certified Diamond for amassing 10 million sales or album equivalent units in the U.S. It becomes Journey’s second album to achieve the milestone, following the group’s 1988 Greatest Hits compilation.
Speaking with ABC Audio, founding guitarist Neal Schon gushes, “To have a greatest-hits Diamond is incredible, but to have one of your [studio] albums become a Diamond, it’s like beyond incredible to all of us.”
Reflecting on what made Escape a special album, Schon notes, “I felt definitely it was the most diversified record musically we had ever made, with many different types of music on it.”
The album was Journey’s first to feature keyboardist Jonathan Cain, who replaced founding member Gregg Rolie. Cain immediately made his presence felt, co-writing all 10 of Escape‘s tracks.
Schon, who co-wrote eight of Escape‘s tunes, notes, “[Jonathan] bought something that the band needed to move on and move forward, and better the songwriting in a different creative way.”
Of course, “Don’t Stop Believin'” has become Journey’s best-known song, although it only peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, while “Open Arms” and “Who’s Crying Now” reached #2 and #4, respectively.
Schon recalls that when “Don’t Stop Believin'” was finished, he “said to everybody in the studio, ‘I think this song has something special. I think this song is going to be one of our biggest songs ever.'”
Here’s Escape‘s full track list:
“Don’t Stop Believin'”
“Stone in Love”
“Who’s Crying Now”
“Keep On Runnin'”
“Still They Ride”
“Escape”
“Lay It Down”
“Dead or Alive”
“Mother, Father”
“Open Arms”
A new documentary out today looks at the life and death of chef and travel show host Anthony Bourdain, who died by suicide in 2018. The film Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain is from Oscar winning director Morgan Neville, who talked to ABC Audio about why he wanted to explore Bourdain’s life.
“Because I felt like he was a fellow traveler with me,” he explains, adding that, in a way, he felt Bourdain was a documentary filmmaker just like himself.
“He was somebody who was trying to share people’s stories and humanize them and be an advocate for curiosity and open mindedness,” Neville shares.
The director admits that losing Bourdain was sad for him — not just because of losing him as a person, but also because of losing him as “a voice in our culture,” which seems to echo how others felt as well. Neville says he was often greeted with “a heavy sigh” after revealing that he was working on the documentary.
But, he hopes the film “can at least make you see [Bourdain] as a full dimensional, complex and flawed human…maybe that was kind of the goal is like this is a real person who’s got great strengths and weaknesses. And sometimes those are the same things in him.”
Neville also hopes that after watching Roadrunner, audiences realize that “it doesn’t matter if you seemingly have everything, pain is pain and there’s no way around it.”
“And I think understanding that these are humans, that we shouldn’t put them on pedestals and that we really should have love and understanding, because the more you put somebody on a pedestal, the harder it is for them to ask for help,” Neville concludes.
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain is in theaters now.
(DES MOINES, Iowa) — An Iowa judge is expected to decide as early as Friday if he will grant a request from the attorneys for Cristhian Bahena Rivera the man convicted of murdering University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, to compel law enforcement agencies to allow them to review evidence in a purported sex trafficking investigation and the search for a missing 11-year-old boy.
Attorneys for Bahena Rivera argued on Thursday that they suspect the two cases are linked to a man they say could be Tibbetts’ killer.
“There’s something rotten in this area,” defense attorney Chad Frese said, saying that the sex trafficking investigation and the disappearance of Xavior Harrelson both occurred in the same rural area where Tibbetts, 20, was abducted while out for a jog in 2018 and murdered.
The request to review records in both cases came as part of a motion made by Bahena Rivera and his attorneys for a new trial based on evidence revealed by two independent witnesses who claim the same man told them he and a 50-year-old sex trafficker kidnapped Tibbetts and then killed her when the search for her whereabouts drew national attention.
Poweshiek County, Iowa, Judge Joel Yates said he will decide by the end of this week whether to force law enforcement agencies to allow the defense attorneys to review evidence in investigations that prosecutors say have no link to the Tibbetts case.
“We resist providing anything that they’re asking for. There is no discovery post-trial,” prosecutor Scott Brown, an assistant Iowa state attorney general, told Yates, calling the defense request “a fishing expedition.”
“If they want to go and knock themselves out trying to find out all of this confusing information that has been presented to the court, go right ahead and do that,” Brown said of the defense. “But there is nothing in the rules, nothing in the case law that compels the state to chase its tail because they’re asking us to do it.”
Yates has tentatively scheduled a second hearing for July 27 on the remaining part of the defense motion for a new trial.
Yates had been scheduled to sentence Bahena Rivera on Thursday, but he postponed it to hear the defense argue its motion.
During Thursday’s hearing, Bahena Rivera sat handcuffed at the defense table wearing black-and-white striped prison clothes and listening to the proceeding with the aid of a Spanish interpreter.
A jury convicted Bahena Rivera, a 27-year-old Mexican national farmworker, in May of first-degree murder. Bahena Rivera, 27, is facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The defense attorneys requested a new trial after Brown informed them before the verdict was announced that an inmate at a local jail came forward to authorities claiming his cellmate told him he and a 50-year-old alleged sex trafficker killed Tibbetts and framed a Hispanic man.
Bahena Rivera’s attorneys filed a motion Tuesday alleging prosecutors failed to disclose a separate investigation was occurring at the time of Tibbetts’ disappearance involving a man, who is now in prison on a gun charge, allegedly operating a sex trafficking “trap house” in New Sharon, Iowa, which is 27 miles from where Tibbetts went missing on July 18, 2018. The man, according to the defense attorneys, had once been the live-in boyfriend of the mother of Xavior Harrelson, who has been missing since May 27.
The defense attorneys also presented Yates with a search warrant executed in 2019 on the suspected sex-traffickers house that they say corroborates what the witness claims his cellmate told him. The witness purportedly claimed his cellmate, who defense attorneys named in their motion and in their arguments in court, told him he saw Tibbetts bound and gagged at the trap house and that he participated in her murder.
A second witness contacted authorities within hours of the first witness claiming the same man told her a similar story, defense attorneys said.
“That evidence is exculpatory and it has not been produced,” defense attorney Jennifer Frese, who is married to Chad Frese, said of the investigations into the sex trafficking trap house and the disappearance of the missing boy.
Brown said he disclosed the information to the defense about the jailed witness coming forward as soon as he learned about it, which he claimed was on the day the defense rested its case. He said he offered to request a halt to the trial while the new evidence was being checked out but Chad Frese declined the offer because, according to Brown, the information was “it was inconsistent to what the defendant said.”
During the trial, Bahena Rivera took the witness stand and testified that he was kidnapped by two masked men who forced him to drive them to where Tibbetts was expected to be jogging. He claimed that when they found Tibbetts, one of the men stabbed her to death, put her body in the trunk of Bahena Rivera’s car and made him drive to a cornfield, where the young woman’s badly decomposed remains were discovered a month after she went missing.
Bahena Rivera admitted on the witness stand that he placed Tibbetts’ body in the cornfield but said he was not involved in her murder. In addition, Bahena Rivera claimed during his testimony that he didn’t tell investigators about the masked men because they threatened to harm his former girlfriend, the mother of his daughter, if he did.
“There is no connection between anything with Xavior Harrelson and Mollie Tibbetts’ disappearance,” Brown said. “Wow is all I can say with regard to their (the defense’s) request to go down that road.”
Hulu’s new six-part documentary series McCartney 3,2,1, which features Paul McCartney examining his musical journey with acclaimed music producer Rick Rubin, premieres Friday, July 16.
Today.com debuted a preview segment from the series featuring the Beatles legend explaining to Rubin how he came up with the name “Sgt. Pepper” used in the title of the Fab Four’s groundbreaking 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
“I was on a plane with our roadie, and we were eating, and he said, ‘Could you pass the salt and pepper?’ And I thought he said ‘Sgt. Pepper,'” McCartney recalls in the clip. “So we had a laugh about that, but then the more I thought about it, [I thought,] ‘Sgt. Pepper? That’s kind of a cool character.'”
Meanwhile, another clip from the series that was posted on Hulu’s official YouTube channel shows McCartney and Rubin listening to the basic tracks from the 1966 Beatles tune “And Your Bird Can Sing,” and shows the producer animatedly gushing about how the band members were “cooking” on the track.
As previously reported, McCartney 3,2,1 features in-depth and intimate conversations between Sir Paul and Rubin about the music icon’s music, from the first songs he wrote as a teenager through his work with The Beatles, his 1970s group Wings, and his solo career.
In conjunction with discussing the writing and recording of his songs, McCartney also will talk about his influences, the personal relationships that helped inspire the tunes, and more.
All six episodes of McCartney 3,2,1 will be available for viewing on July 16. The series was directed by Zachary Heinzerling, who also directed the Academy Award-nominated 2013 documentary Cutie and the Boxer.
(NEW YORK) — After a turbulent year that exacerbated and highlighted long-standing structural issues across the United States, the National Urban League, a civil rights advocacy organization, said in its annual “State of Black America” report released Thursday that COVID-19 has worsened racial issues in the country.
In partnership with the Brookings Institution, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity and Center for Policing Equity, the report analyzed the devastation in Black communities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Structural racism is not new to many of us. For centuries and even today, Black lives continue to be subject to laws, policies and practices that have created and sustained systematic oppression that impacts every facet of our lives,” Tracie Keesee, co-founder and senior vice president of social justice initiatives at the Center for Policing Equity, said at a virtual event Thursday discussing the release of the report.
The report highlighted three main issues in the Black community right now, including economic injustice, racism in policing and health care inequality.
COVID-19 has proven flaws in the U.S. health care system, the report asserts. Black and brown victims are disproportionately dying from the virus, compared to other white populations, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black individuals are two times more likely to die from COVID-19 than people who are white, and Hispanics are 2.3 times more likely to die, according to CDC data.
And even though the percentage of Black and white people who are vaccine hesitant or refusing to get the vaccine are roughly the same, vaccinate rates are much lower among Black populations. The report states that disparities in COVID-19 vaccination rates indicate inequities in vaccine distribution and access for Black populations.
The group’s research also found that Black people are more likely than whites to live more than 10 miles from a vaccine facility.
Poor access to health care is just one result of structural racism, the report states. Economic inequality is another, which was also worsened by COVID-19.
The typical African American household had less than 15% of the median wealth of a typical white household, and Black workers face significant pay gaps in the workforce, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank.
And during the COVID-19 pandemic, almost 17% of Black households lacked basic financial services, compared to only 3% of white households, according to the Brookings Institution.
Experts at the National Urban League said the existing inequalities can be fixed by closing the racial wealth gap, reparations and more.
“We need to look at wage suppression, and wage in equity as a racial issue in and of itself,” Jennifer Jones Austin, the CEO and executive director of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, said Thursday on the panel discussing the report. “Why can’t we increase wages at the federal level? It is because this nation has determined that there will always be an underclass. And disproportionately that underclass represents Black and brown Americans.”
Police brutality and violence have also been a consequence of structural racism, according to the report.
Even as the racial reckoning took over the country following the death of George Floyd, killings of Black people at the hands of police continued, including Daunte Wright, Ma’Khia Bryant and others.
Black people are not only more likely to be killed by police, but according to the Center for Policing Equity, Black people were also about 6.5 times more likely to be stopped while driving and 20 times more likely to be searched than their white counterparts.
To solve this, the National Urban League recommended reenvisioning public safety and what its structure and function in communities looks like.
The organization also recommended holding officers accountable for misconduct, changing divisive policing policies, requiring transparency, reporting and data collection and improving training standards.
Not much has improved since last year’s “State of Black America” report, experts on the panel said, but with the data and knowledge that has been gathered this year on structural racism and how it impacts people of color, some community leaders have hope.
“Dismantling structural racism — identifying and repairing the cracks in our national foundation — will result in more resilient and dynamic institutions that expand opportunity for everyone,” Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said in the report. “As the pandemic becomes more of a memory, we are challenged to keep the same energy and finish what we started.”
(WASHINGTON) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the White House Thursday for talks with President Joe Biden.
The two leaders held a meeting in the Oval Office before participating in a joint press conference in which they addressed COVID-19 travel bans, relations with China and Russia, protests in Cuba, Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda and more.
On Cuba, Biden said, “Communism is a failed system, a universally failed system. And I don’t see socialism as a very useful substitute, but that’s another story.”
Following the press conference, Biden and Merkel were having dinner with a variety of leaders. Vice President Kamala Harris, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Democratic nominee for president Hillary Clinton and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy were slated to attend.
After deciding not to seek another term in office, her trip likely marks a farewell to Biden and served as a chance for the longtime acquaintances and partners to reaffirm the strong U.S.-Germany bond in the face of global challenges, such as the coronavirus pandemic and rising autocratic influences.
“Chancellor Merkel has been a true friend to the United States, a strong advocate for the transatlantic partnership for multilateral cooperation, as well as for our shared priorities,” a senior administration official said ahead of the meeting. “In their meeting, I expect that President Biden will convey gratitude for her leadership role, in Europe and around the world, as she prepares to depart the German political stage, following their elections this September.”
The visit has also been an opportunity for the pair to hash out some areas of concern before Merkel’s tenure ends.
Merkel kicked off her day in Washington having breakfast with the vice president and then attending both a one-on-one and a larger group meeting at the White House with Biden. And invited to the dinner for her were “a range of individuals who have long been strong supporters of Germany and the bilateral relationship, which will further demonstrate the close and continuing ties between our countries,” a senior administration official said ahead of the chancellor’s visit.
Despite the warm welcome, challenges remain.
One sticking point between the two countries is Nord Stream 2, a pipeline to move gas directly from Russia, under the Baltic Sea and into Germany. Biden is opposed to the pipeline, as are many Republicans in Congress, because it could give Russia increased influence in Europe and more control over energy reserves. The pipeline will likely deprive other countries, such as Ukraine, of badly-needed oil revenues and some experts fear Russia could shut off the gas supply to certain countries in retaliatory moves.
Biden lifted U.S. sanctions on companies helping to build the pipeline in May as a goodwill gesture to European allies, as he worked to get them on board with his tough-on-Russia policies and in a tacit admission that U.S. sanctions ultimately failed to halt construction. That was a move some Republicans, including Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, criticized.
“Instead of treating Putin like a gangster who fears his own people, we’re giving him his treasured Nord Stream 2 pipeline and legitimizing his actions with a summit,” Sasse said.
It’s a topic Biden was expected to bring up with Merkel on Thursday.
“I do expect that President Biden will raise his long-standing concerns with Chancellor Merkel during their meeting about Russia’s geopolitical project and about the importance of developing concrete mechanisms to ensure that energy is not used as a coercive tool against Ukraine, our eastern flank allies or any other country. We believe that the sanctions waivers that we announced in May have given us diplomatic space to be able to work with Germany to have these conversations to try and find ways to address the negative impacts of the pipeline,” the official said.
However, there was no formal announcement on Nord Stream following the meeting.
The official did preview that Biden and Merkel would release a so-called Washington Declaration, “which will outline their common vision for cooperation to confront policy challenges,” and provide guiding principles for years ahead, even as Merkel’s successor takes the helm. The official also anticipated a climate and energy partnership to be announced, though they provided no further details on what that will look like.
Another area of difference between the two leaders is China’s rising global influence. While Biden has seen China as a competitor that must be curtailed, Merkel is friendlier towards a rising China, believing their success and a balanced trade relationship between the two countries, will benefit Germany.
Other agenda items included the pandemic and security challenges in Afghanistan.
Reality competition shows have become popular primetime television entertainment over the past decade. Sandwich King star Jeff Mauro says he knows why those shows are a recipe for success.
Mauro explained to ABC Audio how Food Network series such as Chopped — or his own, Kitchen Crash — became staples on the network he’s called home for decades.
“People love to be critics and judges in their home,” the chef said, noting how American watchers have transitioned from passive to active spectators. “It’s so funny how people are, like, ‘What you made wasn’t good! You didn’t deserve to win that!’ Without ever having a bite of it. It’s crazy where you can kind of judge somebody… via your couch.”
Mauro added that reality competition shows create an experience for the audience, which includes “living vicariously through… the judges” to gain a sense of how everything tastes.
The chef, who’s a paid spokesperson of gourmet dog food Caesar’s Bestie Bowls, says the transition is fueled by the audience’s love to watch food being made.
“We love to see people really dip into their resources to create something really special. That — with the help of unbelievable crews and cameramen and descriptive judges — you can almost taste it from home,” he said.
Speaking of spectators, Mauro noted of another popular form of entertainment taking over social media — reaction videos. “Nothing’s safe from commentary these days,” he chuckled, admitting online critics have even used him as fodder.
Recalling Kalen Allen‘s viral reaction to the “bougie” mac & cheese made on his other show, The Kitchen, Mauro praised the “funny” and “wonderful” video.
“[He] introduced us to millions more people,” Mauro explained, and revealed that he learned something very important from Kalen’s brutally honest feedback: “I would never make that [mac & cheese] again!”
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus was among nine protesters who were arrested by U.S. Capitol Police after leading a peaceful demonstration to advocate for voting rights inside the Hart Senate Office Building.
At least 20 Black women activists joined Thursday to rally against legislation across the country which Democrats argue is restricting Americans’ right to vote. They called for federal intervention and specifically the end to the filibuster rule, so the U.S. Senate may pass the For The People Act.
Protesters walked hand in hand into the Senate office building Thursday, singing and chanting, “Let the people vote!”
“This afternoon, nine people were arrested for demonstrating in a prohibited area on Capitol Grounds. At approximately 3:30pm, the United States Capitol Police responded to the Atrium in the Hart Senate Office Building for reports of illegal demonstration activity,” a U.S. Capitol Police statement said.
“After officers arrived on the scene, they warned the demonstrators three times to stop. Those who refused were arrested for D.C. Code §22-1307. Two males and seven females were transported to USCP Headquarters for processing,” the statement continued.
Leading the demonstration was LaTosha Brown, cofounder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, Tamika Mallory, founder of Unit Freedom, Dr. Johnetta Cole, national chair and president of the National Council of Negro Women, Cora Masters Barry, CEO of the Recreation Wishlist Committee, Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, CEO and co-founder of the Skinner Institute, and Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition of Black Civic Participation.
The demonstration comes just two days before the one-year anniversary of the death of the late Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon who marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama, on “Bloody Sunday” in the Civil Rights movement.
Following her arrest, Beatty tweeted in Lewis’ honor with the caption, “#goodtrouble.”
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel and Libby Cathey contributed to this report.
