Source: Courtesy of The Apollo Theater / The Apollo Theater It’s hard to believe another year has wrapped up, moving us closer to a new decade. For some, 2018 might’ve dragged with the speed of molasses thanks to celebrity shenanigans and Trump-era politics. For others, it could’ve went with a snap thanks to viral moments that kept us distracted and entertained. Either way, there’s no question that there were some big winners this year and some big losers. Hit the next pages to reflect on a year full of ups and down. Hopefully, the memories can get you motivated on what to do and what not to do in 2019!
Source: Prince Williams / Getty Jeezy Helps Feed A Family Who Lost Their House To A Fire According to PageSix , Jeezy gifted a Thanksgiving dinner to a Marietta family who lost their home to a fire. Victoria Natt says her family woke up one night last week to their home covered in flames. She says she escaped unharmed along with her husband, Tavares Natt, and their 14 children. Natt says her family is staying in a hotel until they can find another home, but Jeezy reportedly offered to pay the Natt family’s hotel bill for the rest of the year. The Natt Family is regrouping after 12 kids, their parents, an uncle escaped a fire. @Jeezy is helping this Thanksgiving. He’s here now. pic.twitter.com/CfP41L2Vzb — Rikki Klaus (@RikkiKlausWSB) November 22, 2018 When @Jeezy shows up and serves your Thanksgiving dinner. pic.twitter.com/Xr7X3EjMrB — Rikki Klaus (@RikkiKlausWSB) November 22, 2018 @RikkiKlausWSB talks with @Jeezy & a mother of 14 about how the rapper is helping them on this Thanksgiving Day @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/m0SDCylN3i — Tony Betton Jr (@TonyBettonJrTV) November 22, 2018 Jeezy catered Thanksgiving dinner at a Natt family member’s house and said his actions were “what Atlanta’s all about.” A Gofundme page has raised more than $27,000 to help the family.
Source: Prince Williams / Getty Juelz Santana Proposes to Kimbella at the Apollo Theater Juelz Santana was at the Apollo to celebrate the release of the Diplomats’ new album Diplomatic Ties . The nine-track project dropped on Thanksgiving day and the Dipset vet chose to celebrate by dropping to one knee & popping the question to his long time girlfriend Kimbella on stage in front of friends & fans. Congrats to them both! HISTORY. MADE. @thejuelzsantana just got engaged on our stage!! #DIPSETAPOLLO FULL VIDEO pic.twitter.com/14uDxBZxzs — Apollo Theater (@ApolloTheater) November 24, 2018
Oh my goodness the brand new trailer for Creed II is out and it already has us hype for Thanksgiving. The film stars Michael B. Jordan reprising his role from the original Creed as Adonis Creed, son of the legendary Apollo Creed. This time, things are different for Adonis. He’s a champion and he and his girlfriend Bianca, played by Tessa Thompson have a family together. However, Creed II is all about a rivalry four decades in the making: Creed vs. Drago. If you recall in the original Rocky franchise, Creed’s father Apollo was killed by Ivan Drago, played by Dolph Lundgren . Well, guess who is opposite Adonis in the ring for his latest superfight? None other than Ivan Drago’s son, Viktor, played by Florian Munteanu . RELATED: ‘Creed II’ + 9 Other Black Films You Should See Before The End Of 2018 RELATED: Tessa Thompson Says Michael B. Jordan’s DMs Are Full Of Women Offering Him Sandwiches Steven Caple Jr. is directing this time, replacing Ryan Coogler who serves as executive producer. Sylvester Stallone reprises his role as Rocky Balboa, his eighth film in the role and the crux of the latest film is the young Creed fighting not only for redemption but his family’s legacy as well. Fight for your destiny one round at a time. #Creed2 pic.twitter.com/QX7pPMpi69 — #CREED2 (@creedmovie) September 25, 2018 Watch the trailer up top. Join Our Text Club To Get The Latest Music, Entertainment, Contests And Breaking News On Your Phone
Source: Kid Fury / Instagram Fans of Kid Fury and Crissle’ s The Read podcast already know about the comedic chops of the host with his hilarious takes on pop culture and beyond. Fury will now be getting to that HBO bag with a new half-hour comedy series, and Lena Waithe of Masters Of None fame will join the show as an executive producer. Variety exclusively reports : The untitled project is described as a surreal dark comedy that follows Greg, a 20-something sarcastic gay black man navigating adulthood and responsibility in New York City while struggling to wrap his head around his undiagnosed clinical depression. Kid Fury, whose given name is Gregory A. Smith, will serve as writer and co-executive producer on the series with Waithe executive producing. Chloe Pisello, David Martin, Jon Thoday, and Richard Allen-Turner of Avalon Television will also executive produce. Jason Kim will co-executive produce. Kid Fury is a comedian and co-host of the hit podcast “The Read” along with Crissle West. The podcast features a queer black perspective on pop culture, politics, and life advice, which has helped it establish a cult following. “The Read” also tours as a live show across the US and Europe, and recently celebrated it’s five year anniversary with a sold-out live show at the Apollo Theater. Congrats are due for Kid Fury and Lena Waithe as they continue to flourish creatively. — Photo: Instagram
Activist and Divergent star Shailene Woodley was arrested while protesting the Dakota Pipeline ? We all remember the Dakota Pipeline protests. There was national outcry over threatening the water table of Native Americans — especially after everything that the US government has done (and continues to do) to the Native American population. There were also broader environmental concerns, as oil pipelines are notorious for leaking. Protesters were numerous and passionate, and came from people of different ages and backgrounds, from military veterans to optimistic young people to the Native Americans directly threatened by pipeline’s construction. Unlike the passive responses of police to torch-bearing Nazi protesters in Charlottesville that included a weekend of violence against racial minorities and a vehicular terrorist attack against counter-protesters, both caught on video, the police responded to the pipeline protesters with a show of force and violence. Protesters were sprayed with firehoses in freezing temperatures. Rubber bullets, which can injure and even kill, were fired into the crowd. In the end, of course, President Obama — who had likely postponed any decision in order to avoid making it an election issue, back when there was still hope in the world — fixed it. Temporarily. Doing his best impression of President John Adams’ infamous Midnight Justices , President Obama effectively brought progress to a halt on the Dakota Access Pipeline at the 11th hour. That didn’t change the way that peaceful protesters had suffered during the ordeal. And it changed nothing for Shailene Woodley, who is now sharing exactly what the experience of being arrested was like. Shailene is bravely opening up, now, about her ordeal being arrested. In an interview with Marie Claire UK , Shailene Woodley describes her traumatic experience at Morton County Jail. “I was strip-searched. Like get naked, turn over, spread your butt cheeks, bend over.” She was a peaceful protester who should not have been arrested (we’ll get to that in a moment), so this should not have happened. “They were looking for drugs in my a–.” Awful. We don’t care if it’s standard procedure. It’s awful. “When you’re in a jail cell and they shut that door, you realize no one can save you.” There are so many good police officers in the world, and many people look at police as there to help by default. (I know that I do) But it is haunting to be aware that there are police individuals and even entire groups who are willing and eager to abuse their power. “If there’s a fire and they decide not to open the door, you’ll die. You are a caged animal.” Terrifying. Shailene describes how she turned off her phone for three months due to her PTSD symptoms. Most of us are unwilling to go without our phones for three minutes (and with good reason), so you know how deeply she was impacted by her ordeal. “There was so much trauma.” Clearly. “Mine was like, ‘What do I do now?’ Kind of like a little bit of depression.” Very understandable. Different people cope in different ways. As we said, Shailene should never have been arrested in the first place. At the time, she spoke out about how heavily armed officers were waiting to arrest her as she returned to where she was staying. She believes that she was specifically targeted because she had tens of thousands of followers keeping up with her posts about the protest. We don’t know if the men who arrested her believed that they were making an example of her or shutting her up, but it was inexcusable. Maybe overeager police could save some of that aggression for the next nazi rally, huh?
Activist and Divergent star Shailene Woodley was arrested while protesting the Dakota Pipeline ? We all remember the Dakota Pipeline protests. There was national outcry over threatening the water table of Native Americans — especially after everything that the US government has done (and continues to do) to the Native American population. There were also broader environmental concerns, as oil pipelines are notorious for leaking. Protesters were numerous and passionate, and came from people of different ages and backgrounds, from military veterans to optimistic young people to the Native Americans directly threatened by pipeline’s construction. Unlike the passive responses of police to torch-bearing Nazi protesters in Charlottesville that included a weekend of violence against racial minorities and a vehicular terrorist attack against counter-protesters, both caught on video, the police responded to the pipeline protesters with a show of force and violence. Protesters were sprayed with firehoses in freezing temperatures. Rubber bullets, which can injure and even kill, were fired into the crowd. In the end, of course, President Obama — who had likely postponed any decision in order to avoid making it an election issue, back when there was still hope in the world — fixed it. Temporarily. Doing his best impression of President John Adams’ infamous Midnight Justices , President Obama effectively brought progress to a halt on the Dakota Access Pipeline at the 11th hour. That didn’t change the way that peaceful protesters had suffered during the ordeal. And it changed nothing for Shailene Woodley, who is now sharing exactly what the experience of being arrested was like. Shailene is bravely opening up, now, about her ordeal being arrested. In an interview with Marie Claire UK , Shailene Woodley describes her traumatic experience at Morton County Jail. “I was strip-searched. Like get naked, turn over, spread your butt cheeks, bend over.” She was a peaceful protester who should not have been arrested (we’ll get to that in a moment), so this should not have happened. “They were looking for drugs in my a–.” Awful. We don’t care if it’s standard procedure. It’s awful. “When you’re in a jail cell and they shut that door, you realize no one can save you.” There are so many good police officers in the world, and many people look at police as there to help by default. (I know that I do) But it is haunting to be aware that there are police individuals and even entire groups who are willing and eager to abuse their power. “If there’s a fire and they decide not to open the door, you’ll die. You are a caged animal.” Terrifying. Shailene describes how she turned off her phone for three months due to her PTSD symptoms. Most of us are unwilling to go without our phones for three minutes (and with good reason), so you know how deeply she was impacted by her ordeal. “There was so much trauma.” Clearly. “Mine was like, ‘What do I do now?’ Kind of like a little bit of depression.” Very understandable. Different people cope in different ways. As we said, Shailene should never have been arrested in the first place. At the time, she spoke out about how heavily armed officers were waiting to arrest her as she returned to where she was staying. She believes that she was specifically targeted because she had tens of thousands of followers keeping up with her posts about the protest. We don’t know if the men who arrested her believed that they were making an example of her or shutting her up, but it was inexcusable. Maybe overeager police could save some of that aggression for the next nazi rally, huh?
