Author: JD
Kanye West To Live Stream adidas Yeezy 750 Boost Launch In Over 40 Theaters
DOPE!!! It took a moment to get here, but this weekend will finally see Kanye West’s long-awaited adidas Originals collaboration come to life. So to properly launch what is being described as YEEZY Season 1, Ye and adidas will debut the previously unveiled Yeezy 750 Boost in a worldwide simulcast event that will take place tomorrow in New York City at 4 p.m. The live stream will be broadcasted to 42 theaters around the globe featuring a performance by Vanessa Beecroft, who developed the concept for “Only One.” Kanye Strolls Through The Park With North In ‘Only One’ Video Ye teased the live stream earlier today (February 11) on Twitter. Through his yeezy.supply website fans can request tickets to the 42 participating theaters across the globe (three continents and 13 countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, UK, and the US). As an added bonus, fans who arrive to theaters early enough will receive a special Yeezy windbreaker. Meanwhile, 9,000 pairs of Ye’s Yeezy Boost will hit retailers this Saturday, Feb. 14 at select retailers for a suggested price of $350. Reservations for select adidas stores, Foot Locker, and Champ locations can be made prior to the release day through the adidas Confirmed app.
Microsoft Buys a Well-liked Calendar App
The deal marks the latest in a string of acquisitions aimed at luring mobile users back to Microsoft Microsoft acquired a widely praised calendar app Wednesday that works across iOS and Android devices, as part of a continuing campaign to lure anyone, regardless of their device, into using Microsoft’s growing suite of mobile apps. The deal to purchase Sunrise comes roughly two months after Microsoft acquired Accompli, an email app that was quickly repackaged as Outlook email for mobile devices. Sunrise automatically connects to the majority of third-party calendars, hoovering up events and displaying them on an interface that tech critics have praised for its dual views, one showing events over the next two weeks, the other focusing on the next three days. But perhaps the defining feature of the app is its ability to tap information from the web, including weather forecasts, Facebook events and head shots from LinkedIn. Users can also send emails and text messages in app, eliminating the nuisance of toggling between apps to get the word out about an event. “This is another step forward on our journey to reinvent productivity and empower every person and organization to achieve more,”Rajesh Jha, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Outlook and Office 365, said in a statement. Whether every person and organization is willing to make the switch from their existing calendars, which come conveniently pre-installed on their devices, remains the an open question for Microsoft.
Suge Knight’s Lawyer Claims Rap Mogul Was Ambushed
The Suge Knight’s case gets crazier. TMZ and the Associated Press report that Knight’s legal team acquired video footage of the parking lot incident that lead to the death of Terry Carter and it shows Cle “Bone” Sloan pointing a gun at the former CEO of Death Row Records. Knight’s lawyer Attorney David Kenner says that he only had one day to see the video but the tape “believes it will aid Knight’s defense of murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run charges.” The attorney declined to discuss the video in detail. A source told TMZ that the video shows Sloan pointing a gun at the hip-hop figure. Not only is Sloan pointing a gun at Suge but also another person is seen holding a gun in an attempted ambush. TMZ also reports that the video shows Suge running over Carter and Sloan, followed by someone walking over to Sloan to remove the weapon from his hand. That’s not all. Terry Carter—the victim that was fatally struck and killed in the hit-and-run—was allegedly in on the ambush. Carter was the individual that got Suge to drive to the meeting point after the initial altercation on the commercial set of Straight Outta Compton. The footage was shot by local surveillance cameras in the Tam’s burger joint parking lot where the altercation occurred. The owners previously said that the cameras were inoperative, but it looks like that’s not the case. Law enforcement stated that the video footage actually hurts Suge Knight’s case rather than helps it, but the former UNLV defensive linemen sees things different, according to TMZ. This entire incident is a lot to wrap one’s head around. Yesterday it was reported that the reason Suge Knight went to the film set was because he did not like the way he was portrayed in the N.W.A. biopic. Knight’s bail hearing was rescheduled for Mar. 20 meaning that he will remain in jail for at least another month. Earlier this month, Knight was charged for the murder of Terry Carter and the attempted murder of Cle “Bone” Sloan. His bail of $2.2 million was revoked after the Sheriff’s Department determined he was a flight risk and due to his criminal history. Knight remains in jail and has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, Suge Knight could face the possibility of life in prison. The 911 call of a witness reporting the crime was obtained and released (listen here). The female caller claimed to have seen the incident and tried to follow Knight, who fled the scene. Things get even worse for the West Coast native. He was also charged with making a terroristic threat during the 2014 theft of a camera from a celebrity photographer earlier today. Knight and comedian Katt Williams were arrested for allegedly stealing a camera from a female photographer in October. A preliminary hearing was held in L.A. County court today but since neither of them could make it, the hearing was moved to Feb. 19. [TMZ]
CSI’s new spin-off, Cyber, stars Oscar nominee Patricia Arquette
CSI: Cyber, the new CSI spin-off, will deal with the emerging threat of computer- and Internet-related crimes. Creator Anthony Zuiker says it will reflect the recent surge in cyber threats, which can involve anything from hacking and identity theft to terrorism. “You can’t really pick up a newspaper right now without seeing cybercrimes somewhere, so it’s a perfect topic for our CSI brand and we’re going to educate and entertain at the same time,” he tells reporters in Los Angeles. Whereas the original CSI has forensic investigators going over crime scenes and using science to work out what happened, CSI: Cyber will follow a group of Federal Bureau of Investigation agents headed by a cyber-psychologist named Avery Ryan.
Five Numbers That Explain How Apple Is Worth $700 Billion
WOW!!!! For the first time ever, an American company has been valued at more than $700 billion. Apple passed the milestone after a record last quarter. These five numbers explain Apple’s explosive growth.
Op-Ed: Where Were the Rap Awards During the Grammys?
Sunday’s Grammy Awards reiterated the traditions that accompany celebrating “Music’s Biggest Night”: a union of industry veterans and newcomers, the world’s most enviable talent roster and a swath of awards recognizing artists from music’s biggest genres. Except rap. Grammys 2015 For the third time in the past four years, the Recording Academy declined to present a single rap award during the ceremony’s live telecast. Pop, rock, country and R&B categories regularly receive airtime for at least one of their genre’s prizes, but the rap awards are routinely relegated to the pre-telecast ceremony, removed from the eyes of all but the most diligent Grammy enthusiasts. The disparity increases when rap’s misfortunes are compared directly with the prestige given the pop field. Four of the last five ceremonies have included two televised pop awards, and last year’s ceremony squeezed in a third. (A representative for the Recording Academy could not be reached by press time to explain rap’s awards absence from the main telecast.) With more than 70 categories, it’s foolish to expect every award to be presented on-air, but the Recording Academy’s prioritization of certain categories as worthy of coveted airtime suggests to all viewers — both industry watchers and casual fans alike — that these awards are simply more important. Even if the ceremony’s endless runtime is the suspected culprit, can’t the Recording Academy substitute one of its multiple pop prizes for a rap award? As host LL Cool J noted during his opening monologue, Sunday’s ceremony showcased 23 performances but sprinkled a mere nine awards among them. When the full award ritual — reading of the nominees, winner announcement and acceptance speech — clocks in at barely half the length of a performance, is it too much for the Academy to carve a spare two minutes out of three-and-a-half hours to recognize one of the dominant genres of music today? Grammys 2015: The Awards You Didn’t See Unlike most genres in the pre-show telecast, concern surrounding viewer interest hardly applies to the rap awards. The categories boast several of today’s most popular (and best-selling) acts. In the past few years alone, Eminem, Kanye West, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé and Jay Z have graced voters’ ballots but rarely received their trophy in front of the camera. This is hardly the first discord between the Grammys and rap music. When best rap performance was introduced for the 1989 ceremony, nominees Heavy D, Salt-N-Pepa and eventual winners DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince boycotted the awards after learning the rap category would be (surprise!) untelevised. Yet, the also-new best hard rock/metal performance category secured a place in the lineup. Within the past decade, however, the rap field earned consistent on-air status. Of the seven ceremonies between 2005 and 2011, six featured an on-air rap award presentation, with the sole exception — 2007 — remedied by giving two awards the following year. The sudden break from this pattern reads as a bizarre change, especially as no other key genre has experienced a similar decline in fortune. Grammys 2015: 50 Things You Didn’t See on TV In the past four years, at least one act who triumphed in the pop field duplicated that success in the general field that contains the night’s biggest prizes: album of the year, record of the year, song of the year and best new artist. As Sam Smithdiscovered Sunday night, the likelihood of these repeats suggests that pop category winners will arrive onstage at some point in the ceremony. For their rap counterparts, however, the prospect of multiple trips to the podium is incredibly slim. As West has decried over the past decade, rap artists rarely land in the winner’s circle for the biggest prizes of the night. (Besides Macklemore & Ryan Lewis‘ win for best new artist last year, rap hasn’t scored a major award since Outkast‘s album of the year victory in 2004.) As such, rappers whose sole chance to cross the Grammy stage depends on a televised rap award find themselves glued to their seats all evening as pop winners race back and forth to collect awards. And they’ll remain stuck in those seats until the Recording Academy restores rap to its deserved place among the major genres of the current era. In an era in which hip-hop is the most-discussed genre of the most-discussed topic (music) on Twitter, rap albums consistently win over both buyers and critics, and rap-sung collaborations have reigned atop the singles charts for 40 percent of the past two years, excluding it from the televised ceremony accentuates the irony that a leading genre of our times has little reason to revel in what is continually advertised as “Music’s Biggest Night.”