Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Quavo hosts
summit against gun violence featuring VP Kamala Harris
LOS ANGELES | Migos rapper Quavo’s quest to transform his nephew Takeoff’s tragic shooting into a force for change convened with a summit against gun violence on what would have been the late rapper’s 30th birthday.
Quavo held the inaugural Rocket Foundation Summit at the Carter Center in Atlanta on Tuesday — the same day as Takeoff’s birthday. The music performer was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris in a fireside chat during the one-day summit, which included panel discussions about gun violence prevention and youth programs.
For Quavo, it’s been a rough road since Takeoff’s untimely death in 2022. But many of his family members — including his nephew’s mother — often encourage him to keep pushing forward.
“It’s super hard every day. I’m still crying. I’m still grieving. I’m still mourning,” said Quavo, who along with his family launched the Rocket Foundation in honor of Takeoff and committed millions to invest into community violence intervention.
Last year, the Grammy-nominated rapper attended the Congressional Black Caucus legislative conference where he met with political figures including Harris and Greg Jackson, who is now the deputy director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention after his stint with the Community Justice Action Fund.
“Just to look behind me and see that I got the VP and guys like Greg Jackson and other survivors that actually fell victim to the same thing, I know that I’m not alone,” Quavo continued. “This is my second calling. This is very personal to me. That’s what makes my drive and motivation to go even harder.”
Police say Takeoff was an innocent bystander who was shot outside a Houston bowling alley after a disagreement over a lucrative dice game. Takeoff’s death was among a string of fatal shootings in recent years that involved hip-hop stars such as Nipsey Hussle, Pop Smoke, PnB Rock and Young Dolph.
Quavo calls the foundation and summit a “certified movement.” Earlier this year, he and the foundation created the Sparks Grant program, which supports organizations working to minimize community violence.
The program will award $100,000 in grants to Atlanta-focused organizations.
“I feel like a lot of people just announce foundations and keep it moving for nonprofit purposes or even financial issues,” he said. “But I’m on the ground. I’m actually working. We’re getting things done. We’re getting results. We’re raising real money. We’re going down into the real communities where the problem has been an issue.”
Quavo’s discussion with Harris touched on the impact that community violence intervention can make and the importance of youth support systems in decreasing gun violence. A separate roundtable discussion connected families of victims with survivors.
“To translate that pain and grief into something that is about creating strength and empowerment in the community — including our young — is pretty extraordinary,” Harris said during the discussion while speaking to Quavo. “You have chosen to use your celebrity and the gifts you have as an artist to talk about and actually work on with action. It’s extraordinary. You are an incredible leader. A national leader on this.”
The summit featured panels with a focus on the gun violence crisis in the United States and how community violence intervention is a long-term solution for this issue. Another will discuss the importance of supporting youth in the fight against gun violence and visibility of youth resources.
Quavo hopes the summit can lead to more partnerships between the Rocket Foundation and the White House. He’s on a mission to ensure his voice is heard and honor his nephew’s legacy.
“It hits hard when it hits home,” he said. “We’re trying to avoid that. Just because it’s next door, you don’t close your door. You can open the door and help your neighborhood. It’s joining hands with the world and making sure this awareness is on a national billboard. That’s my platform.”
‘Verzuz’ will return after Swizz Beatz, Timbaland lock in new partnership
LOS ANGELES | Swizz Beatz and Timbaland are bringing the “Verzuz” series back with a new major platform for viewers to watch musicians face off in a song-against-song battle.
The legendary producers announced Wednesday that Verzuz cemented an exclusive partnership for independent distribution with the social media site X.
Swizz Beatz said he’s looking forward to the new chapter for Verzuz, which became popular during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Not only are we excited to have Verzuz on X, we’re excited to help X build the biggest entertainment company in the world,” he said in statement before he thanked several X executives including owner Elon Musk for believing in their vision. “We can’t wait to get back to work.”
Both companies agreed on a “mutually beneficial alliance” where Swizz Beatz and Timbaland maintain full ownership and creative control, while X receives exclusive distribution rights.
Timbaland said he’s thrilled to expand their viewership through X, which has more than 300 millions monthly active users. Viewers will be able to watch “Verzuz” for free.
“Our goal has always been to bring Verzuz to the world which we can now do bigger than ever,” he said.
“Verzuz” came to life in 2020 after a friendly competition between Swizz Beatz and Timbaland on social media started off to entertain homebound fans during the pandemic. But their platform eventually evolved into a place where some of music’s biggest stars competed against each other in the same fashion.
The series had grown from a novel event to bridging music’s past and present. It began on Instagram Live to having in-person battles in front of an audience.
Some of the most epic battles have included John Legend vs. Alicia Keys, Erykah Badu vs. Jill Scott, Gladys Knight vs. Patti LaBelle, Gucci Mane vs. Jeezy, Brandy vs. Monica and Snoop Dogg vs. DMX. An April battle between Babyface vs. Teddy Riley ended abruptly due to audio issues but was completed another night.
The series was acquired by Triller in 2021, but Swizz Beatz and Timbaland sued the social video platform company for breach of contract. The producers settled with Triller in 2022.
“Our platform stands at the forefront of innovation, and Verzuz defines the essence of an innovative content experience,” said X CEO Linda Yaccarino. “As we continue to work with the most exciting voices to bring premium content to X, there is no better fit than this series.”
Japan’s ‘beat poet’ Kazuko Shiraishi dies at 93
TOKYO | Kazuko Shiraishi, a leading name in modern Japanese “beat” poetry, known for her dramatic readings, at times with jazz music, has died. She was 93.
Shiraishi, whom American poet and translator Kenneth Rexroth dubbed “the Allen Ginsberg of Japan,” died of heart failure on June 14, Shichosha, a Tokyo publisher of her works, said Wednesday.
Shiraishi shot to fame when she was just 20, freshly graduated from Waseda University in Tokyo, with her “Tamago no Furu Machi,” translated as “The Town that Rains Eggs” — a surrealist portrayal of Japan’s wartime destruction.
With her trademark long black hair and theatrical delivery, she defied historical stereotypes of the silent, non-assertive Japanese woman.
“I have never been anything like pink,” Shiraishi wrote in her poem.
It ends: “The road / where the child became a girl / and finally heads for dawn / is broken.”
Shiraishi counted Joan Miro, Salvador Dali and John Coltrane among her influences. She was a pioneer in performance poetry, featured at poetry festivals around the world. She read her works with the music of jazz greats like Sam Rivers and Buster Williams, and even a free-verse homage to the spirit of Coltrane.
Born in Vancouver, Canada, she moved back to Japan as a child. While a teen, she joined an avant-garde poetry group.
Shiraishi’s personality and poems, which were sometimes bizarre or erotic, defied Japan’s historical rule-bound forms of literature like haiku and tanka, instead taking a modern, unexplored path.
Rexroth was instrumental in getting Shiraishi’s works translated into English, including collections such as “My Floating Mother, City” in 2009 and “Seasons of Sacred Lust” in 1978.
Over the years, her work has been widely translated into dozens of languages. She was also a translator of literature, including works by Ginsberg.
In 1973, Paul Engle invited her to spend a year as a guest writer at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, an experience that broadened her artistic scope and helped her gain her poetic voice.
“In the poems of Kazuko Shiraishi, East and West connect and unite fortuitously,” wrote German writer Gunter Kunert. “It refutes Kipling’s dictum that East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet. In Kazuko Shiraishi’s poems this meeting has already happened.”
A private funeral among family has been held while memorial service is being planned. She is survived by her husband Nobuhiko Hishinuma and a daughter.
—From AP reports
