People
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president made a public request Wednesday to Puerto Rican reggaeton star Bad Bunny to play a free concert in Mexico City, to make up for a fake ticket scandal that left thousands frustrated outside his sold-out appearance Friday.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he couldn’t offer the singer any money, but the government would pay for the lights, stage and sound system, and install a zip line at the capital’s huge main central plaza.
The president suggested Bad Bunny would perform for free because he is “sensitive” and feels “solidarity” with those who couldn’t get in because of duplicate tickets sold by fraudsters.
“I would tell him how deeply we were touched to see young people sad because they couldn't get in ... because they were victims of fraud,” he said.
Bad Bunny's representatives did not immediately respond to an Associated Press email asking if he'll take up the president's offer.
Mexico's consumer protection agency is investigating the fraud incident.
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ATLANTA — Rapper Gunna, who was arrested earlier this year along with fellow rapper Young Thug and more than two dozen other people, on Wednesday pleaded guilty in Atlanta to a racketeering conspiracy charge, according to a statement released by his attorneys.
Fulton County prosecutors in May obtained the sprawling 88-page indictment that said members of the Young Slime Life criminal street gang committed violent crimes to collect money for the gang, promote its reputation and grow its power and territory.
Gunna, whose given name is Sergio Kitchens, appeared in court Wednesday and entered what is called an Alford plea, which allows a person to maintain his innocence while acknowledging that it is in his best interest to plead guilty.
“While I have agreed to always be truthful, I want to make it perfectly clear that I have NOT made any statements, have NOT been interviewed, have NOT cooperated, have NOT agreed to testify or be a witness for or against any party in the case and have absolutely NO intention of being involved in the trial process in any way,” the rapper said in the statement.
Kitchens was sentenced to five years, with credit for time served and the balance suspended, said Steve Sadow, one of his attorneys. He also must do 500 hours of community service, including 350 hours speaking “to young men and women about the hazards and immorality of gangs and gang violence, and the decay that it causes in our communities,” Sadow wrote in an email. He also isn't allowed to have any guns or to have contact with others charged except through his attorneys or music label.
The trial for others charged in the indictment is set to begin next month.
Young Thug, whose given name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, co-wrote the hit “This is America” with Childish Gambino, making history when it became the first hip-hop track to win the song of the year Grammy in 2019. Fulton County prosecutors say that in late 2012, he and two others founded Young Slime Life, a violent criminal street gang that’s commonly known as YSL and is affiliated with the national Bloods gang. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
Separately, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Walter Murphy, another person charged in the indictment, entered a guilty plea Tuesday. Prosecutors have said he cofounded the Young Slime Life gang with Williams. Murphy was sentenced to 10 years, with one year commuted to time served and nine years of probation, the newspaper reported.
Kitchens said in his statement that when he became affiliated with YSL in 2016, he didn't consider it a gang but rather “a group of people from metro Atlanta who had common interests and artistic aspirations.” His focus was entertainment, he said, “rap artists who wrote and performed music that exaggerated and ‘glorified’ urban life in the Black community.”
Kitchens is signed to Williams' Young Stoner Life record label. He scored his second No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart with “DS4Ever” this year.
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LOS ANGELES — Megan Thee Stallion took the stand in a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday and told jurors that rapper Tory Lanez fired five shots at her feet, yelled at her to dance and wounded her as she tried to walk away from him in the Hollywood Hills more than two years ago.
“I’m in shock. I’m scared," the Grammy-winning hip-hop superstar testified Tuesday, according to The Los Angeles Times. “I hear the gun going off, and I can’t believe he’s shooting at me.”
Her testimony came on the second day of the trial of the Canadian rapper Lanez, 30, who has pleaded not guilty to discharging a firearm with gross negligence, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle.
With supporters gathered both outside the courthouse and in the courtroom hallway, Megan walked into the courtroom wearing a purple suit with heavy security late Tuesday morning.
“I just don’t feel good,” Megan, 27, said at the beginning of questioning from Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta. “I can’t believe I have to come in here and do this.”
She said that on July 12, 2020, she left a party at the Hollywood Hills home of Kylie Jenner in an SUV with Lanez, his bodyguard and her friend Kelsey Harris.
Megan said she and Lanez had become close, bonding over the loss of their mothers, and had an occasionally sexual relationship. Her friend Harris, who had a “crush” on Lanez, tried to stir up trouble between the women by telling Megan she needed to stop lying to her friend.
The argument spiraled out of control, and became even more heated when she and Lanez started trashing each other's music and careers, Megan said.
“I feel like that really rubbed him the wrong way,” she said. “He kept yelling and cursing.”
She was wearing a bikini, but got out of the vehicle and tried to walk away when Lanez leaned out and opened fire, she said, leaving the back of her feet wounded. At one point, he yelled “Dance, b——-!” she testified.
“I looked down at my feet, and I see all the blood,” she said. “Now everybody’s screaming. He looked shocked. Kelsey looked shocked.”
Lanez' attorney George Mgdesyan said in his opening statement that her injury showed she could not have gotten a clear look at the shooter behind her, and that he would present more evidence that countered her story during the trial.
Lanez, sitting at the defense table in a tan suit and turtleneck, took notes as she spoke.
He arrived at court holding his young son’s hand. He carried the boy out of the courthouse at lunch break and at the end of the day.
“This is my support system and I’m his too,” he told reporters.
Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, could get more than 22 years in prison if convicted on all counts. He could also be deported to his native Canada.
Lanez has had a successful run of mixtapes and major-label records since his career began in 2009, with his last two albums reaching the top 10 on Billboard’s charts.
Megan Thee Stallion, whose legal name is Megan Pete, was already a major up-and-coming star at the time of the incident, and her career has skyrocketed since. She won a Grammy for best new artist in 2021, and had No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 with her own song “Savage” featuring Beyoncé and as a guest on Cardi B’s “WAP.”
From combined wire services
