Month: August 2017

Kendrick Lamar Tops the Charts

Kendrick Lamar
Jason Tate

Kendrick Lamar once again has the number one album in the country:

Lamar’s Damn. climbs 2-1 on the latest Billboard 200, clocking a fourth nonconsecutive week at No. 1, and its first since the May 20-dated tally. The set earned just under 47,000 equivalent album units (down less than 1 percent) in the week ending Aug. 10, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 11,000 were in traditional album sales. The bulk of Damn.’s figure comes from SEA units — 31,000. (The album is the week’s most-streamed title on the Billboard 200, with 46.2 million on-demand audio streams generated by its songs.)

Mike Mictlan of Doomtree Sets Up GoFundMe

Doomtree
Jason Tate

Mike Mictlan of Doomtree has set up a GoFundMe to cover medical costs after a Diabetic Ketoacidosis occurrence:

Last week I had to be rushed to the hospital. I had been feeling very sick for the past few days from what I thought was chronic stomach issues, but as things rapidly got worse we decided to head into the ER where I was diagnosed with DKA (Diabetic Ketoacidosis) due to several months of untreated, unknown diabetes. I was then quickly moved to ICU where I stayed for four days while attempts were made to normalize my potassium levels and blood pressure, as well as start my body on insulin. I was diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic and later sent home to begin adjusting to all the changes that are needed to manage this disease.

We desperately need to fix healthcare in this country.

Conor Oberst Talks With Noisey

Conor Oberst
Jason Tate

Conor Oberst sat down with Noisey:

“People don’t like to hear it because it’s like, oh, you’re complaining about being famous, but it’s just straight-up objectification,” he says, noting that his celebrity is relatively small in comparison to some famous people he knows. “In their head, someone makes you an object. They disregard your humanity and they expect you to accept it, I guess because you’re getting paid.”

Taylor Swift Testifies

Taylor Swift
Jason Tate

Rolling Stone:

Taylor Swift testified in a Denver court Thursday, saying that she was “completely sure” former radio host David Mueller sexually assaulted her during a 2013 press photo. Swift appeared on the stand for roughly an hour, CNN reports, after her mother Andrea Swift also testified about the alleged incident.

“It was a definite grab … A very long grab. He grabbed my ass underneath my skirt,” Swift said on the stand. She called the 2013 incident “horrifying and shocking.”

Glamour has more:

McFarland suggested Swift could’ve taken a break from her concert meet-and-greet if she was so shaken up by Mueller’s alleged assault. (Swift previously said she was distressed by the incident but carried on with her schedule because she didn’t want to upset her fans.)

Swift’s reply: “Your client could have taken a normal photo with me.”

SoundCloud Accepts $170 Million Rescue, Taps New CEO

Soundcloud
Jason Tate

SoundCloud has taken $170 million in new funding and now have a new CEO, Billboard reports:

The struggling digital music service today secured a fresh round of funding that assures SoundCloud will remain independent, even as a new executive team takes over to steer the service into the future.

The Raine Group, a boutique merchant bank, joined with the Singapore-based investment company Temasek, in leading a $169.5 million investment round that infuses SoundCloud with much-needed cash.

Former Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor succeeds founder Alex Ljung as chief executive, and Michael Weissman, another former executive at the video platform, was named SoundCloud’s chief operating office