Lifestyle
Rumor About Universal Music Group Mediating Drake & Kendrick Beef Not True
There’s a rumor going around that Drake and Kendrick Lamar‘s shared music label tried to force them to squash their beef — but turns out, it’s totally unfounded … TMZ has learned.
Here’s the deal … a blind item is being circulated that purports to have the inside scoop on an alleged meeting between Kendrick, Drake and Universal Music Group … which both artists are technically signed to via distribution subsidiaries.
There’s a few bullet points addressed in the blind item — including the claim that UMG honchos tried to force Kendrick to capitulate to Drake and apologize and squash things.
The blind item — citing purported insiders — said UMG wanted to have K.Dot put out a statement acknowledging that Drake is not, in fact, a pedophile … this while alleging that UMG brass was viewing Drake as losing big time in the beef and it hurting their bottom line.
It also sounded pretty thorough and detailed … but sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ there was no such meeting between UMG, Drake and Kendrick … and that this entire little narrative — which is starting to go viral online — is completely made up and not true.
We’re told not only did UMG not insert itself here … but our sources, who are familiar with the inner workings of the label, say Universal would never jump into something like this.
The way it was explained to us … Kendrick and Drake’s beef is between them and completely separate from the business side of things — and UMG just doesn’t think it’s their place to step in either way. So, they didn’t … nor did they ever consider doing so.
Mind you, there’s also the fact that all these music drops have clearly only helped them. All the tracks between these two guys have spurred lots of streams and plays — and that’s dollars for UMG … so, objectively, there’s a financial incentive to keep a beef like this going.
Now, in terms of whether it actually will keep going or die on the vine … all signs point to the latter. DJ Hed telegraphed this earlier this week, suggesting Drake was throwing in the towel and moving on. Of course, that was before a shooting took place at Drake’s house.
No telling how the unfortunate development may affect things in the music space — on the issue of either of these titans being brought in by the principal to work out their problems … we’re told it’s complete BS.
Here’s hoping they can work out their issues quietly (and non-violently) behind the scenes.
Warner Bros. Discovery said Thursday that it prefers the latest offer from rival Hollywood studio Paramount over a bid it accepted from Netflix.
Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Bloomberg
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Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Bloomberg
The Warner Bros. Discovery board announced late Thursday afternoon that Paramount’s sweetened bid to buy the entire company is “superior” to an $83 billion deal it had struck with Netflix for the purchase of its streaming services, studios, and intellectual property.
Netflix says it is pulling out of the contest rather than try to top Paramount’s offer.
“We’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid,” the streaming giant said in a statement.
Warner had rejected so many offers from Paramount that it seemed as though it would be a fruitless endeavor. Speaking on the red carpet for the BAFTA film awards last weekend, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos dared Paramount to stop making its case publicly and start ponying up cash.
‘If you wanna try and outbid our deal … just make a better deal. Just put a better deal on the table,” Sarandos told the trade publication Deadline Hollywood.
Netflix promised that Warner Bros. would operate as an independent studio and keep showing its movies in theaters.
But the political realities, combined with Paramount’s owners’ relentless drive to expand their entertainment holdings, seem to have prevailed.
Paramount previously bid for all of Warner — including its cable channels such as CNN, TBS, and Discovery — in a deal valued at $108 billion. Earlier this week, Paramount unveiled a fresh proposal increasing its bid by a dollar a share.
On Thursday, hours before the Warner announcement, Sarandos headed to the White House to meet Trump administration officials to make his case for the deal.
The meetings, leaked Wednesday to political and entertainment media outlets, were confirmed by a White House official who spoke on condition he not be named, as he was not authorized to speak about them publicly.
President Trump was not among those who met with Sarandos, the official said.
While Netflix’s courtship of Warner stirred antitrust concerns, the Paramount deal is likely to face a significant antitrust review from the U.S. Justice Department, given the combination of major entertainment assets. Paramount owns CBS and the streamer Paramount Plus, in addition to Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and other cable channels.
The offer from Paramount CEO David Ellison relies on the fortune of his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. And David Ellison has argued to shareholders that his company would have a smoother path to regulatory approval.
Not unnoticed: the Ellisons’ warm ties to Trump world.
Larry Ellison is a financial backer of the president.
David Ellison was photographed offering a MAGA-friendly thumbs-up before the State of the Union address with one of the president’s key Congressional allies: U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican.
Trump has praised changes to CBS News made under David Ellison’s pick for editor in chief, Bari Weiss.
The chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, told Semafor Wednesday that he was pleased by the news division’s direction under Weiss. She has criticized much of the mainstream media as being too reflexively liberal and anti-Trump.
“I think they’re doing a great job,” Carr said at a Semafor conference on trust and the media Wednesday. As Semafor noted, Carr previously lauded CBS by saying it “agreed to return to more fact-based, unbiased reporting.”
‘The Wire’ Star Bobby J. Brown
He’s Trapped Inside Barn Fire!!!
Listen To Dispatch Audio
Published
Broadcastify.com
Here’s the dispatch audio from the fatal barn fire that killed “The Wire” actor Bobby J. Brown … and you hear dispatchers saying he’s trapped in the building after trying to start an old Cadillac.
TMZ obtained the dispatch audio, which also reveals Bobby’s wife called for help. It sounds like a huge inferno, the barn is 50-feet-by-100 and — by the end of the call — it’s all up in flames.
We broke the story … Bobby died Tuesday from smoke inhalation. The deadly fire started after Bobby entered the barn to jump-start a car. His wife suffered severe burns trying to save him.
Bobby played Officer Bobby Brown on the hit HBO series “The Wire” … and his other credits include “Law & Order: SVU” and “We Own This City.”
He was 62.
Ryland Brickson Cole Tews in Hundreds of Beavers.
Hundreds of Beavers
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Hundreds of Beavers
The streaming service Tubi has become a repository for a wild assortment of movies, TV shows, and original properties. They’re all free to watch, provided you’re willing to sit through some ads. So we asked some Tubi-philes to recommend some great movies that you can find on the service: Hundreds of Beavers, Color Out of Space, Petey Wheatstraw, and Mambo Italiano.
Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture
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