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R. Kelly’s lawyers began mounting a defense Thursday in Chicago against federal charges of child pornography, enticement of minors for sex and fixing his 2008 state trial, with an initial witness contending the singer was himself a victim of blackmail.
The presentation to jurors won’t include Kelly taking the witness stand.
Judge Harry Leinenweber asked Kelly directly on Thursday morning if he would testify, and the Grammy Award winner responded that he would not.
The judge raised the issue minutes before attorneys for Kelly and two co-defendants began calling their first witnesses, endeavoring to counter two weeks of government testimony — including from four women who accused Kelly of sexual abuse.
Co-defendant Derrel McDavid, a longtime Kelly business manager, is accused of helping Kelly rig the 2008 trial, at which Kelly was acquitted. McDavid said he will testify. Co-defendant Milton Brown is charged with receiving child pornography. Like Kelly, he said he wouldn’t testify.
Testifying would have been risky. At times, Kelly has exploded in anger under tough questioning, which could hurt his defense.
He lost his cool in a 2019 interview with Gayle King on “CBS This Morning.” As she pressed him about accusations of sexual abuse, he jumped up, crying and gesticulating. “I didn’t do this stuff!” he shouted. “This is not me! I’m fighting for my … life!”
Lawyers for all three defendants are essentially sharing witnesses. McDavid’s legal team called the first defense witness, McDavid friend and former police officer Christopher G. Wilson. He testified that McDavid told him in 2001 that a merchandizing agent for Kelly, Charles Freeman, was trying to blackmail the R&B star.
Freeman testified earlier for the government that Kelly and his associates agreed to pay him $1 million to hunt down and return a video that featured Kelly, describing how he was handed bags full of cash as payment. He said the money was for services rendered, not an extortion bid. Prosecutors say the payments were part of a conspiracy to obstruct investigators leading up to Kelly’s 2008 trial.
Under cross-examination, Wilson conceded he didn’t directly witness anyone trying to extort Kelly, saying he was relying on what McDavid told him.
A conviction on just one or two of the charges at the Chicago trial could add years to a 30-year sentence Kelly already received from a New York federal judge in June for convictions on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
Via witnesses Thursday, the defense also sought to raise doubts about the ages of a few accusers, saying at least one may have been 17, the age of consent in Illinois, at the time Kelly pursued her for sex.
There was nothing necessarily sinister about Kelly or his workers dealing in cash, another defense witness, former Kelly studio intern Tom Arnold, told jurors. Kelly rarely used his own credit cards and preferred cash transactions, added Arnold, who said he once carried $125,000 to Kelly in a backpack.
The highlight of prosecutors’ presentation was the testimony two weeks ago of a 37-year-old woman who used the pseudonym “Jane.” She described Kelly sexually abusing her hundreds of times starting in 1998 when she was 14 and Kelly was around 30.
Closing arguments are expected to happen in the middle of next week.
Charlie Puth talks about his upcoming new album ‘Charlie’, his collaboration with BTS’ Jungkook ‘Left to Right’, being a fan of Nicki Minaj and more in an upcoming interview.
Romeo Santos has released his highly anticipated studio album Formula, Vol. 3 (Sony Music Latin), coinciding with his eldest son’s birthday on Sept. 1.
Home to 21 tracks — including the only previously released single “Sus Huellas,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Latin Airplay chart — the new set flaunts the ever-experimental Santos tapping into hip-hop, trap, tango, merengue and regional Mexican without losing touch of his bachata essence.
His collaborators include renowned pop star Justin Timberlake, Mexican artist Christian Nodal and Spanish songstress Rosalía, to name a few. He also teams up with a wave of Dominican talent, from the big dogs Toño Rosario and Luis Miguel del Amargue to newcomers like Chris Lebron. Even comedian and actor Katt Williams and Santos’ children make a cameo.
“I’ve taken this ‘King of Bachata’ title very personally,” Santos told Billboard for his recent cover story. “It’s a huge responsibility. It was very risky, very descarado to say, ‘We’re the kings of bachata!’ But you can say anything you want as long as you back it up, and I take pride in that. I want to make sure that all my albums, whether people like them or not, they can listen to and realize there was some production, there was work put in. I’m very meticulous when it comes to my music. When I do anything, even a salsa, it sounds like Romeo Santos.”
The album, which Santos began working on pre-pandemic, ends with “Nirvana,” a vulnerable track on which the King of Bachata has an open conversation with God about his loved ones, his colleagues, the Uvalde school shooting, and other social and personal issues. “I know I’m complaining, but I continue to pray,” he chants. “When I’m in doubt I just hope that you hear me, open up your arms and take me into Nirvana, into the clouds just so you could tell me that you’re around.”
Formula, Vol. 3 comes eight years since Santos released Vol. 2 in 2014, which is still on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart after 386 consecutive weeks — the most for any Latin album in history. Since the last Formula album in 2014, Santos has released Golden (2017) and Utopia (2019).
Below, check out all the collaborations on the set. ranked:
7. “La Ultima Vez” feat. Luis Miguel del Amargue
For this fast-paced, infectious bachata, Santos joined forces with veteran bachatero Luis Miguel del Amargue. The track tells the story of a man who decided to part ways with his girlfriend for being a gold digger and leaving him without money. A strong contender to become a fan favorite because of its traditional bachata beat and relatable lyrics, this collaboration takes up back to Santos’ conceptual Utopia album, where he collaborated with bachata’s biggest exponents including Raulin Rodriguez, Luis Vargas, and many more.
6. “El Pañuelo” feat. Rosalía
Rosalía has expressed her love for bachata and had already recorded one herself alongside The Weeknd. This time, she teams up with the K.O.B. on a more traditional-sounding bachata, which she and Romeo elevate with their distinctive and wide-ranging vocals. Both sound excellent like they were meant to sing bachata together, and I love that they stuck to a strict bachata sound (instead of an overly-produced fusion of sounds) to allow their vocals to take the spotlight.
5. “Culpable” feat. Lapiz Conciente
Just like Santos has songs about heartbreak, love, connecting with God, and even for his mother-in-law, he has a track for those who are locked up in prison. For this chill Hip-Hop track, which samples Luniz’s “I Got 5 On It,” Santos reeled in Dominican rapper Lapiz Conciente. Honoring his artistic name, Lapiz spits raw lyrics about the street life, being in jail, and feeling guilty, but also reflecting on his life lessons and a hopeful future. “This song is dedicated to all those people who because of errors in life are serving a sentence,” Lapiz says at the end of the track.
4. “15,000 Noches” feat. Toño Rosaria, Rubby Perez, Fernando Villalona, and Ramon Orlando
This fast-paced merengue song is a journey to the depths of the genre’s roots, and what better way than recruiting four of the strongest exponents in the tropical genre? Its lyrics are nothing short of a romantic poem, in which he praises a divine way of seeing the beloved woman, almost like a divine creature. “I want to duplicate your existence, connect with God and ask him for his mold, maybe he lends me the brush, and I can clone you with other conditions, and so we will have love,” Santos sings in the chorus.
3. “Siri” feat. Chris Lebron
One of the most exciting collaborations on the set is this track with rising Dominican act Chris Lebron, further proving Santos’ bets on the new talents deriving from his country. Unlike all the other danceable tracks on the album, “Siri” is a downtempo, dancehall, where both Santos and Lebron’s smooth vocals come out to shine. The single reflects on a man who’s alone, heartbroken, and whose only companion is the virtual assistant, Siri. “Siri call her and tell her to come back/without here, this house is a jungle/Siri call her and ask her where she is/tell her I got back my virginity making love with loneliness,” sings Lebron.
2. “Sin Fin” feat. Justin Timberlake
Yeah. That’s Justin Timberlake singing a bachata and, truth be told, he sounds better than I expected. Not that I was expecting him to sound off but JT singing a bachata is something I never thought I’d hear. So, when Romeo Santos revealed that he was a collaborator on his new album, I was a bit nervous not knowing if it’d sound forced or inorganic. I was pleasantly surprised when I finally heard “Sin Ti.” Timberlake’s sweet vocals match perfectly with bachata’s delicate guitar notes. “You already know this love is all yours, baby, so take it. We’ve been here before and [it’s] strong enough to save us, oh baby,” Timberlake sings injecting pathos into his delivery.
1. “Me Extrano” feat. Christian Nodal
When Romeo decided to dip his toes in Regional Mexican, he made sure to reel in the top mariacheño artist of the moment, Christian Nodal. On this track, Santos’ high-pitched smooth vocals are a contrast to Nodal’s powerful tone. Nevertheless, this mariachi song carries melancholy through all its musical notes and lyrics as it narrates the story from the point of view of two men who have had the same woman. Romeo, the one who let her go and didn’t know how to treat her, accepts his mistakes and the irony of missing her. “I recognize the damage/before I was like you, and that’s why I’m shocked,” and Nodal is grateful for his mistakes “Cheers for what you have neglected,” he sings.
YNG Martyr is the type of hip-hop artist who drives in his own lane. To push the cliché further still, his car is a self-designed one-off, and he rarely adheres to the speed limit.
A proud Wiradjuri man, YNG Martyr today joins the Warner Music Australia roster. And straight out the gate, the 21-year-old drops “It Happened,” his first release through the music major.
“It Happened” is a kooky hip-hop number with touches of Earl Sweatshirt, a production that could come from anywhere. If you said it was born in Canberra, the Australian capital, you’d be right, and it would be a total fluke.
YNG Martyr is no novice. His independent career has yielded more than 140 million streams for his tracks on Spotify. If there’s a well-trodden path to success, he ignored it. The rapper, songwriter and producer threw the dice with a $15,000 loan, which he dropped on a social media influencer strategy, he then turned his attention to TikTok and Instagram content, and launched his 2019 single “Nike Ticks”.
The track has kicked on past 66 million listens on Spotify, and “Ease Off” has accumulated more than 28 million plays.
Dan Rosen, president of Warner Music Australasia, reckons the new signing is a “force to be reckoned with,” his creative output extending across own marketing ideas, and social media campaigns.
The rising artist also boasts a sizeable YouTube presence, with upwards of 56,000 subscribers and 14 million total views.
“My career has always been very DIY, and in a lot of ways I have done everything in reverse,” YNG Martyr explains. “80% of my listenership is currently in America, which is insane to me, but a big part of me has always itched to bring it back to Australia.”
Signing with Warner Music means “that I can continue to grow independently overseas, but have the backing of a dedicated team within Australia,” he continues. “I am not usually a person who is interested in label deals, but after meeting the team here I was convinced that they had my best interest at heart and they knew what they were doing.”
“It Happened” is accompanied with an official music video, filmed in under 18 hours and directed by Josh Davis, in and around his hometown of Canberra.
Watch below.
Avril Lavigne received her very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Wednesday, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of her debut album Let Go.
During the ceremony, the pop-punk pioneer reflected on her very first trip to Los Angeles at 16, and the first time she ever saw the famous star-lined path. She even unveiled a picture of her teenage self from that trip, wearing a navy hoodie emblazoned with the words “Skateboarding is a Crime” and made a surprise quick change into that very same sweatshirt mid-speech.
“Today, I love making music more than ever,” the singer said from the podium, according to Variety. “I feel so inspired. And I hope that the next 16-year-old from their small town who comes to Hollywood one day, full of hopes and dreams, sees this star and thinks to themself, ‘Oh my god, my name could be there one day, too.’ Because it can. What an amazing 20 years, and I can’t wait for the next 20, bitches! Let’s go!”
Lavigne’s big day was also attended by her fiancé Mod Sun, “Bois Lie” collaborator and tourmate Machine Gun Kelly, Love Sux producer John Feldmann, Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden, Ryan Cabrera, Jxdn and co-writer Lauren Christy.
Last month, Lavigne and Kelly released a stripped-down acoustic version of their gleefully combative album cut from her latest studio set, which was released in February. Earlier this summer, Lavigne also returned to the site where she shot the album cover of 2002’s Let Go to re-create the moment hours before playing New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Check out photos from Lavigne’s Walk of Fame ceremony below.
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