Darryl Dawkins, the glass shattering former NBA player has passed away at age 58, according to WFMZ.
Dawkins played 15-years in the league for the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets, Detroit Pistons and the Utah Jazz.
Dawkins was best known for his tremendous dunks that he gave colorful names, such as "The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam, Glass-Breaker-I-Am-Jam."
In 1979, Dawkins shattered two glass backboards with powerful dunks.
His nickname, "Chocolate Thunder," was given to him by Stevie Wonder near the end of his career.
Chris Brown has taken his love for tattoos to a whole new level. The singer posted a photo of new ink covering a large portion on the back of his head. Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
**UPDATE** August 27
Chris completed his new tattoo by getting a bull inked on the left side of his head. Check it out.
August Alsina links up with fellow New Orleans native Lil Wayne for his new single titled "Why I Do It." Give it a listen up top and let us know what you think in the comment section below.
Decatur Alabama's 18 Year Old Teyz Soprano Drops TARZAN! His First Solo Single From His New Mix Tape PROBLEM CHILD Releasing SEPT 8Th ! Growing Up In The Jungle Means Survival Of The Fittest And Only The Strong Survive.. OTP Gangs Soprano Is Definitely A Problem And Is Determined To Put On For The 256! Google Teyz Soprano
Killa Kyleon bodies another visual off his 30 Days 30 Deaths project, this time drawing inspiration from the infamous Death Row Records Vibe Magazine cover from 1996. Check out the video for "Used To," directed by David Stunts
(AP) Even after gunning down a TV news reporter and cameraman during a live interview, Vester Lee Flanagan II continued to rage. But after a volatile career that had seen him fired at least twice for clashing with co-workers who recall him as an off-kilter loner, this would be the former broadcaster's last, brutal sign-off.
"I've been a human powder keg for a while...just waiting to go BOOM!!!" Flanagan wrote in a rambling 23-page note faxed to ABC News soon after the shooting.
Hours after he shot his former co-workers and then posted video of the attack to his Facebook page, Flanagan crashed a vehicle and shot himself. He died at a hospital later Wednesday, authorities said.
In the note, Flanagan — who had appeared on air using the name Bryce Williams — said he'd been discriminated against both for being black and gay. He listed grievances dating to the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech and the more recent massacre of worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
When Flanagan was fired from Roanoke, Virginia, station WDBJ in 2013, he had to be escorted from the building by police "because he was not going to leave willingly or under his own free will," the station's former news director, Dan Dennison, said in an interview with a Hawaii station, Hawaii News Now (KHNL/KGMB).
Flanagan, 41, had "a long series of complaints against co-workers nearly from the beginning of employment at the TV station," said Dennison, now an official with the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. "All of these allegations were deemed to be unfounded." Though the claims were along racial lines, he said, "we did a thorough investigation and could find no evidence that anyone had racially discriminated against this man."
The victims of Wednesday's shooting — reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27 — were white; Flanagan was black.
Alison Parker and Adam Ward
The conflict described by Dennison in many ways echoed another, in 2000, when Flanagan was fired from a Tallahassee, Florida, television station after threatening fellow employees, a former supervisor said.
Flanagan "was a good on-air performer, a pretty good reporter and then things started getting a little strange with him," Don Shafer, the former news director of Florida's WTWC-TV, said Wednesday. He spoke in an interview broadcast by Shafer's current employer, San Diego 6 The CW.
Shafer said managers at the Florida station fired Flanagan because of his "bizarre behavior."
"He threatened to punch people out and he was kind of running fairly roughshod over other people in the newsroom," said Shafer, who did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press for comment.
Kimberly Moore Wilmoth, who worked with Flanagan at the Florida station, recalled him as "off-kilter" and someone who "never really made himself part of the team."
Recalling one of a number of incidents, Wilmoth said co-workers meant to tease Flanagan for a story he did on a spelling bee that made it sound as if the winner would get a case of Girl Scouts, rather than cookies sold by the group.
"The next day, somebody had a Girl Scout emblem on their desk and we made some copies of it and taped them to his computer," she said. "If he had only laughed, we would have all been friends forever. But he didn't laugh ... he got mad. And that was when I realized he wasn't part of the collegiality that exists in a newsroom and he removed himself from it."
In 2000, Flanagan sued the Florida station over allegations of race discrimination, claiming that a producer called him a "monkey" in 1999 and that other black employees had been called the same by other workers. Flanagan also claimed that an unnamed white supervisor at the station said black people were lazy because they did not take advantage of scholarships to attend college. The parties later reached a settlement.
Flanagan grew up in Oakland, California, and graduated from San Francisco State University.
Virgil Barker, who grew up on the same tree-lined street in the Oakland hills, recalled his childhood friend Wednesday with fondness.
"I know you want to hear that he was a monster, but he was the complete opposite," Barker said. "He was very, very loving."
Barker said he had lost touch with Flanagan over the years but remained close to Flanagan's sister, who still lives in the family's home across the street.
No one answered the door Wednesday morning at the white stucco house, with fruit trees in the front yard overlooking San Francisco Bay.
Before and after his work in Florida, Flanagan worked at a series of stations around the country.
They included a stint in 1996 at KPIX, a San Francisco station, where a spokeswoman confirmed he worked as a freelance production assistant. From 1997 to 1999, he worked as a general assignment reporter at WTOC-TV in Savannah, Georgia. From 2002 to 2004, he worked as a reporter and anchor at WNCT-TV in Greenville, North Carolina, general manager and vice president John Lewis said.
A former co-worker at the California station, Barbara Rodgers, recalled him only vaguely as "a young, eager kid out of journalism school," who "just wanted to be on TV and to do a good job."
Working in Georgia years ago, Flanagan was "tall, good looking and seemed to be really nice, personable and funny," said a former fellow reporter, Angela Williams-Gebhardt, who now lives in Ohio. The station's former news director, Michael Sullivan, said Flanagan was relatively inexperienced, but did a decent job, without any apparent problems.
But at Roanoke's WDBJ, Flanagan "got in lots of arguments with people," said LaRell Reynolds, a former production worker at the station. "I don't think anyone liked the guy."
After managers fired Flanagan, he worked as a call center representative for UnitedHealthcare in Roanoke from late 2013 to November 2014, the company said.
But in the days before the shootings, Flanagan assembled photos of himself on Twitter and Facebook, as if preparing to introduce himself to a wider audience. The postings continued after the shooting, when he tweeted that Parker had "made racist comments" and Ward had complained to human resources about him. Then, Flanagan posted video of the shooting online, showing him repeatedly firing at a screaming Parker as she tried to flee.
As word of the killings spread, friends from Oakland who knew Flanagan as a sociable kid who mixed easily in a high school with few racial tensions, struggled to connect those memories with the shooter shown on video.
"I don't remember anything bad about him," said Sasha Dansky, a high school classmate, recalling Flanagan's frequent appearance at parties. "He was just a nice, affable guy."
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Geller wrote from New York. Associated Press writers Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Florida; Garance Burke in Oakland, California; Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Mississippi; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Kristin Bender in San Francisco and John Raby in Roanoke, Virginia, contributed to this story.
Minya Oh—or Miss Info, as she is know professionally—is a legend in the hip-hop journalism game, having famously written Nas' Illmatic 5-Mic review for The Source when she was just an intern before moving on to big-time gigs at MTV and Hot 97 and launching her own must-read music blog, MissInfo.tv. Recently she's added another line to her résumé: mother. In this episode of The FADER and Sonos' At Home With series, Miss Info welcomes viewers into her Brooklyn home and introduces her adorable 2-month old son, Max. "One of the jokes while I was pregnant was, whenever I would see a hip-hop artist they would talk about how I had to make sure the baby would know their entire catalogue," she says. "I'm working through that slowly."
Sheek Louch continues his freestyle onslaught. The Lox veteran emcee decides to drop some bars over Smoothe Da Hustler and Trigger The Gambler's "Broken Language" instrumental.
With his new album titled Royalty on the way, Chris Brown calls on French Montana and super producer Remo The Hitmaker for his new single, "Gangsta Way."
Vine sensation Naphil aka Tyrone is always on the prowl looking to snatch someone's wife so he can smash them "long dick style." He reveals to DJ Smallz how he picks his targets.
Chad Hurleymade a huge mistake when he secretly filmedKanye WestandKim Kardashian'sengagement ceremony, then uploaded it to his video sharing service,MixBit.
The incident took place AT&T Park in San Francisco back in 2013. Hurley even signed a confidentiality agreement prior.
Kim and Kanye sued him and now he's agreed to pay them a $440,000 settlement, according to TMZ.
Hurley probably won't miss the money. He and his partnerSteve Chensold YouTube to Google for$1.65 billionin 2006.
The war of words between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Ronda Rousey continues.
During a recent interview with TMZ, Rousey took shots at the boxing champ and said she makes more money per second than he does.
"I saw that Floyd thing when he said, 'When you make $300 million a night you can give me a call.' And I actually did the math. Given the numbers of my last fight I'm actually the highest paid UFC fighter and I'm a woman," Rousey said. "And I think I actually make 2-3 times more money than he does per second. So, when he learns to read and write he can text me."
Floyd saw the interview and issued a statement toTMZ via a member ofThe Money Team.
"Big bank take little bank. Let's play and see how much money you got," read the statement. "Last time I checked I was #1 on Forbes. She will never be at my status. Keep trying to get publicity."
NBA superstar Derrick Rose, 26, is facing allegations that he participated in the gang rape of an ex-girlfriend after she was drugged, according to a new lawsuit.
TMZ reports that the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, dated the Chicago Bulls point guard from 2011-2013. During that time he reportedly tried to get her to participate in group sex, be allowed to have sex with her friends and masturbate in front of him. Doe claims she said no to all of the acts.
The victim goes on to claim that in August 2013, she was drugged while at Rose's Beverly Hills home by the player and two of his friends, Randall HamptonandRyan Allen.
The men allegedly intended to rap Doe, but she managed to leave with a friend.
Later that night the three men went to the victim's apartment and reportedly gang raped her. She claims she waited two years to file the lawsuit because she was "ashamed and embarrassed" of what happened and concerned her "conservative family" would find out.
She's asking a judge to award her unspecified damages.
Rose's attorney, Lisa Cohen, told TMZ the allegations were an attempt to shakedown her client.
"We have complete confidence that the case will be dismissed and that Mr. Rose will be vindicated. This lawsuit is outrageous," Cohen said.
50 Centis having a good time jabbingDiddywhile promotingEffen Vodka. Check out the hilarious photo 50 posted on Instagram, with it's equally funny caption.
Remember, this is all in fun. No real malice is intended.
DJ Yella recently spoke to VladTV about the last interaction he had with Eazy-E right before the legendary emcee succumbed to complications from AIDS.
The founding member of NWA told us he spoke with Eazy during an adult film he was shooting at the "Eazy-Duz-It" emcee's home. Yella then revealed that Eazy told him to "watch yourself" before it was announced that he had AIDS, which the producer later realized was the rapper's way of telling him about his illness.
After revealing his passion to do music died when Eazy passed away, Yella addressed being the only NWA member to attend his funeral. He explained that the members will never discuss why they didn't go to the funeral, but he guessed "some people probably just can't take it."
Check out more of what DJ Yella had to say in the below clip.
World Class Wreckin' Cru founder Alonzo Williams was one of the many N.W.A. affiliates depicted in the box office smash, "Straight Outta Compton." Unfortunately, he wasn't represented in the best light, but when asked about it, he's completely fine with that. "I had to be the bad guy in the movie so I'll wear that hat," he says during our interview. In this clip, Alonzo admits "a whole lot wasn't laid out" in the biopic, and he doesn't hesitate to reveal all.
Alonzo claims Jerry Heller - who he still speaks with to this day - managed the Wreckin' Cru before N.W.A., a fact widely known to the public. An even smaller known fact is the original plans regarding Ruthless Records. According to Alonzo, Dr. Dre was supposed to be co-owner of the label "along with Arabian Prince and some other folks", but apparently the business deal never went through. "Last time I checked, Dre and Eazy was supposed to have owned Ruthless together - Jerry was representing Eazy from a management standpoint. And then allegedly Jerry became the part owner," he reveals. Some time later, Dre. reportedly left after "he realized he was getting pimped," says Williams, who also claims the now super-producer was only paid $20,000 an album.
Williams also speaks on the group as a whole from a personal standpoint, calling them a "phenomenon of marketing." "Dre, Yella and Eazy? If they were in the room right now you'd never know they were here...'Til girls showed up. Then the peacocks blossomed," he adds with a laugh. When it comes to Eazy-E being off-beat, Alonzo says it's not just a rumor. "He had to punch in every single line - but he pulled it off. He eventually came off on-beat, but he didn't have the cadence down first. So he just kinda' winged his way through it," he details.
Find out more from the Wreckin' Cru head as he talks N.W.A. and Michel'le. "Although I discovered Michel'le - I'm the reason why she got her voice heard to the world - her and Dre had become intimate and he convinced her to sign to Ruthless," Alonzo confesses, calling it "the straw that broke the camel's back."
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