Author: Gesi Lloyd

A business meeting in between Gucci Mane and Pooh Sheisty in Dallas turned into an armed kidnapping. Federal prosecutors laid out the details on April 2 at a press conference led by Ryan Raybould, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, and what emerged was a case that has rattled the hip-hop industry and raised uncomfortable questions about how record deals get made and unmade. The victim was Gucci Mane. How the meeting became a robbery The incident took place in January, when Gucci Mane and two associates traveled to a Dallas studio for what they understood to be…

Jermaine Cole has played basketball in Rwanda. He has played in Toronto. Now he is heading to Nanjing. The Grammy-winning rapper known as J. Cole has signed with the Nanjing Monkey Kings of the Chinese Basketball Association, ESPN reported Wednesday. The move marks his third professional basketball stint and follows through on a commitment he made to the franchise last year. A promise turned into a plane ticket Cole, who stands 6’3″, first floated the possibility publicly while promoting his latest album, The Fall-Off, released in February. During an appearance on the Talk With Flee show hosted by Cam’ron, he…

Nancy Metayer Bowen had buried her brother less than four months ago. She had just appeared on the campaign trail. She was days away, by some accounts, from formally announcing a run for Congress. On April 1, 2026, colleagues who could not reach her requested a wellness check. Police arrived at her Coral Springs home and found her dead. Her husband, Stephen Bowen, now faces charges of first-degree premeditated murder and tampering with evidence. What police found and what followed Officers arrived at the home just after 10 a.m. after Metayer Bowen failed to appear for a scheduled meeting. Inside…

The release of Phases, Brandy Norwood’s memoir, on March 31 set off a wave of conversations that the Grammy-winning singer seems entirely prepared to have. Among the most closely watched threads is the one about her younger brother, Ray J, and the growing distance between them that fans have been tracking for years. Brandy has rarely been the one to put it into words. That changed with her recent cover story in Parade magazine, where she addressed the state of their relationship with a directness that felt less like a reveal and more like a conclusion she had already reached…

Eddie Murphy showed up to the Los Angeles premiere of his Netflix documentary Being Eddie on November 12, 2025, looking comfortable at the TUDUM Theater in Hollywood. It was the kind of night that tends to prompt a reckoning with the body of work behind the man on the carpet. Murphy turned 65 yesterday. That alone is reason enough to take a serious look at what his filmography has actually earned, not just what critics said at the time. What the numbers say about Murphy His box office record is not what most casual fans would guess. Murphy does not…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Florida SAVE Act into law this week, establishing a citizenship verification requirement tied to the state’s voter registration process. The law mirrors the stalled federal SAVE Act and works by cross-referencing voter registration information against records maintained by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which uses a federal system to confirm eligibility when issuing or updating identification documents. Current registered voters will not be required to take additional steps unless the state flags a discrepancy in their records. Voters will not be asked to show proof of citizenship at polling places.…

Georgia is heading into the November midterm elections without a clear answer to a voting system problem its own legislature created and then failed to resolve. Lawmakers adjourned for the year without passing a measure that would have extended a deadline requiring the state to move away from its current touch-screen voting machines, leaving election officials in an uncertain position with no allocated funding and no approved replacement. The state Senate did not act on a House-passed bill that would have pushed the implementation deadline from July 1 to 2028. Without that extension, the state is now exposed to potential…

The Jacksonville Jaguars officially extended defensive end Travon Walker Today, signing the 2022 first overall pick to a four-year, $110 million contract that includes $77 million in total guarantees and $50 million fully guaranteed at signing. The extension averages $27.5 million annually, placing Walker 12th among edge rushers in annual salary, just behind Baltimore’s Trey Hendrickson at $28 million, the New York Giants’ Brian Burns at $28.2 million and Walker’s own teammate Josh Hines-Allen at $28.25 million. Walker had been scheduled to play the 2026 season on his fifth-year rookie option at $15.196 million fully guaranteed. The Jaguars chose to…

For years, Hot Boy Turk carried the weight of addiction, incarceration and a complicated place in Hip-Hop history. Now, with his new single ‘Joseph,’ he is done carrying it quietly. The New Orleans rapper, a foundational member of the Hot Boys collective, sat down with Hip-Hop Wired to talk about the record and what led him to make it. The conversation moved quickly from music into something deeper. He described an internal war between who he was and who he knew he could be. Getting older, he said, forced a reckoning. He decided it was time for people to see…

US special forces rescued one of the two crew members of a downed F-15 fighter jet from Iranian territory Today, according to an Israeli official and a second source with direct knowledge of the situation. The rescued airman was found alive. The search for the second crew member remains active, with both American forces and Iranian authorities now racing to reach them first. The two crew members ejected safely after their aircraft was struck by Iranian fire, the sources said. The F-15E Strike Eagle, which carries a pilot and a weapons systems officer, went down over Iran in what US…