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Bodyguards for troubled rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine turned New York City into the Wild West last summer, piling into SUVs and chasing a man for 20 blocks with lights flashing after he attempted to record cellphone video of the recording star, prosecutors said Monday (July 19).
Five members of 6ix9ine’s security team, including a retired New York City police detective accused of lying and attempting to cover up the incident, were indicted Monday on robbery, false impersonation and other charges stemming from the pursuit last August in Harlem.
Tekashi 6ix9ine, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, was not charged.
“A celebrity entourage is not a police department, and Manhattan is not the Wild West,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a written statement announcing the indictments.
“As alleged, these highly-compensated vigilantes caravanned through the streets of Harlem with sirens flashing in order to track a man down and steal and break his phone,” Vance said.
The former NYPD detective, Daniel Laperuta, falsely claimed to police officers and a 911 dispatcher that the man being chased had threatened 6ix9ine’s team with a gun, Vance said.
When 6ix9ine’s bodyguards finally confronted the man, boxing him in with their SUVs near the Apollo Theater, they knocked his cell phone out and stomped it, Vance said.
As the man wrestled with one of the bodyguards in an attempt to get the phone back, Laperuta approached with his hand on his holstered gun and another bodyguard pointed a stun gun at the man, Vance said.
The security team fled in the SUVs as an unmarked police car drove up with lights flashing, Vance said.
Laperuta pleaded not guilty Monday and was expected to post bail Monday afternoon. Other members of the security team were expected to be arraigned later Monday.
Laperuta’s lawyer, Todd Cushner, said he was reviewing the charges against the former detective.
“For the most part, they’re unfounded,” Cushner said.
Online court records didn’t list lawyers for the other members of Tekashi 6ix9ine’s security team who were charged. Messages seeking comment were left with lawyers who’ve represented the rapper in the past.
6ix9ine, a Brooklyn native, rocketed to fame as a hip-hop artist after becoming a social media phenomenon with millions of followers on Instagram. He had a multiplatinum hit song, “Fefe,” with Nicki Minaj, which peaked at No. 3 on the pop charts in 2018, and “Stoopid,” featuring the incarcerated rapper Bobby Shmurda.
Since then, he’s been in and out of court — and prison.
Facing a mandatory minimum of 37 years in prison for gang crimes including allegedly orchestrating a shooting that left an innocent bystander wounded, 6ix9ine started cooperating with federal prosecutors and testifying against members of the gang, the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods.
He also testified that two men kidnapped him in July 2018, forcing him into a stolen car at gunpoint and stopping at times to beat and taunt him before taking him to his Brooklyn home and stealing a bag full of jewelry.
6ix9ine’s cooperation earned him leniency from prosecutors and scorn from fellow rappers, with Snoop Dogg calling him a “snitch.” In December 2019, 6ix9ine was sentenced to two years in federal prison. Just a few months later, a judge ordered him released to home confinement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Testifying in 2019, Tekashi 6ix9ine explained to jurors that his role in the Nine Trey gang was to “just keep making hits and be the financial support … so they could buy guns and stuff like that.”
Asked what he got in return, 6ix9ine responded: “My career. I got the street credibility. The videos, the music, the protection — all of the above.”
Robert E. “Robby” Steinhardt, a violinist and vocalist with the progressive rock band Kansas, has died due to complications from pancreatitis. He was 71.
His wife, Cindy Steinhardt, said he died Saturday at a hospital in Tampa, Florida. She announced via Facebook on Monday (July 19) that he had just recorded his first solo album and had been looking forward to being back on stage and going on tour.
Steinhardt, a native of Lawrence, Kansas, was an original member of the band, teaming up with Topeka West High School graduates Kerry Livgren, Rich Williams, Phil Ehart and Dave Hope and with Steve Walsh, who grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri. Steinhardt performed with Kansas from 1973 to 1982 and 1997 to 2006, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported.
The band sold more than 15 million records and notched seven top 40 hits, including “Dust in the Wind,” which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Carry on Wayward Son,” which hit No. 11.
The band, which now makes its home in Atlanta, continues to perform with Williams and Ehart as the only original remaining members.
KSI is on target for his first U.K. No. 1 with All Over The Place (BMG).
The English rapper and YouTuber’s sophomore album leads the Official Chart Update, and it’ll be difficult to catch.
All Over The Place is outselling the rest of the Top 5 combined, the OCC reports, and it’s the market leader on physical and digital sales.
KSI will hope to go one better than the performance of his debut album Dissimulation, which peaked at No. 2 in 2020.
Also new to the chart blast is John Mayer with Sob Rock (Columbia), his eighth studio album. It’s at No. 3 on the midweek chart, and should give Mayer his third U.K. Top 10.
Just one place behind is Pop Smoke’s second posthumous LP, Faith (Republic Records), new at No. 4 midweek.
Meanwhile, Hail Satin (Columbia), the Record Store Day release from Foo Fighters, as the disco alter-ego Dee Gees, is tracking for a No. 7 bow. If it holds it momentum, it’ll mark the Foos’ 12th Top 10 album.
Over on the Official Singles Chart Update, Ed Sheeran stays on track for a fourth week at No. 1 with “Bad Habits” (Asylum), ahead of the fast-rising “Heartbreak Anthem” by Galantis, David Guetta and Little Mix (up 5-2 via Atlantic/RCA) and Jonasu’s “Black Magic” (up 15-3 via 3 Beat).
Finally, Tones And I enters the Top 20 with “Fly Away” (Parlophone), up 25-17. Its Tones’ second Top 20 hit, following the former leader “Dance Monkey.”
The Official U.K. Singles and Albums Charts are published late Friday, local time.
Chinese-Canadian rapper turned actor Kris Wu, one of China’s biggest stars, has been dropped by a slew of major brands after he was accused of luring young girls, including underage teenagers, into having sex with him.
The allegations have generated a tsunami of social media outcry in China, with many demanding Wu quit the entertainment industry and leave the country for good.
The controversy began with allegations made by 19-year-old former fan Du Meizhu, who says Wu, 30, lured her to his home when she was just 17 with the promise of an audition, but proceeded to ply her with alcohol and have sex with her after she had blacked out. On Sunday, Du gave an interview with the Chinese internet site NetEase, saying that she knew of at least eight other women — two of whom are minors — who allege similar experiences with Wu.
Wu publicly denied the accusations and said he was filing a defamation suit.
Wu came to fame in Asia as a member of the popular K-pop boy band Exo, but he returned to China in 2014 to explore a solo career as a model, singer and actor. He has become one of China’s most bankable stars — a TV variety show staple, the face of dozens of major fashion campaigns in the country, a reasonably popular actor and a successful solo artist. He has appeared in several major Chinese box office hits, such as Mr. Six (2015) and Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back (2017), as well as a few Hollywood films — which were aiming to court the China market — like Vin Diesel’s xXx: Return of Xander Cage and Luc Besson’s mega-budget misfire Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
Chinese tabloid Global Times reported that Wu previously attempted to pay Du about 500,000 yuan ($77,166) in hush money to stay quiet with her story. The 19-year-old has since begun repaying the funds and stated that she wishes to pursue legal proceedings against Wu.
As of Sunday evening, Global Times said, the topic “NetEase interview with Du Meizhu” had been viewed over 1.66 billion times on China’s Twitter-like social media service Weibo. On the service’s entertainment hotlist, eight of the top 10 searches were related to Wu.
As one of China’s most visible celebrities, Wu is the face of scores of brands in the country, including Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Porsche, Lancôme, L’Oréal, Kans, Master Kong Iced Tea, Tuborg Brewery, household cleaning products maker Liby, kitchen appliances manufacturer Vatti, streaming platform Tencent Video and Tencent video game King of Glory.
By Sunday, nearly all of the Chinese brands had dropped him and many of the international companies had begun to distance themselves.
Louis Vuitton issued a brief statement Monday evening on Weibo, saying that it “takes the allegations against Kris Wu very seriously and has suspended its relationship with Kris Wu until the outcome of the judicial investigation is known.” Bulgari and Porsche also have since cut ties.
On Monday, Wu made his first statement in response to the allegations, writing on Weibo: “I didn’t respond earlier because I didn’t want to interfere with judicial proceedings… but I cannot bear it anymore.” He said he had met Du once at a friend’s party but denied the other details of her account. “If I’ve done any of the things [she claims], I will take myself to jail,” he added.
This article originally appeared in THR.com.
This year marks five years since Japanese artist and composer Isao Tomita died in 2016. To celebrate the influential career of Japan’s pioneer of synthesizer music, a selection of the best tracks from the albums he made on the Nippon Columbia/DENON label during the last five years of his life — entitled Rising Planet – Tomita’s Greatest Works of Space Music — will be made available for streaming on July 21.
Tomita began to work as a composer in a variety of fields while still a student in Keio University. His synthesizer music debut album Snowflakes Are Dancing: The Newest Sounds of Debussy from 1974 reached No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Albums chart dated Dec. 27, 1975; he owned a copy of that issue of Billboard magazine, gladly annotated with circles around that and another album of his at No. 15 that week, Moussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition. He became one of the first Japanese artists to be nominated for a Grammy Award with Snowflakes Are Dancing. The subsequent albums he released became unexpected successes around the world.
The groundbreaking composer died from chronic heart failure at the age of 84 on May 5, 2016. The premiere of Doctor Coppelius — the space ballet symphony that he’d been working on until an hour before his death — created a sensation after the memorial performance took place in Tokyo.
During the last five years of his life, Tomita devoted himself to the DENON: Isao Tomita Project, in an effort to completely remake his masterpieces from the 1970s in a form that he’d envisioned at the time but couldn’t realize, as well as add new creations to them. Rising Planet – Tomita’s Greatest Works of Space Music is a collection of 11 selected tracks from the seven albums he released as part of this major undertaking.
The main melody of “Rising of the Planet 9,” which was the last melody Tomita left behind, was first heard on the track “Itokawa and Hayabusa” in Planet Ultimate Edition, the first release of the DENON: Isao Tomita Project. This melody also appeared in important parts on subsequent albums, so it could be said to be the trademark phrase of the innovative musician’s late years. With this as a common theme, the new collection brings together the best of Tomita’s creativity, which he imprinted on the discs with an endlessly enterprising spirit during the last years of his life.
Furthermore, on “Night on the Galactic Railroad” from Symphony Ihatov, and his posthumous work “Rising of the Planet 9” from Doctor Coppelius, the visionary artist collaborated with the virtual singer Hatsune Miku to realize his longtime dream of having a machine sing on his compositions.
Flying Lotus, who professes to be influenced by Tomita’s music, shared a comment celebrating the new release: “The sound of Tomita has been part of me for many years, I’ve used it in many different scenarios especially sleeping, the music of Tomita has shown me colorful visions and lucid dreams,” says the Grammy-nominated music producer, who reveals that it was one of his inspirations for his recent soundtrack for the acclaimed Netflix animated series Yasuke. “These classical compositions are redefined and reimagined with such amazing sonics that, to me, are some of the most interesting sounds I’ve ever heard. Tomita was ahead of his time and I’m so glad that there’s a new generation of listeners interested in his magic.”
Rising Planet – Tomita’s Greatest Works of Space Music will drop on major streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple Music on Wednesday, July 21.
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