After hitting number five on the Billboard 200 with his debut studio album, The Melodic Blue, Baby Keem is going on the road.
The rapper from Carson, California announced The Melodic Blue Tour on Thursday, which will kick off November 9 in Santa Ana, CA. Keem will perform 14 shows through December 3 in San Francisco. Tour cities also include Atlanta, Houston, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York.
The 20-year-old, who performed on the BET Hip Hop Awards, is the cousin of Kendrick Lamar, who released the album on his pgLang label. The 13-time Grammy winner came out of his long hiatus to drop rhymes on the project’s first single, “Family Ties,” and on another track, “Range Brothers. The Melodic Blue also features Travis Scott and Don Tolliver.
Tickets for the tour go on sale Friday at 10 am. ET on The Melodic Bluewebsite.
Illustration by Carlos Lerma/Courtesy of Song Exploder
A new episode of the Song Exploder online audio series focusing on the late John Lennon‘s 1970 solo song “God” debuted this week.
The presentation, which was created by the Song Exploder team in partnership with Lennon’s estate, features a new interview with Plastic Ono Band bassist and longtime Beatles associate Klaus Voormann, as well as archival interviews with John, Ringo Starr and late keyboardist Billy Preston, all of whom played on the track.
To produce the episode, which takes an in-depth look at the creation of “God,” Song Exploder was given access the John Lennon Estate’s extensive interview archives, as well as the song’s master recording, original demo and outtakes.
“I’m a big fan of Song Exploder and the way [host] Hrishi [Hirway] analyzes songwriting and recording using the multitracks and sessions and the creator’s voice,” says John’s son, Sean Ono Lennon. “The shows are always intelligent, well-researched and beautifully edited, so we felt comfortable and confident opening up the archive to them to tell the story of this important song’s creation.”
“God” appears on Lennon’s first solo studio album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and famously features lyrics in which John declared that he’d put his famous band behind him, including, “I don’t believe in Beatles/ I just believe in me/ Yoko and me.”
The Lennon interview featured in the episode was taken from a December 1970 conversation with Rolling Stone‘s Jann Wenner. Starr’s audio comes from the 2008 Classic Albums documentary about John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
You can listen to the episode at SongExploder.net, and via Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Coming to theaters this weekend opposite the bullets and espionage hijinks of a certain British super spy is quite possibly the polar opposite of No Time to Die: the Scandinavian thriller Lamb.
The movie is a thriller in only the Icelandic sense of the word: there are no jump scares, no hockey mask-wearing villains. Instead, it’s a haunting film about a couple on their Icelandic farm who are mourning the loss of a child when something very unusual happens to one of their pregnant sheep.
Noomi Rapace, who starred in Alien: Covenant and the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo films, among others, explains she came to this very unconventional movie thanks to a “mood book” of photos and poems given to her by the movie’s director, Valdimar Jóhannsson.
“He just gave me that. And he was a bit blushy and red and he went outside and had a cigarette,” Rapace recalled to ABC Audio, cracking up Jóhannsson. “I’m like, ‘Wait, what? You’re not going to like pitch it?’ Are you not going to try to sell it to me? And he didn’t. He just let the material speak for itself.”
“I started like looking at those images that [were] so addictive,” said Rapace, “and then I knew straight away that I needed to do it.”
Noomi laughed, “Imagine when I call my team, it’s like, ‘So I’m going to do this like very small, no-budget Icelandic movie with a first-time director. And it’s about like a couple farmers that has like a baby that’s half human, half lamb. That’s what I’m doing, like, five months of my life.”
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 708,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 65.8% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Latest headlines:
-Biden: Vaccination requirements result in more people getting vaccinated
-Hospitalizations drop but deaths remain high
-Pfizer submits kids vaccine emergency use authorization request to FDA
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Oct 07, 4:14 pm
Biden: Vaccination requirements result in more people getting vaccinated
COVID-19 cases are down 40% and hospitalizations have dropped 25% in the last month, President Joe Biden said Thursday during a visit to Illinois to promote vaccinations.
In the month since Biden announced a six-part plan to fight COVID-19, the president said there’s been “real progress across the board,” including with vaccine equity.
Biden said recent data shows Latino Americans, Black Americans, Native Americans and Asian Americans are vaccinated at comparable rates to white Americans.
“Our work on equity isn’t done, but it is an important piece of progress,” he said.
Biden said a new report released Thursday shows vaccination requirements result in more people getting vaccinated.
“In the past few weeks, as more and more organizations have implemented their own requirements, they’ve seen vaccination rates rise dramatically,” Biden said. “For example, the Department of Defense has gone from 67% of active duty forces being vaccinated to 97%. … We’re also seeing this at colleges… We’re going to see it in health systems around the country.”
Vaccination rates are also good for the economy as they help send people back to work, Biden said.
Oct 07, 1:37 pm
78% of adults have had 1 dose: White House
Seventy-eight percent of adults have now had at least one vaccine dose, White House COVID-19 data director Cyrus Shahpar tweeted.
Oct 07, 12:35 pm
Hospitalizations drop but deaths remain high
Hospitalizations in the U.S. have dropped from 104,000 to about 69,000 over the last five weeks, according to federal data.
More than a third of the drop was in Florida, where there are about 13,000 fewer patients compared to just over one month ago.
Daily COVID-19-related hospital admissions are also down nationally by 13.6% in the last week, according to federal data.
But states like Alaska and West Virginia, are still experiencing record-breaking surges, while Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, Idaho and Texas still have ICU capacities near 10%.
Overnight, the U.S. reported nearly 2,000 COVID-19 related fatalities.
Around 1,400 virus-related deaths are being reported each day, which is nearly 7.5 times higher than in mid-July, according to federal data.
Texas is reporting thousands of deaths each week.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Oct 07, 9:00 am
United expects travel surge in December
United Airlines expects a travel surge and plans to fly 3,500 daily domestic flights in December, making it the largest schedule since the start of the pandemic.
Flight searches for the holidays are up 16% on the airline’s website and app compared to 2019.
Florida and ski resorts are expected to be the hottest destinations.
I May Destroy You star Aml Ameen has shared the first trailer to his directorial debut, Boxing Day.
The holiday romantic comedy, which is named after the British holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, was also co-written by and stars Ameen. It follows the actor as Melvin, a British author living in the U.S., who returns home to London for Christmas with his American fiancée, Lisa. After Melvin introduces Lisa to his eccentric British-Caribbean family, his relationship is put to the test. Aja Naomi King, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Tamara Lawrance also star in the film. Boxing Day hits theaters in the U.K. and Ireland on December 3. A U.S. release has yet to be announced.
In other news, Melissa De Sousa and McKinley Freeman have landed recurring roles opposite Morris Chestnut and Yaya DaCosta on the new FOX drama series Our Kind of People, Deadline has learned. De Sousa will play accomplished financial reporter Alex Rivera, the ex-wife of Chestnut’s Raymond. Meanwhile, Freeman will play Nate, the father of DaCosta’s daughter, Nikki. As previously noted, the series follow DaCosta as Angela Vaughn, a single mother who moves her family to Martha’s Vineyard in hopes of growing her natural hair-care business and reclaiming her family’s name. Our Kind of People airs Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET.
Finally, Sistas star K.J. Smith has landed a major recurring role on the Power prequel Power Book III: Raising Kanan. According to Deadline, Smith will play Palomar, one of Famous’ new neighbors, who’s often mistaken for her daughter’s older sister. A season-two release date for Raising Kanan has yet to be announced.
Olivia Rodrigo is now a member of an elite club, the members of which include Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Gwen Stefani.
Olivia’s song “Traitor” has just hit the top 10 on Billboard‘s Pop Airplay chart, making it her fourth number one on that chart. All four hits are from her debut album, SOUR. That makes Olivia the first artist to score at least four Pop Airplay top 10s from a debut album since Lady Gaga, who did it more than a decade ago with her debut, The Fame. In addition to “Traitor,” Olivia’s also sent “Good 4 U,” “Drivers License” and “Deja Vu” into the top 10.
Olivia’s also now only the 11th artist in history who’s ever managed to place four singles from a debut album on the Billboard Pop Airplay chart. In addition to Lady Gaga, the others are Justin Timberlake, with Justified; Christina Aguilera and Backstreet Boys, each with their self-titled debuts; Fergie, with The Dutchess; Matchbox Twenty, with Yourself or Someone Like You; Alanis Morissette, with Jagged Little Pill; Hootie & the Blowfish, with Cracked Rear View; Gwen Stefani, with Love. Angel. Music. Baby.; and Ace of Base, with The Sign.
Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton are more than just two of country music’s most prominent female stars — they’re also longtime friends. So Reba is as surprised as anyone else that she and Dolly never collaborated until they joined forces for a new version of “Does He Love You.”
“I’m shell shocked. How have we not done one?” Reba says in a new Billboard interview. “Every time I’d hear Dolly doing a duet with somebody else, I would get a little sad or jealous, like, ‘I want to do a duet with Dolly.’”
Still, she adds, “[E]verything happens for a reason and timing is everything. So it worked out perfectly.”
The new version of “Does He Love You” comes off of Revisited, one of the three sections of Reba’s massive upcoming box set project, Revived Remixed Revisited, which puts new and updated spins of some of Reba’s best-loved hits.
The singer first cut “Does He Love You” in 1993 as a duet with Linda Davis. Now, almost three decades later, Reba says that she and Dolly approached the topic a little differently for their new version.
“It’s like confrontation on Valium. It’s kind of like, ‘I know you. You know me. We’re adults,’” she explains. “Whereas when I did it with Linda, that was mid-’90s, and it was like catfight city. Now it’s like, ‘I don’t like him. Do you like him? You can have him.’ So it was totally different. It was confrontation, but not hatred.”
After being kicked off the Legendz of the Streetz tour, and having his Instagram account suspended, now Boosie Badazz is complaining about the lack of stars attending the premiere of his biopic, My Struggle.
The “Wipe Me Down” rapper held his event on September 22 in Atlanta, one day before 50 Cent‘s star-studded BMF premiere. Fiddy was joined on stage by Snoop Dogg, T.I., DaBaby, Moneybagg Yo, Flo Rida, Lil Duval and Jeremih for a concert following the screening of the first episode.
Boosie made his remarks Wednesday in response to a tweet by Duval saying that Badazz did not receive enough love for his event.
“Every celeb you can think of was at ‘BMF’ premiere,” Duval commented on Instagram after attending Boosie’s screeing. “But at @hesbackagain2021 premiere, I only saw @qcmceo_p @troublemmb and @iamdesibanks. All I’m saying is we gotta support the streets the same way we support the mainstream stuff. Especially in the south.”
Meanwhile, Boosie remarked to Vlad TV, “Nobody came out to support the way they should. I ain’t going to just say Atlanta. People think I was trying to go against 50 [Cent]. Hell no. That’s why I did it a day earlier. I’m a marketing genius. Come on, bro. I went a day before 50.”
As previously reported, Boosie was kicked off the Legendz of the Streetz tour headlined by Rick Ross, Jeezy, Gucci Mane and 2 Chainz after a fight broke out on stage during his set on Friday night in A-T-L during the second concert of the tour.
After being booted from the tour, Boosie promoted his appearance on Twitter at a party Sunday night at the Euphoria nightclub in Baltimore. A man was shot when a large fight broke out at the event, according to The Baltimore Sun.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Marshals have located and fingerprinted the Los Angeles Dodgers fan seen on camera during a televised 2016 home game who they said closely resembled a long-missing and most wanted fugitive. But they have determined he is not their man.
The identification came just 48 hours after the U.S. Marshals went public with a photograph of the Dodger fan, eager to determine if he was John Ruffo, a swindler convicted of a $353 million bank fraud, who has been on the run for more than 23 years. The manhunt for Ruffo is the subject of season 2 of the ABC News podcast, “Have You Seen This Man.”
A relative of the Dodgers fan alerted the U.S. Marshals Tuesday night that the man seated five rows behind home plate during the 2016 game was, in fact, a different person altogether. He has requested privacy so ABC News is not naming him.
To be certain the man was not Ruffo, the Marshals conducted a swift background investigation and on Thursday traveled to his home to verify fingerprints. The read out proved it – they had the wrong guy.
The discovery put an end to one of the most vexing aspects of the manhunt – a lead that for more than five years remained unresolved for the U.S. Marshals. It meant the investigators would have to turn their attention to other leads in the decades-long search for Ruffo.
“The ones that are the worst are when you have no resolution. That’s what bothers me, is that you just don’t know, is that him or not? The Dodgers footage, is that him? Is that Ruffo? Or is it not?,” said Deputy Marshal Danielle Shimchick, the lead investigator on the Ruffo case.
Short and balding, the unassuming one-time computer salesman is now 66 years old. He is believed to have fled with approximately $13 million. There has not been a confirmed sighting of him since he stopped at an ATM in New York City in November 1998, the day he was supposed to report for a 17-year prison term. His car was found at New York’s JFK Airport.
The look-alike baseball fan from the L.A. suburbs had put his hands on some terrific seats, placing him just off center frame every time the television feed of the game focused on the batter. It was in that prime location that he caught the eye of John Ruffo’s cousin, Carmine Pascale, of New Hampshire.
Pascale was watching the Dodgers-Red Sox game on television on Aug. 5, 2016, when he said he spotted the familiar-looking man seated four rows behind home plate.
“I’m watching and right behind home plate, they did a close up of the batter and there’s Johnny. And I said, “Holy Christ, there he is,” said Pascale, a cousin who last saw Ruffo after his arrest in 1998. “And I immediately called the Marshals. I froze the frame, kept it right in front of me.”
He phoned the tip into the US Marshals, who had placed him on the agency’s 15 most wanted list.
Deputy Pat Valdenor, an L.A.-based Marshall, was assigned to followed up on the initial tip. He said it’s rare to get a tip accompanied with video evidence. He said the resemblance was strong.
“It does look like him. It could be him,” Valdenor said. “So that was my starting point. That was the lead that I got.”
Valdenor sought help from the Dodgers, who identified the seat in Dodgers Stadium where the man had been seated: Section 1 Dugout Club, Row EE, Seat 10. He sought through baseball team’s help in identifying who bought the ticket.
The Dodgers identified the ticket holder, but he had given the ticket away. The coveted seat behind home plate passed through so many hands, Valdenor spent weeks tracking the ticket but was ultimately unable to track it to the man who actually attended the game.
It was Valdenor who traveled to a Los Angeles suburb Thursday to fingerprint the man who had attended the game.
“You can clearly see the difference between the fingerprints,” Valdenor said. “Even without the fingerprints, there was the birth certificate, and I had his whole family in front of me — three generations. I could see it wasn’t Ruffo.”
Even though the manhunt for Ruffo goes forward, he could be satisfied that he had not missed a chance to catch Ruffo.
This report is part of Season 2 of the ABC News podcast, “Have You Seen This Man?,” hosted by “The View’s” Sunny Hostin. It follows the U.S. Marshals’ ongoing mission to find John Ruffo, who engineered one of the most outlandish frauds in U.S. history, vanished in 1998 and has never been found. A four-part Hulu Original limited series on the global search for Ruffo is currently in production from ABC News Longform. MORE HERE
That famous photo of Britney Spears and Madonna locking lips at the 2003 MTV VMAs is now reportedly being auctioned off as an NFT, a.k.a. a non-fungible token.
TMZ reports that the photographer, John Shearer, is teaming up with Cryptograph to sell the collectible digital token for a good cause.
The auction, which kicks off Thursday and lasts 72 hours, will share a portion of the proceeds with GLAAD.
The 2003 VMAs opened with the now-iconic performance from Madonna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. The trio sang Madonna’s hits “Like a Virgin” and “Hollywood” and the performance concluded with Madonna kissing both Britney and Christina — though the Britney kiss garnered way more attention.
