![[News] R Kelly pleads not guilty to 11 new charges of sexual abuse](https://i0.wp.com/sloppyvinyl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/rkellynotguiltyplea.jpg?resize=620%2C431&ssl=1)
by Sean Collins | Jun 7, 2019 | NEWS
On Thursday, R Kelly pleaded not guilty to the 11 additional charges of sexual assault. These charges are related to abuse of Jerondha Pace, who appeared in the Surviving R Kelly docuseries.
The 11 charges relating to Pace, who was a minor at the time, include four counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, two counts of criminal sexual assault, and five counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, according to court documents.
According to BuzzFeed News, Kelly was arrested in February with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse involving four women — three of whom were underage during the alleged acts. Also reported by BuzzfFed, R Kelly’s lawyer, Steve Greenberg, said that the new charges “are not really new — they are the same conduct, just charged differently, same alleged victim, same time frame, same facts.”
The plot thickens in the ever-expanding R Kelly story, with the charges piling up against the singer, and yet still a plea of not guilty. I’m not saying that this might be evidence that there is a giant conspiracy and R Kelly is innocent, just that there’s a lot to this story that the media, and thus the public, doesn’t know.
![[News] Billboard to release weekly Top Songwriters and Top Producers charts](https://i0.wp.com/sloppyvinyl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/billboard-logo-b-20-billboard-1548.jpg?resize=636%2C421&ssl=1)
by Sean Collins | Jun 7, 2019 | MUSIC, NEWS
For those who don’t follow music but want to seem educated, Billboard has come to the rescue with its new weekly Top Songwriters and Top Producers charts. A quick look at these lists will definitely score some points in a conversation. The charts will debut in the Billboard issue that comes June 15th and in a June 13th email blast delivered to Billboard subscribers. This addition seems like a smart move by Billboard, perfectly complimenting their weekly Billboard song rankings.
The charts will be calculated quantitatively: based on total points accrued by a songwriter or producer for each attributed song that appears on the respective charts. I like this move because if the Top Songwriters and Producers charts were ordered subjectively, that would ruffle many feathers, no matter the order.
According to Billboard.com, “We’re extremely excited to acknowledge the top creative forces behind music’s biggest hits on a weekly basis,” says Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard SVP of charts and data development. “A songwriter or producer’s influence and importance within the industry and beyond certainly merits recognition beyond our yearly rankings.”
“Anytime a light is shone upon the songwriters and producers who are the backbone of the industry, it’s a very good thing,” Atlas Music founder and CEO Richard Stumpf tells Billboard. “What Billboard is doing ties together with the digital services starting to show songwriter credits, so all of this is going the right way in helping the music fans become aware of the songwriters and the role they play.”
![[News] Glamour Magazine strips Linda Fairstein of 1993 Women of the Year award](https://i0.wp.com/sloppyvinyl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/lindafairsteinglamour.jpeg?resize=256%2C197&ssl=1)
by Sean Collins | Jun 6, 2019 | NEWS
Glamour Magazine has stripped Linda Fairstein of her 1993 Woman of the Year award. Fairstein was the main prosecutor on the Central Park 5 case.
The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Samantha Barry wrote an open letter stating, “Unequivocally, Glamour would not bestow this honor on her today. She received the award in 1993, before the full injustices in this case were brought to light. Though the convictions were later vacated and the men received a settlement from the City of New York, the damage caused is immeasurable.” The letter continued, “Glamour’s Women of the Year awards should reflect our culture, the values of our brand, and our audience. We remain committed to being thoughtful and purposeful about whom we choose to celebrate, and in this case, the lens of history has shown us that we got it wrong.”
This rebuke comes a few days after Fairstein deleted her social media accounts and stepped down from several nonprofit organizations. In fact, many complained that Glamour took too long to take away the award, and only did so when pressure to got too high. Netflix has recently released the miniseries When They See Us, which focuses on those five teens and the story of the case.
![[News] YouTube banning conspiracy and supremacist videos](https://i0.wp.com/sloppyvinyl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/youtubelogo.png?resize=258%2C196&ssl=1)
by Sean Collins | Jun 6, 2019 | NEWS
YouTube will be removing thousands of videos that either promote supremacy or deny well-documented tragedies such as the Holocaust or the Sandy Hook school shooting.
The company announced in a blog post, “videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status.
This ban is coming only a few months after Facebook said that it was banning white nationalist content from its site, which was in response to the terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand.
According to CNN, YouTube has been criticized for allowing videos that spread conspiracies, information, and radical views, and then recommending similar content to viewers of them. Even those who were watching mainstream, less harmful, news videos were recommended those extreme videos.
What frightens me most about YouTube’s format is what I mentioned in the last paragraph. I imagine some viewers of mainstream news YouTube videos are rather uneducated about current and will be impressionable enough to believe extreme views because they won’t know enough to refute them. This ban was definitely a step in the right direction.
![[News] Bhad Bhabie hospitalized because of stomach pain](https://i0.wp.com/sloppyvinyl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/bhadbahbie.jpeg?resize=275%2C183&ssl=1)
by Sean Collins | Jun 3, 2019 | NEWS
Danielle Bregoli, whose stage name is Bhad Bhabie, was hospitalized Monday morning due to intense stomach pains, according to TMZ.
The rapper felt sick as she was boarding a plane in Fort Lauderdale, Florida headed to Los Angeles, California. Her stomach pain worsened to the point that Bregoli needed to make a decision. Eventually Bregoli told the pilot that she needed to exit the plane, and her security team took her to a nearby hospital.
According to the reports, Bregoli had been experiencing painful cramps the previous few days and tried to endure the pain. Fans reported that she looked “irritated” and “not happy” at the airport. As the pain worsened, she definitely made the right decision to leave the plane, in order to avoid the danger of a medical emergency mid-flight.
Since the various stomach tests taken by the hospital came back negative, it is still unclear what caused Bregoli’s pain. Doctors urged her to rest, and she will fly to Los Angeles on Tuesday.
![[Technology] Apple shuts down iTunes](https://i0.wp.com/sloppyvinyl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/itunes.jpeg?resize=275%2C183&ssl=1)
by Sean Collins | Jun 3, 2019 | NEWS, Technology
It’s an end of an era: Apple is officially shutting down iTunes. It announced three desktop apps that will be replacing the iconic music platform: Music, TV, and Podcasts. This format is similar to how it is on iPhones/iPads.
According to CNN Business, a spokesperson at Apple said that all previous purchases and libraries will remain in these new three apps. This shutdown of iTunes doesn’t come as much of a surprise, because Apple has been pushing users more to its popular streaming service Apple Music.
Apple has been making other moves as well. At its Worldwide Developer Conference in San Jose, California, the company revealed iOS 13, which features a “dark mode”, new Siri features, and a brand new Mac laptop.
Let us know what you think about Apple’s recent decisions in the comments.
