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OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The death toll in the Oakland warehouse fire climbed to 36 Monday with more bodies still feared buried in the blackened ruins, and families anxiously awaited word of their missing loved ones.
The laborious job of digging with shovels and buckets through the debris was suspended overnight because of a dangerously unstable wall but was expected to resume.
Flames tore through the building, known as the "Ghost Ship," during a dance party Friday night. The cluttered warehouse had been converted to artists' studios and illegal living spaces, and former denizens said it was a death trap of piled wood, furniture, snaking electrical cords and only two exits.
It was the most lethal building fire in the U.S. in more than a decade.
Authorities have identified 11 of the bodies but withheld some of the names. Those whose identities were yet to be released included a 17-year-old and the son of a sheriff's deputy, authorities said.
Alameda County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said officials expect the death toll to rise, but he wouldn't speculate how high it might go.
Investigators said they believe they have located the section of the building where the fire started, but the cause remains unknown.
Also, the district attorney's sent a team to search for evidence of a crime in the warehouse, which was already under investigation by the city for possible code violations.
The space had a permit to operate as a warehouse only. Neighbors had complained of people living there illegally, trash piling up and other unsafe conditions.
A growing memorial of flowers, candles and notes paid tribute to the missing and the dead.
Kai Thomas and a group of red-eyed classmates from an arts high school in San Francisco pressed against police tape Sunday near the street corner. They lost a friend in the blaze.
Three of the boys had been in the cramped and dark building, Thomas said, but one got separated from them just before someone yelled, "Fire!"
"It was just really smoky and hard to see," said Thomas, who wasn't there but recounted what he had been told by two others who didn't want to speak. "They jumped off the second-floor balcony and ran out."
The boys waited for their 17-year-old friend for more than three hours, but he never emerged.
Jesse James Alexander, a DJ who wasn't at the party, showed up at the scene Sunday to remember three friends who were killed, though he didn't want to give their names.
Others were still holding out hope.
Outside a sheriff's office where people gathered for word of their loved ones, Yuri Kundin said he was hoping for good news about two of his friends, Alex Ghassan and Hanna Henriikka Ruax, who was from Finland.
One of the many notes left on a sidewalk around the corner from the remains of the warehouse read: "Praying for you. ... Hope you're still here."
The couple who operated the building's arts colony, called the Satya Yuga collective, were identified as Derick Ion Almena and Micah Allison. They were believed to have been away at the time of the blaze.
The couple had a troubled relationship, said Michael Allison of Portland, Oregon, the father of Micah Allison. He and other family members persuaded his daughter to go to a drug rehabilitation center in 2015, but Almena talked his way into the clinic and got Micah to leave with him, Michael Allison said.
The couple's three children had lice and needed new clothes, prompting family to call child-protective services, said Michael Allison, who wept as he spoke.
But Almena and his partner eventually were able to win custody of the children back and cut off all communication with Michael Allison, the father said.
"Whenever I could, I would to talk to (Micah) to get away from him because I knew he was dangerous from day one," he said. "All of that has now been proven."
A man identified as Derick Ion posted a Facebook message early Saturday, saying: "Everything I worked so hard for is gone. Blessed that my children and Micah were at a hotel safe and sound."
Almena did not immediately respond to emails or calls to phone numbers associated with him. No one answered a call to a number for Micah Allison.
Almena had leased the space from its owner and then rented five recreational vehicles and other nooks on the ground floor as living spaces, said Danielle Boudreaux, a former friend of Almena and Allison. They held regular concerts and dance parties, like the one Friday, to make money, Boudreaux said.
Shelley Mack was drawn there two years ago by the promise of living among artists and paying a reasonable amount in an area where the tech boom has created a housing shortage and driven up rents. She left after a few months.
"Some people were happy to have a roof over their head even though there was no heat or no place to eat or that it was filthy and infested," Mack said.
"You just get sucked in because it seems like it's this nice place and this artistic community and they talk a good game. There are people there that wanted to be there and believed in it. And I think I did too for a little bit. And then I afterward, I was like, um, no."
___
Associated Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer, Olga Rodriguez, Tim Reiterman and Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco, and Jonathan J. Cooper, Terry Chea and Janie Har in Oakland contributed to this report.
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Wiz Khalifa blesses his fans with three new songs to celebrate the four-year anniversary of his "O.N.I.F.C (Only Nigga in First Class)." album release.
Listen to "Young Millionaires," "Speech" and "You Party" up top.
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Check out the latest offering from Detroit rapper and singer Dej Loaf. This one is called "Hold It Down." The song was produced by Buddah Bless This Beat.
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Shimmy Choo delivers the official music video for his brand new single titled "War Ready". Get ready for his upcoming EP "A Different Approach " coming soon.
As most of you know by now, things have gotten ugly once again between T.I. and Floyd Mayweaher Jr. The common denominator in their ongoing conflict is T.I.'s wife, Tameka "Tiny" Harris.
As we previously reported, the two men came to blows at a Fatburger joint in Las Vegas on May 24, 2014. The fight was sparked when Tip confronted the boxing icon over photos he took with his wife. Another pic of Tiny with Floyd's daughter, in which she refers to the teenager as her "new boo" was also an issue.
The beef died down, but was rekindled recently when Tip criticized Floyd for an interview he gave to The Boxing Voice. Money May said the Black Lives Matter movement wasn't the right way to push for social change because "all lives matter."
"This is socially irresponsible,inconsiderate & insensitive," Tip wrote on Instagram in response to the interview. "It mirrors delusional oblivion in a way only brainwashing tactics can achieve. This completely undermines & discredits the movements that fight for the plights of our people."
Soon afterwards Tiny and Floyd appeared in a group photo at Mariah Carey's Halloween party.
Tiny immediately put out a statement claiming her contact with Floyd was limited to the photo. However, that proved to be false because a video surfaced of the former Xscape singer and the Mayweather Promotions CEO, dancing together at the event.
The recent events seem to have caused a rift between T.I. and his wife.
On Sunday, November 4, Tiny defended her actions in a Facebook post.
"When a woman's fed up... For years i've been the one getting hurt, but now that a lil video done surfaced with me having a friendly dance , he's mad?? Why? Yes, he's my husband but damn can I not have a male friend?! Tip can't be the only male friend I associate myself with just like I know I ain't the only Female he associate hisself with so... It is what it is," she wrote.
Thoughts?
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Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf speaks to reporters after a deadly fire at a warehouse rave party in Oakland, Calif.. on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016.
Video And Pics After The Jump
(Reuters) A fire that roared through a warehouse dance party in Oakland, California, killed more than nine people and left at least two dozen others missing and feared dead inside the gutted building, officials said on Saturday, as anguished friends and relatives awaited word of their fate.
The cause of the blaze and precise number of casualties remained undetermined hours after flames engulfed the two-story, structure that occupied about half a city block and housed a cluttered warren of artists' studios, craft booths, antiques and furniture.
The blaze started at about 11:30 p.m. on Friday in the city's Fruitvale district, a mostly Latino, blue-collar area that is also home to many artists living and working in converted lofts.
Oakland and Alameda County officials said they expected to find more victims once the burned-out ruins of the building were fully shored up and recovery crews were able to safely comb through the structure's charred interior.
City Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed, said the blaze marked the worst single-structure fire she had seen in her career. Mayor Libby Schaaf called it a "devastating scene."
Shaken friends of the missing huddled at a nearby pub waiting for word on possible victims, while about a dozen others gathered at a neighborhood sheriff's station seeking news.
“I don’t have high hopes,” said a woman with four friends among the missing, declining to give her name. “We’ve just spent the night calling hospitals and listening to police scanners.
Parents and others shared contact information on a Facebook page and asked anyone with information about the missing to call. "ANY information please!" wrote a woman looking for her son.
Michela Gregory and Alex Vega are among the missing. They were last seen leaving for an evening out Friday and family has not heard from them since. They are a couple, Alex is 22 and Michela is 20.
Nine fatalities were initially confirmed, and authorities were "expecting the worst" as they sought to account for "a couple of dozen" people who were reported missing, Sergeant Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the county sheriff, told an afternoon news conference.
He later clarified that at least two dozen people remained unaccounted for Saturday night besides the nine victims whose remains were initially found and recovered from the rubble. Those bodies were transported to the coroner's bureau for identification.
He said an additional, unspecified number of bodies have since been spotted in the compromised structure but had not been reached.
Many of the victims were young people in their 20s or 30s, authorities said.
Drone aircraft equipped with thermal-imaging technology were sent inside the gutted structure looking for any signs of life, but none was found, Kelly said.
Deputy Fire Chief Mark Hoffmann said about a dozen people survived the blaze. Kelly said "several dozen" people who had been unaccounted for earlier had been found safe.
HISTORY OF COMPLAINTS
The dance party, featuring electronic music performances, took place on the second floor of the building, which had just two exits. A single makeshift staircase inside appeared to have been constructed from pallets.
The warehouse roof collapsed onto the second floor of the building during the fire, according to authorities, and portions of the second floor caved in on the first story.
Authorities said they did not suspect arson, but investigators want to find out if the building had a history of building code violations.
The city had received complaints about unpermitted construction at the building and opened an investigation, but an inspector failed to gain access to the structure in November and the inquiry remained open, according to the city's buildings and planning chief, Darin Ranelletti.
He said the city was aware of reports that people were living there, but no permits had been issued for habitation. It was unclear, he said, whether special permits would be needed for the artists who had set up shop inside.
Video footage posted on social media showed flames shooting from the structure, which was adorned with elaborate graffiti and colorful murals, as fire vehicles pumped plumes of water and heavy smoke engulfed the neighborhood.
31st- pic.twitter.com/8TX6jk0iYq
— Oakland Firefighters (@OaklandFireLive) December 3, 2016
'LIKE A CONCRETE KILN'
Authorities have said they did not know how many people were at the party or how many lived on the premises.
But one eyewitness, who said he left the party to buy liquor and returned to find flames shooting from the second floor, said on Twitter that he saw about 60 to 70 people in the building.
"It was an inferno," Seung Y. Lee recounted in a post on his verified Twitter account.
It was an inferno. Still very shaken by what I witnessed, I'm trying to digest it all. But I'm the lucky one. RIP #oaklandfire
— Seung Y. Lee (@seungylee14) December 3, 2016
One of the missing people in #oaklandfire is my good friend @GraceLovio's boyfriend Jason McCarty. Please let her know if you've seen him pic.twitter.com/wuyDm1S1vM
— Seung Y. Lee (@seungylee14) December 3, 2016
Lee, who declined an interview, tweeted that the entire first floor was "covered in wood - antiques, furniture, etc. Beautiful but labyrinthine." He also described the wooden stairway as rickety and hazardous.
A Facebook event page showed 176 people planned to attend the party.
Ben Koss, an Oakland resident and musician, told Reuters he was on his way to the party with friends and arrived late to find smoke billowing from the warehouse moments before firefighters arrived.
"We tore down a fence so people could get out, but nobody came out," he said. "It was like a concrete kiln."
A few dozen mourners assembled Saturday night at the Church of the Chimes, about 7 miles (11 km) from the fire scene, to offer prayers for the dead and missing.
(Additional reporting by Peter Henderson in Oakland, Dan Whitcomb and Sue Horton in Los Angeles, Letitia Stein in Tampa, Florida, and David Bailey in Minneapolis; Writing by Frank McGurty and Steve Gorman; Editing by Tom Brown and Mary Milliken)
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Kelli Provocateur X Jack Thriller
Kelli Provocateur Speaks on Being A Dominatrix, Bodybuilding, Gives Jack Thriller A Lap Dance
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Thisis50 & DJ Thoro recently spoke with Baby Jesus for an exclusive interview!
Baby Jesus on meaning behind name, working with Lil Boosie, spits crazy freestyle & more!
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It's debatable who J. Cole is taking shots at on his new song "False Prophets." A lot of fans believe the song is about Kanye West.
Sometimes other artists interpret lyrics differently though. Thus, we get a response to Cole's song in the form of a new track from Wale titled "Groundhog Day."
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Watch CHEETO x OooUuu Freestyle Now!
Video After The Jump
J Cole came out with guns blazing on a newly released song titled "One Day Everybody Gotta Die." On one verse he seems to be taking aim at Lil Yachty.
"Bunch of words and ain't sayin' shit, I hate these rappers/ Especially the amateur eight week rappers/ Lil' whatever, just another short bus rapper/ Fake drug dealers turn tour bus trappers/ Napoleon complex, you this tall rappers/ Get exposed standin' next to 6'4" rappers/ The streets don't fuck with you, you Pitchfork rappers/ Chosen by the white man, you hipster rappers/ I reload the clip, then I hit more rappers with that/ Straight shittin' on these piss-poor rappers, I'm back," Cole raps.
While in Los Angeles recently Yachty stopped by radio station Power 106 to visit The Cruz Show. He was asked if he had heard the song and what he thought of it.
"It was cool. I don't listen to J. Cole," Lil Boat responded. "It flooded my shit ... it was everywhere. 'Cause everybody say he was talking about me. I listened to it and he said 'Lil.' I'm not little. My name has Lil in it, but I'm not little. It's a lot of little rappers."
The 2016 XXL Freshman rapper was asked who Cole could have been talking about it it wasn't him.
"Either me or [Lil Uzi Vert]. Honestly, I don't give a fuck," he said. "I fuck with J. Cole, but i don't listen to him."
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Video After The Jump
J. Cole's new album "4 Your Eyez Only" will arrive on December 9th. Check out visuals for a track off of it titled "One Day Everybody Gotta Die." He takes shots at Lil Yachty on this one. Pre-order the album now on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/4-your-eyez-only/id1181531244
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It's been a couple of minutes since we've heard new music from Iggy Azalea, but the Australian rapper with a song titled "Sexy" featuring her rumored boyfriend French Montana.
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Video And Pics After The Jump
21 Savage has been very open about his desire to take Tyga's girlfriend, Kylier Jenner, away from him. That has led to a brewing beef between the rappers.
The beginning of this conflict dates back to July of 2015, when 21 boldly stated that Kylie would be his via Twitter.
"Kylie Jenner Gone Be Mine She Need A Real Savage," he tweeted.
Kylie Jenner Gone Be Mine
— La'Savage (@21savage) July 31, 2015
She Need A Real Savage
Fast forward to November 21, when the 2016 XXL Freshman emcee tweeted out a photo of Kylie wearing nothing but a t-shirt. The pic was accompanied by several "lovely eyes" emojis.
@KylieJenner pic.twitter.com/CcGBNzIGx0
— La'Savage (@21savage) November 22, 2016
TMZ caught up with 21 last week to ask him about his lust for the 19-year old reality television star.
"I'd tear that ass up," he told the cameraman
A snippet of a Tyga diss song appeared online Friday, December 2. It references 21 receiving a Ferrari from Drake for his 24th birthday last month.
tyga tryna diss 21 savage on his own beat pic.twitter.com/malRfSQBIi
— Genius (@Genius) December 3, 2016
"Why you got one car in a 12-car garage/ sucking dick for a Ferrari, make sure you lick the balls," T-Raww raps.
The "Rack City" hit maker also posted an Instagram photo of himself and Kylie with the caption quoting a line from the song "Imaginary Players" by Jay Z: "Selling records being you, but still you want to be me."
21 fired back by posting a Kylie photo on IG with the caption: "Shout out to my boss bitches wifing niggas."
Several threatening videos from the "No Heart" rapper also popped up online.
In one of the he raps:
“Eeny meeny miny mo, catch a rapper by the toe/ If he diss me I'ma buck, buck, buck!" he says while pointing a gun at the camera.
.@Tyga delete your "diss" pic.twitter.com/txAGyo3VKr
— BASED JE$U$ (@BASEDJESUS) December 3, 2016
21 Savage coming for Tyga pic.twitter.com/kTCSgmjMKu
— HIP HOP FACTS (@iDailyRapFacts) December 3, 2016
“You playing with the wrong one, fuckboy. I’m gonna kill your bitch-ass. Not lying, bitch. Straight up. I’ve got motherfucking money to get, bitches to fuck, pussy ass niggas to kill and now you on my list," 21 threatens in another video.
21 Savage firing shots at Tyga pic.twitter.com/Z9CjjLtxFa
— HIP HOP FACTS (@iDailyRapFacts) December 3, 2016
In a Twitter post Saturday morning, November 3, 21 indicated that some videos might be old.
"it ain't dat serious mf posting old ass videos this shit done went to far it was funny at first," he tweeted.
it ain't dat serious mf posting old ass videos this shit done went to far it was funny at first
— La'Savage (@21savage) December 3, 2016
Despite that, the beef definitely appears to on.
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Lloyd Banks is back like he never left with a new banger this week titled "Last of a Dope Era Dying." The song was produced by Sean Keaton The HNIC.
Connect online:
Lloyd Banks
https://www.instagram.com/lloydbanks/
https://twitter.com/Lloydbanks
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F.R.E.E.D.O.M. Records recording artist, Brielle Von Hugel, brings a refreshing emotional depth to the pop scene with her sophisticated voice and natural storytelling. In her latest song "Naked," Brielle’s powerhouse vocals delicately belts over a stripped down solo piano. She describes that intimate phase of a relationship when a partner feels comfortable enough to expose their true self. Brielle wipes away her makeup to reveal her physical flaws as well as her internal imperfections. Her metaphorical yet, sincere songwriting peels back the layers of her past and sends a deeper message that encourages listeners to be themselves.
Brielle Von Hugel continues to garner fans with her influential songwriting, enchanting vocals and nationwide tours. Von Hugel recently began her North America tour with well-known jazz and swing band, Postmodern Jukebox and Remember Jones. The group is set to tour throughout Europe in 2017.
Also known for her well received cover songs, Brielle’s YouTube videos have amassed over 2 million views covering artists such as Adele, Paramore and Sia. Furthermore, Brielle has been featured on sites such as Billboard.com, Mashable, RyanSeacrest.com and Hollywood Gossip.
Check Out Brielle Von Hugel in "Naked" today and keep up to date with her releases and tour dates at;
https://www.facebook.com/briellevonhugel
https://www.instagram.com/briellevonhugel
http://www.briellevonhugel.com
Original Hot Boys rapper and YNT Empire boss, Turk, drops off a new heater just in time for the weekend. Check out his song titled "She Got Ass" produced by Poston Beats.
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After flexing his freestyle skills previously on Sway in the Morning, Shia Labeouf, slides Power 105.1 radio personality Charlamagne Tha God a new one.
This time he takes shots at Hot 97's Peter Rosenberg, Vin Diesel, Drake, Lil Yachty and more. Listen up top.
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