The prime suspect in the Jacqueline Avant murder has been identified as 29-year-old Aariel Maynor, who was reportedly arrested within an hour of the shooting. According to TMZ, he tried to break into another home after the Avant break-in, and somehow shot himself in the foot along the way.
Maynor was released from prison on parole in September after being sentenced to four years in November 2018 for second-degree robbery. He had also been convicted on a separate second-degree robbery charge — along with a charge for inflicting great bodily harm — in November 2013.
If there ever was a pop star who embodied the term “America’s sweetheart,” it would be Britney Jean Spears.
Born today in 1981, Ms. Spears defined an era in popular music and exploded onto the scene in with a level of success that was unprecedented in its immediacy — her debut album, …Baby One More Time (1998), sold seven million copies worldwide with seven weeks of its release. The album would go on to sell over 32 million copies, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time and the best-selling debut album in history.
…Baby One More Time was followed by Oops! I Did It Again (2000), which sold over 1.3 million copies in its opening week in the US alone — a record for a female artist at the time. Her sophomore set would go on to sell 24 million copies worldwide, placing it on the all-time list like its predecessor. The album was followed by 2001’s Britney, which saw the star delve deeper into R&B-ish sounds than she did on previous albums.
As the years pass, there will be more albums and more hits, and Britney would cement her position as an all-time great. However, the commercial success is just one part of the story — we cannot talk about Britney’s life and career without talking about the media’s obsession with her. She was stalked by paparazzi for years — we could argue till today — and every part of her private life was headline news. The infamous head-shaving incident of 2007 is stuff of pop culture legend, as is the involuntary mental health evaluation of 2008. Those incidents would be used as the basis for the 13-year conservatorship that would prevent Britney from having any control of her affairs or even her body. The conservatorship was only terminated a few weeks ago.
With Britney finally free and newly engaged, her 40th birthday is sure to be her best one in years. Join me in celebrating a true icon.
According to TMZ, music industry icon Clarence Avant’s wife of 54 years, Jacqueline Avant, was shot and killed in a home invasion around 2:30am today. The couple lives in Trousdale Estates, an exclusive neighborhood near Beverly Hills.
By the time police arrived, Jacqueline had been rushed to the hospital. Clarence — who was just inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last month — was reportedly home when the invasion happened, but it is not clear if he was hurt as well.
As of midnight of November 30, 2021, Queen Elizabeth has officially been removed as Barbados’ head of state as the country. As previously announced, Dame Sandra Mason will assume the role of the country’s very first president after having served as its governor-general for three years.
Rihanna’s home country becomes a republic on its 55th Independence Day.
Written by Sylvia Robinson and Bert Keyes, “Love on a Two-Way” street was originally performed by Ray, Goodman & Brown, who scored a top five hit with the song back in 1970 (when they were called The Moments). It is the most successful version of the song, but my personal favorite is a 1981 cover by Stacy Lattisaw, who recorded the song for her third album, With You. It would go on to become one of her biggest hits.
In honor of Stacy Lattisaw’s 55th birthday, which is today, let’s revisit this amazing live performance of the song on Soul Train. Happy Thanksgiving!
With over 500,000 copies sold in three days, #Adele’s 30 is not only having the best-selling week of 2021, it has outsold every other album this year. Up until this week, those records belonged to Taylor Swift, whose Evermore has sold 462,000 this year, while Red (Taylor’s Version) had the biggest week yet last week (369,000).
If you’re a chart-watcher, this would come as no surprise: The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” is officially the biggest hit in US chart history.
Even though the song only spent four weeks at No. 1, it spent an unprecedented 43 weeks, 57 weeks, and 86 weeks in the top 5, top 10, and top 40, respectively. It also holds the record for the longest run on the Billboard Hot100 — 90 weeks.
“Blinding Lights” dethrones “The Twist” by Chubby Checker, which held the top spot for nearly six decades.
Mike Jones turns 40 years old today, so how about we revisit his “debut” single?
“Still Tippin'” has an official release date of November 12, 2004, but it had been out for over a year as a track on independent label Swishahouse’s 2003 compilation project, The Day Hell Broke Loose 2. Up until that point, Mike Jones’ music was popular in Houston strip clubs, but with “Still Tippin’,” radio began taking notice. The song gained so much airplay that Mike Jones landed a record deal with Warner Records while Swishahouse inked a distribution deal with Asylum Records — a subsidiary of Warner.
The original version of “Still Tippin'” featured Slim Thug and Chamillionaire, but after Mike Jones fell out with the latter, Paul Wall was tagged in. This song’s hook is a looped line from Slim Thug’s “I’m a Hoe (Freestyle)”.
“Still Tippin'” didn’t crack the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, but the length of its legacy — evidenced by the number of times it’s been sampled — speaks to its importance to hip-hop.
Post Malone and The Weeknd play gun-toting adversaries in the video for “One Right Now.” The video is a gory mess that has Abel’s name written all over it.
Video aside, “One Right Now” is a certified chune that takes you on the first listen. It debuted at No. 6 on the Billbord Hot 100 this week on the strength of audio streams alone, so it will probably crack the top five next week. Click play.
Young Dolph was killed in a drive-by shooting in Memphis earlier today. According to multiple reports, the rapper was in front of a local cookie store (called Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies) when a gun man pulled in a car and opened.
Young Dolph has been targeted in the past, surviving two shootings in 2017. In one of those incidents, he was shot at over 100 times.
Tributes have been pouring in since the news of Young Dolph’s passing broke. The Memphis native was 36 years old and leaves behind two children.
The prime suspect in the Jacqueline Avant murder has been identified as 29-year-old Aariel Maynor, who was reportedly arrested within an hour of the shooting. According to TMZ, he tried to break into another home after the Avant break-in, and somehow shot himself in the foot along the way.
