The lead suspect in the murder of Big L in 1999 was fatally shot in Harlem.
Sources tell DNA Info that Gerard Woodley, 46, was in front of 106 W. 139th St., near Lenox Avenue, when someone shot him in the head Thursday night. The incident occurred at about 11:17 p.m., according to NYPD officials.
Woodley, who lived at the building on W. 139th Street, was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital, police said. There have been no arrests in connection to Woodley’s death.
Woodley is suspected in four other homicides, and has a history of violent crimes. As recent as September 2015, he was released after serving four years for a weapons charge. His first arrest was in 1990 for a weapon charge, and he was arrested again in 1994 and 1996 on murder charges, but avoided conviction both times, a MTV News report in 1999 stated. In 1999, Woodley was arrested for shooting and killing Big L.
When they were young, Woodley and Big L, whose real name is Lamont Coleman, spent a lot of time together. They grew up as childhood friends. Big L actually featured Woodley on his 1995 debut Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous in a group photo.
Details aren’t clear on why Big L and Woodley had a falling out. Investigators say in 1999 Big L was part of a crew that robbed drug dealers. “Police believe that the rapper would double-cross people he knew by letting the robbery crew know the location of cash-carrying drug dealers prime for a stickup,” sources said.
On February 15, 1999, Woodley went after Big L because his side-business was causing harm to his reputation. Reports at the time say he shot Big L nine times in the face and chest on W. 139th Street, near Lenox, coincidentally the same area that Woodley was gunned down 17 years later.
Woodley avoided getting charged for the murder because the Manhattan District Attorney felt they didn’t have enough witnesses and incriminating surveillance footage.
Investigators believe Woodley’s death isn’t tied to the murder of Big L, claiming anyone had plenty of opportunities to avenge Big L in the 20 years since the incident happened. Currently, there’s no description of the suspect available for the public.
Even though Bernie Sanders has not officially dropped out of the Presidential race, he admitted that he probably won’t be the Democratic Presidential nominee during a C-SPAN interview on Wednesday. So during an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday, Sanders was asked if he plans on voting for Hillary Clinton in the general election in November, and he revealed that he will be giving his vote to her.
DJ Khaled took some time off from his busy schedule as Chelsea Handler’s chief financial correspondent to pay Jimmy Kimmel a visit on Thursday night, and he unveiled his Major Key cover art and discussed the virtues of presidential cloth talk in the process. Kimmel was rightly blessed with highly valuable knowledge, starting with the artistic trump that is the Major Key album cover. Come on, just look at this instaclassic declaration of power:?
There’s good news and bad news for Thunder fans on Friday. The good news? Lil B has finally agreed to lift the Based God Curse from Kevin Durant! The curse—which Lil B first put on KD in 2012—has been lifted once before, but Lil B revealed that KD is still cursed back in early June. The bad news? If KD wants to have the curse lifted, Lil B said he needs to sign with the Knicks.
Two videos also recently surfaced on Twitter. One shows London, who appears to be with A$AP Rocky, confronting Connor. Based on what London is wearing, the video appears to be from Thursday. In it, London tells Connor to stop acting like he doesn’t know him.
With Beast Mode 2 in the works, Zaytoven revealed Wednesday he and Future are sitting more than 100 unreleased songs. In an interview with HotNewHipHop, Zaytoven spoke about the pair’s prolific working relationship. “Ever since [Beast Mode], we’ve recorded numerous times,” he said. “Every time we go in the studio, we’re gonna do five, ten songs together. But we got, I know, at least 100 songs.”
It’s no secret that the aesthetic of Kanye West’s adidas Yeezy line has trickled down to the brand’s inline offerings–after all, collaborations should be able to help sneaker companies move more units that are widely available. This time though, on the Tubular Invader, it feels sort of like adidas is reaching back to West’s days designing Louis Vuitton shoes for inspiration.
The silhouette is similar to his Louis Vuitton Jasper, midfoot strap and all, and the colorway is almost a direct port of the grey/pink pair.
Is it a reach to call this pair inspired by West’s old work, or is adidas being derivative here? If the latter is the case, it seems to have worked–sizes are almost all gone at adidas’ online store at the time of writing.
Kanye West is linking up with Tidal for another can’t-miss exclusive. On Wednesday, the streaming service announced it will premiere the visuals for “Famous,” the first single off Kanye’s seventh studio album, The Life of Pablo.
Tickets for the premiere, which takes place 7 p.m. PST Friday (June 24) at The L.A. Forum, will go on sale through Ticketmaster at 10 a.m. PST Thursday. (Tidal initially announced in a tweet the premiere would be at 1 p.m.) A limited number of L.A. Tidal members can also get their hands on tickets through the Tidal x Famous website. As a part of the milestone event, attendees will have exclusive access to never-before-seen merchandise created specifically for the premiere. But if you’re outside of the SoCal area, don’t fret: the visuals can also be seen through a global livestream, which will be available to both Tidal members and non-members. Following the event, the project can be viewed exclusively on Tidal for one week.
This event further highlights the trend of exclusive content among streaming services, which have used limited projects and songs to acquire more subscribers; however, the “Famous” visual premiere adds to the already unique rollout of Kanye’s latest album. Keep in mind, he pulled a similar move when he debuted not only The Life of Pablo, but also his Yeezy Season 3 line at Madison Square Garden in February. There’s levels to this.
You can go to Tidal’s website for more information about the event.
Joey Bada$$ took to Facebook Wednesday to share a very personal story from his childhood.
In the post, Joey opens up about how his parent’s split affected him as a young kid when he was only five years old. His mom was forced to work two jobs to support the themselves, leaving him with a lot of alone time. They also endured financial struggles, which he explained was hard on him to witness.
“It was a really devastating moment in my life,” he wrote. “You know, watching my mom battle a serious struggle, for me as a young child wasn’t anything I ever liked to see and I’m sure no child likes to see that. I used to come home from school and see eviction notices on our door.” He admits he decided then that he would somehow pay his mom back for everything she did for him.
To overcome his fear of being alone, Joey instead channeled it as a time to practice what he loved to do: music. He describes the year he got a microphone for Christmas and how that whole process eventually lead to the creation of his debut mixtape, 1999, which he recorded in his bedroom in East Flatbush. That mixtape lead Joey down a great path filled with BET nominations, a Roc Nation offer, sold out tours, major label deal offers, and lectures at Ivy League Universities. “All that ever took was patience.”
Recently, Joey dropped his new single, “Devastated,” where he opted for a new vibe and a resilient message about turning his struggles into a strength. It seems the new note to fans is just an extension of what he was trying to convey in his recent release.
Right now, it’s unclear exactly what the note means in the grand scheme of things, but it sounds like Joey is trying to spread some inspiration to those that need it with his own success story. We can only hope that there will be even more new music coming down the line.
Read Joey’s full message below and head over to his website, joeybadass.com, where he is encouraging fans to share their own ?”#?Devastated? story or story of greatness.”
YG has nothing but love for Drake, but the same can’t be said for rapper/producer Detail. He’s suing the Canadian artist for an assault that allegedly took place back in 2014.
Detail claims Drake offered him a gig as an exclusive producer, but he declined in order to work with multiple artists, TMZ first reported. According to the lawsuit, Drake didn’t handle the rejection well and allowed ill feelings to stew. Then, sometime in June, Drake allegedly invited him to a meeting at the rapper’s home in Calabasas to try to work together again after their monster collab on Nothing Was the Same. When Detail showed up at 2 a.m., he says it was the rapper’s bodyguard Chubbs who greeted him instead. Detail claims Chubbs then sucker-punched him and broke his jaw.
During the alleged beat down Detail says was set up by Drake, Chubbs supposedly yelled: “I will beat all your asses, including your bitches. I don’t give a fuck. I will hit you again. Do you think Drake is soft? You think Drake’s a punk?”
Detail, whose real name is Noel Fisher, is seeking an undisclosed amount of money for damages. He’s best known for producing hits like “Sexy Can I” by Ray J, “I’m So Paid” by Akon, “How to Love” by Lil Wayne, “We Dem Boyz” by Wiz Khalifa, “I Luh Ya Papi” by Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love,” which earned him his first Grammy. He’s also worked with a ton of other artists including the Pussycat Dolls, Ashanti, Marques Houston, Lady Gaga, Brandy, Shorty Mack, Christina Aguilera, T-Pain, R. Kelly, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, and Snoop Dogg. Obviously, this is a guy you’d want in the booth while laying down a track.
Drake previously spoke out about working with Detail on 2013’s Nothing Was the Same and how the producer made him a better singer.
“My biggest thing this time was working with my vocal coach, just really finding a different tone. Detail is a huge influence on that as well,” Drake told Vibe in 2014. “I’ve never had a vocal producer other than 40, and there were nights where 40 would leave the studio and let Detail vocal produce me. What’s different about Detail, I’ll do a verse in one take with 40; Detail would make me go line by line. It was annoying at first, like who is this guy to tell me I’m not doing it right? But when I listened to the finished product there’d be so much emotion in every line that it was almost like somebody different rapping.”
Don’t expect another collaboration any time soon.