New York
Yerrrrr: Vulture Ranks The Top 100 Songs That Define New York Rap
Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz While the narrative for the last decade has painted The Big Apple as having fallen off musically, you can’t deny the city’s energy. One outlet has taken the time to catalog the tunes that shaped the town. This week the staff at Vulture has seemingly put their neck on the chopping block in an effort to shine some limelight on New York City’s Rap scene. The site has just released a “Top 100 Songs That Define New York Rap” list. Before they did the formal reveal they gave readers some context regarding how they selected the music and the approach. “To decide the “best” of New York rap would only tell half the story — an uneven one — so instead, we invited a team of writers to rank a new type of local canon: 100 songs that capture a bigger pict...
Nigeria’s position in global terrorism ranking disappointing, embarrassing – APC group
APC Consolidation Group, a group in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC-CG, has described Nigeria’s latest ranking as third in the Global Terrorism Index, GTI, as not only disappointing but also embarrassing. According to the group, the rating has confirmed its position that the nation’s service chiefs are not on top of the security situation in the country. It reiterated its call that President Muhammadu Buhari should relieve the security chiefs of their positions, saying anything contrary to that would portray the President as being insensitive to the security of lives and property of citizens which he swore to protect. Reacting to the global raking which placed Nigeria third in the world, National Coordinator of the group, Dr Usman Mohammed, insisted in a statement yesterday that ...
Serena Williams pulls out of WTA tournament in Rome
Serena Williams withdrew from the WTA clay-court tournament that begins Monday in Rome due to a left Achilles tendon injury sustained in her US Open semi-final defeat, the tour announced Saturday. Williams, chasing her record-tying 24th Grand Slam single crown, lost to Victoria Azarenka in three sets on Thursday on the Arthur Ashe Stadium hardcourt. The former world number one, a four-time Rome champion, joins 2019 US Open winner Bianca Andreescu and two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova is skipping the tuneup for the French Open, which begins on September 27. “I regretfully must withdraw from the Internazionali BNL d’Italia due to an Achilles strain,” Williams said in a statement. “I’m so humbled by the continuous support from my fans in Rome and I look forward to making my return soon....
Serena Williams wins Greek odyssey to battle into US Open quarter-finals
Serena Williams booked a place in the quarter-finals of the US Open on Monday with a hard-fought, three-set win over 15th seed Maria Sakkari. Williams required 2hr 28min to defeat the 25-year-old Greek player 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3 inside an empty Arthur Ashe Stadium at Flushing Meadows. “I just was fighting. She was doing so well, she was being so aggressive and I knew that I needed to do the same thing,” said Williams. The match swung in different directions, with Williams saving three break points in game five of the first set before breaking Sakkari to power to a first-set win. Inset two, Sakkari took a 4-0 lead in the tie-break before Williams hauled it back to 6-6. And in the deciding set, Williams had to break Sakkari’s serve twice to come back from 2-0 down. Little separated the two p...
NFF to unveil new national team jerseys October
The Super Eagles will launch new jerseys designed by kit-sponsors Nike for national teams in October. This was announced in a statement by the NFF’s Communications Department on Tuesday. Nike Senior Director, Global Communications, Heidi Burgett, had February 5, shared the designs of the new national team’s jerseys on Twitter. “New 2020 kits for Nigeria: Home kit’s hand drawn design fuses the traditional aesthetic of an agbada robe w/ modern football design. Away kit trim is inspired by Onaism. Broader collection of Super Eagles apparel includes a poncho, vest, dress, & more,” Burgett wrote. Burgett’s tweet came after NFF president Amaju Pinnick confirmed to newsmen January 28, that the new national team jerseys would be unveiled in New York, London and Nigeria. Further plans for the u...
Nas’ King’s Disease Reintroduces the Legend to a New Generation: Review
The Lowdown: In 2018, Queensbridge-bred lyricist Nas released his 12th studio album, NASIR. In being a collaborative effort with Kanye West, this LP was met with high expectations. However, whether it was the album’s lack of cohesion, its poor timing, or the chaos surrounding its production and West’s antics, NASIR was deemed underwhelming by both fans and critics alike. After disclosing that he would be working with the Grammy-winning producer Hit-Boy on his upcoming project, some people were skeptical that this approach could help the rapper revert back to form and the high-quality work that had preceded NASIR. On August 21st, Nas and Hit-Boy succeeded in silencing critics and reintroducing the legendary emcee to a new generation of listeners with King’s Disease. By definition, “king’s d...
Jerry Seinfeld’s Spicy Op-Ed ON New York City Trends on Twitter, So Does “She’s 15”
Source: Mike Stobe / Getty Jerry Seinfeld left his billionaire lair to pen a cheeky op-ed for the New York Times in response to another writer’s opinion piece claiming New York City is washed beyond repair. The piece was spicy in true NYC fashion, and so was Twitter when his name joined a controversial, yet coincidental topic on the “Trending Topics” list. It started from a whiny op-ed written by James Altucher, star of his namesake podcast and co-founder of the Standup NY comedy club, who says “NYC is dead forever. Here’s why.” The piece reads like an aggrieved city dweller whose privileged lifestyle is permanently destroyed and is wanting an audience to rally behind his sentiments. To summarize, The Big Apple is no longer a place worth living in because business opportunities, culture, a...
Grand jury indicts Woodberry for ‘wire fraud’
Olalekan Ponle, a Nigerian held in the United States for alleged multi-million-dollar fraud, has been indicted by the grand jury, a group of lawyers empowered to conduct legal proceedings and investigate potential criminal conduct. Ponle, popularly known as Woodberry, alongside Ramoni Abbas, also known as Hushpuppi, was arrested in the United Arab Emirate on June 10 for multiple fraud charges after a raid by operatives of the Dubai crime unit. According to the complaint, an unnamed Chicago company was defrauded into sending wire transfers totalling $15.2 million. Companies based in Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New York and California also were victims of the fraud, prosecutors say. Newsmen reported how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) nabbed Ponle through details accessed from his What...
UBA Group appoints deputy managing directors
The United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), a pan-African financial services group, on Tuesday announced the appointments of Mr Ayoku Liadi and Oliver Alawuba as Deputy Managing Directors. The bank in a statement in Lagos, said the Deputy Managing Directors would be in charge of UBA’s Nigeria and Africa businesses, respectively. The Group Chairman, Mr Tony Elumelu, said in the statement that the appointments were a representation of the groups’ strategic recognition now representing in excess of 40 per cent of the Group revenue. “In 2005, we set out our pan-African vision. Fifteen years later, we are present in 20 African countries, serving over 20 million clients, leveraging our service culture and technology platform, to provide an integrated and seamless customer offering across the continent...
US Sunbelt mayors push back against Trump’s virus optimism
US Sunbelt mayors warned Sunday that their cities are at risk of being overwhelmed by a surge of coronavirus cases as they pushed back against US President Donald Trump’s attempt to minimize the gravity of the spreading virus. COVID-19 has been raging for weeks across southern and western states. Florida has registered 10,000 new cases on some days. Arizona has seen record hospitalizations. And intensive care units in Houston, Texas are operating near maximum capacity. With President Trump continuing to play down the disease eschewing a mask, continuing to address large gatherings, saying a vaccine is only months away and asserting that “99 percent” of cases are not serious the exasperation of local officials has begun to boil over, with some floating the idea of new stay-at-home orders. “...
FBI: Hushpuppi attempted to dupe Premier League club of £100 million
Alleged international fraudster, Ramon Abbas aka Ray Hushpuppi, on Friday made his first court appearance in an American court where the Federal Bureau of Investigation alleged that he attempted to dupe an English Premier League football club of £100m (N48.4bn). The allegation is contained in an affidavit deposed to by FBI Special Agent, Andre Innocenti, who is assigned to the Los Angeles Filed Office High-tech Organise Crime Squad. According to the FBI, the suspect is facing charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering among others. The affidavit read in part, “Abbas and others further conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from other fraudulent schemes and computer intrusions, including one scheme to steal £100 million (approximately $124 million) from an English Premie...
Ethiopia dam reservoir filling as talks with Egypt, Sudan stall
The reservoir behind the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is filling, its water minister said on Wednesday, a day after talks with Sudan and Egypt on the giant Blue Nile hydroelectric project stalled. Sudan and Egypt both fear the $4 billion dam could lead to water shortages in their own nations. “The construction of the dam and the filling of the water go hand in hand,” Ethiopian Water Minister Seleshi Bekele said in televised comments, a transcript of which was provided to Reuters by his office. “The filling of the dam doesn’t need to wait until the completion of the dam.” The water level had increased from 525 metres to 560 metres, he said. The comments by Seleshi did not address whether Ethiopia had closed the gates of the dam. The area has also seen recent heavy rainfall. “My understan...