culture

Nearly a week after Dave Chappelle sang the praises of Kanye West, the multiplatinum rapper made an unscheduled appearance Friday at the comedian’s nine-night stand-up engagement at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, the Huffington Post reports. West’s performance included “New Slaves,” “Gold Digger” and “Jesus Walks,” the site says. During an appearance on…

Jeremy Meeks became an Internet sensation last week after his mugshot went viral after it was posted on the Stockton, Calif., Police Department’s Facebook page. But the 30-year-old convicted felon is a working man who is not affiliated with gangs, according to a woman identifying herself as his mother, Katherine Angier, who set up a…

A mom has filed a lawsuit against a day care center in Michigan City, Ind., that allegedly after her 5-year-old son was found hanging from a jump rope at the playground, NBC Chicago reports. The suit says the center has a history of violations. Anita Laflore charges in the suit against Tricia’s Playhouse that on…

Getting a record deal used to be the marker of success for any up-and-coming rapper—but there’s a new crop of experimental artists who are bending the rules of hip-hop. Without the help of major record labels, these up-and-coming rappers and producers are forging their own path into the limelight. Many of today’s biggest stars have…

Calling it “the heist of the century,” Donald Trump sharply criticized the city for agreeing to a $40 million settlement with the five men wrongfully convicted in the notorious Central Park jogger assault of the 1980s, according to the Daily News. “The recipients must be laughing out loud at the stupidity of the city,” Donald…

The fatal shooting of a 33-year-old Florida woman by her 2-year-old son in 2011 was a tragic accident, prosecutors said, according to the Sun Sentinel.  In April 2011, Julia Bennett reportedly was struck in the left side of the back after her son found a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun wedged between sofa cushions in their…

A federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed a lawsuit against former Sesame Street puppeteer Kevin Clash on Thursday, saying it had not been filed before the statute of limitations expired, Reuters reports. U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner in Harrisburg, Pa., dismissed the suit filed last year by a man “who accused Clash, 53, of engaging in…

It is impossible to deny soccer’s growing popularity among U.S. fans. An ESPN Sports Poll Annual Report revealed that Major League Soccer is now as popular with American children as Major League Baseball. And according to FIFA, U.S. fans are second to Brazil in the purchase of tickets to this year’s World Cup. As the…

It’s telling that Samuel Bazawule—aka Blitz the Ambassador—was introduced to hip-hop as a child in Ghana via the music of Public Enemy. While “Niggas in Paris” like Kanye West and Jay Z are most often recalled in fantasies and nightmares of hip-hop’s global expansion, rappers have been in the vanguard of a black cosmopolitan identity…

Five men, four black and one Hispanic, widely known as the Central Park Five whose charges—in the 1989 ruthless beating and sexual assault of 28-year-old investment banker Trisha Meili during her routine jog through Central Park—were later overturned, have reached a $40 million settlement with New York City, reports the New York Times. The proposed deal…