Suru: Baba Iwa

I never thought I’d have to do this, but things have become incredibly difficult and I urgently need help. I’ve set up a fundraiser to get through this situation. If you can donate or share, I’d be deeply grateful oncrowdr.com/explore/c/help…

Joe Lim estimates that 90 percent of what you see on the internet is advertising in disguise, and he should know. For three years, Lim ran a company called Floodify, which at its peak operated 65,000 dummy social-media accounts used to drum up attention on behalf of paying clients. The point of this kind of marketing is that nobody is supposed to notice it. But lately, the machinery has started to show. In April, Justin Bieber headlined two consecutive weekends at Coachella. Coachella is the biggest stage in pop music save only for the Super Bowl, the kind of event that in theory generates its own attention. And yet on both weekends, a Discord server writer Lane Brown had been monitoring hosted paid campaigns for Bieber’s Coachella performances, offering clippers — people who are hired to turn a song, trailer, interview, stump speech, or whatever into short, social-media-friendly fragments — as much as a dollar per thousand views. “On social media, popular opinion is being formed, measured, and manipulated all at once, and every signal the platforms produce — a trending song, a backlash, a talking point, the feeling that ‘everybody’ is suddenly talking about the same thing — can now be fabricated by unseen actors with hidden agendas,” writes Brown. “Everybody is doing this now,” Lim says. “And if you’re not, you’re behind.” Brown reports on how the same techniques are now being used to fool people on every app they go to in order to find out what other people think, not just in music but across entertainment, politics, consumer products, and celebrity gossip: nymag.visitlink.me/w6Bu9N

Talk your talk (abi tweet your tweet), you're a journalist, people mustn't always agree with your opinions.

But Hov is still making smart songs, even after saying that.

Sterling K. Brown talks about why he chose to be part of the film “Is God Is” “So there’s the macro and the micro. I love Black women, and I love seeing Black women win, right? I thought this was an incredibly creative script, something different and new, and I think that we, as a community, have been asking for creative and new stories, right? And I feel like the more diverse the landscape of stories are that we get to tell, the more people will stop putting us into a box in terms of what a Black movie is, what a Black story is. We are everything, and so the opportunity to do everything is something that excites me. Aleshea (Harris) wrote a play, then she adapted the play, and she directed the play, and I think she did so brilliantly. I also love the idea that Black women get a chance to be messy in this film, like hella messy. I feel like oftentimes we’re asked, in many stories, to be voices of reason. Sort of the sensible side component of a larger story, and that’s not the case in this. That is exciting to me.” 🔗 rollingout.com/2026/05/16/why…

I don't even understand the outrage when she could have clearly or unclearly stated her argument(s).

After everything that happened between Dot and Drake, Cole is the victim-a collateral damage.

Drake be like all these fuji artistes on top these new albums, lyrics don finish, he just dey call people name. E ba mi ki nick nurse, mo binu si lebron, umg lo na mi lowo, Jcole o pick call mi.

Tomorrow. #IsGodIs

Anyone can annotate lyrics based on an assumption. How sure are you that Cole is avoiding a fight that's not his mistake? Mind you, a debate can't be honest (is there anything like an honest debate?) because I have the right to prove my points, just as you do.

You nailed it, man. People need to study rap battles to understand that nothing is 'true' when it comes to insults. The movie Bodied, produced by Eminem & some other guys, is a perfect example of a rap battle & beef in general.

The lyrics you quoted vague. Its target can be anyone and not necessarily Cole.

The 'truth' in beef is always debatable. Thug can say that because he wasn't skin deep in the beef, and that's him using his agency. What allegations are there for Cole to refute?

@NurudeenDIdris @nelsoncj3, @NurudeenDIdris is the man for the job.

@mykflow Baba. Yes, I'm still into printing but I don't have a book binder.

Check Shomolu. @NurudeenDIdris, are you still in the printing and publishing business?

@z_skywalker99 But Cole is also a friend of Dot. Whatever he said about any of the beefing rappers would mean he's taking a side.

21 settled the rift between Drake and Future. Telling Cole to call Drake because he avoided a beef that's not his is diminishing Cole's agency and artistry.

This caller is a rap scholar. See how she quotes lyrics and carefully dissects them.

One of the most serious offences in the creative industry is self-plagiarism.

The subliminals are for everyone he felt slighted or didn't side with him during the beef, and it's not particularly interesting. It's as though he is returning to what got him the smokes.