Kidd Creole Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison for Murder

Kidd Creole, a founding member of seminal hip-hop collective Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, was sentenced to 16 years in prison Wednesday for stabbing a homeless man to death.

As we reported earlier, the 62-year-old rapper, born Nathaniel Glover, was found guilty of manslaughter last month for the death of John Jolly, a homeless New Yorker who was stabbed twice in the chest with a steak knife in Midtown Manhattan.

During the month-long trial, Glover's attorney claimed that the stabbing was self-defense, but prosecutors accused an enraged Glover of stabbing Jolly, 55, twice in the chest with a steak knife because he thought Jolly was gay and made an overture toward him.

Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Michele Rodney took issue with Glover's defense according to reporting from The New York Times.

Glover’s lawyer Scottie Celestin argued during the trial that Glover had felt threatened in part because Jolly was homeless.

“A life is a life is a life,” Rodney said, as she sentenced Glover, adding that the killing was not “somehow justified because the person is homeless.”

“Mr. Jolly’s death was devastating to his family and those who knew him,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a news release after the sentencing. “Every life we lose to violent crime ripples throughout our entire city, and we will continue to ensure everyone in our borough can live their lives with the sense of safety and security they deserve.”

Glover was a co-founder of the rap group Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. Consisting of Glover, his brother Melle Mel, DJ Grandmaster Flash, Keith Cowboy, Scorpio (aka Mr. Ness) and Rahiem, the Bronx-based group helped guide the formation of hip-hop as an art form in the late 1970s.

Their 1982 hit song, "The Message,” is one of the most influential pieces of the period, combining social commentary with catchy beats in a way that was later emulated by predecessors, such as Public Enemy and KRS-One, and remains a hallmark of rap today.

In 2007, they became the first hip-hop group to join the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Dave Chappelle Tackled by Man During Hollywood Bowl Performance

Comedian Dave Chappelle emerged seemingly unscathed from a vicious attack by a man who rushed the stage from the audience late Tuesday while he was on stage at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

Video posted to social media shows Chappelle, 48, being tackled to the ground during his set at the Netflix Is A Joke Fest — the streamer's inaugural live comedy fest currently touring the nation.

The two appear to struggle on the ground before the individual attempts to run away and is immediately subdued by security near the rear corner of the stage.

After the incident, Chappelle continued with the show. He joked that his attacker was "a trans man," in a likely reference to the animosity and criticism he has drawn from some in the transgender community following the release of his Netflix's "The Closer" last year.

#davechappelle attacked at #hollywoodbowl #netflixisajoke pic.twitter.com/oP04S0de90

— abazar 🦇🔊 (@abazar) May 4, 2022

He likens being transgender to wearing blackface and says "gender is a fact” in the hour-long comedy special. The comments, along with others from previous shows, sparked calls for Chappelle to be canceled by some in the LGBTQ community. It was also the catalyst for a walkout in protest of his continued association with the brand by hundreds of Netflix employees.

Chappelle may have made light of the attack, but it was no joking matter, according to the Los Angeles Police Department, which confirmed to ABC News early Wednesday that the man was armed with a replica gun that can eject a knife blade "when you discharge it correctly."

Fortunately, Chapelle was not injured according to police. His attacker appeared to be worse-for-wear. He was taken to the hospital with what the LAPD called "superficial injuries." Video on social media seems to show the man being pummeled by security, and pictures and video of him being loaded into an ambulance show him with what appears to be a dislocated arm.

Definitely don’t tackle #DaveChappelle while he’s performing on stage 😬 pic.twitter.com/X0Lbi8ghsf

— AlexGB.sfm (@ab_a_w_p) May 4, 2022

“I’ve been doing this 35 years, I just stomped a n–a backstage. Always wanted to do that,” Chapelle said during the curtain call. He also thanked Jamie Foxx for rushing to aide him during the attack.

Here is a video of the aftermath. #DaveChappelle handled this like a champ! #HollywoodBowl pic.twitter.com/0xaBpWsbrT

— E5QUIRE (@e5quire) May 4, 2022

"Whenever you're in trouble, Jamie Foxx will show up in a sheriff's hat," he said.

The attack comes in the wake of Will Smith's largely unpunished attack on comedian Chris Rock during the Oscars. When the movie star slapped Rock on stage for making a joke about his wife and was allowed to stay at the ceremony and accept his first Academy Award, many comedians said it would embolden others to do the same. Chapelle even joked about how he had increased his security after the incident right before he was accosted.

Rock, who was at the show and has been lauded for his handling of the attack by Smith, had one question after the incident.

“Was that Will Smith?” he said, joining Chappelle on stage to give his fellow comedian a hug.

Black Star Releases Second Album After 24-Year Hiatus

It may not exactly be Christmas in July, but for fans of old-school hip-hop today might be just as special.

For the first time in nearly 24 years, a new Black Star album has dropped.

The release of “No Fear of Time,” first announced in April of this year, reunites Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, and Talib Kweli. 

Their 1998 debut as a duo, “Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star," was met with critical acclaim, helped bring alternative rap to the mainstream and launched the individual careers of two of the most prominent and successful rappers in the “conscious” rap movement.

The reunion, while highly anticipated, will require fans to put their money where their music is if they want to listen to the nine new tracks.

Subscription podcast platform Luminary, which arrived on the scene two years ago with much fanfare describing itself as the Netflix of podcasting, before fading mostly into obscurity, is the only place to access the music legally.

While a platform that prides itself on not inserting advertising into the podcasts it hosts may seem like an unusual place to release one of the most anticipated hip-hop albums in over two decades, the group has its reasons for the decision and believes that those who truly support them as artists and musicians will pay to listen (an annual subscription to the platform is around $35) to the new material.

“If you bought the Black Star album in the last 20 years, you paid Universal Records, which is one of the biggest companies on Earth. You know who you did not pay? You did not pay Black Star because we didn't see any of that money,” Talib Kweli told NPR’s Morning Edition when asked about the risk of putting Black Star’s music behind a paywall.

Courtesy Photo: Mathieu Bitton

He continued, “You know, people come and say, 'Hey, what about what I want? I want the vinyl. I want it on Spotify. I want...' What you want does not matter. Know what I'm sayin'? What Black Star wants matters.”

Kweli added that the album, produced by Madlib, confronts similar themes as the duo's past work, which was inspired in part by Amiri Baraka in the Black Arts Movement and Nina Simone among others, and concentrated on themes of black excellence, unity, confronting racism and elevating consciousness.

“We stand tall on the shoulders of our ancestors,” Kweli said. “The canon of black art is amazing, and it is the lifeblood of all great art that comes from America in particular. Black people in America have been the moral compass, and we have been the ones who have elevated the art and we have been the ones who have made the most original American things. Black Star started in Brooklyn, but at this point, we are citizens of the world, and I feel like this album represents that type of growth for us.”