North Carolina
Petey Pablo leads North Carolina Music Hall of Fame 2024 class
The lyrics “North Carolina, come on and raise up,” might as well be the unofficial anthem of the Tar Heel State. And the rapper who wrote and spoke them will soon obtain a bit of immortality.
Petey Pablo, it was announced this week, leads the 2024 class of inductees into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, located in Kannapolis. The Greenville native and four other artists — and the Durham-based Merge Records — will join the already existing 132 other honorees. Qualifications for induction into the hall, located on Dale Earnhardt Boulevard, is to have roots in the state of North Carolina and achieve at least 10 years of national prominence.
Born Moses Barrett III, Petey Pablo more than fits the bill.
After spending time in prison for armed robbery, he turned to hip-hop and hooked up with Jive Records. His debut album “Diary of a Sinner: 1st Entry” was produced by Timbaland and debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard Top 200 music chart in November 2001. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and was then nominated for Best Rap Album at the Grammys. It contained the hit single, “Raise Up,” which peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The iconic song can easily be heard at sporting events across North Carolina these days, particularly at UNC-Chapel Hill football games and after the Carolina Hurricanes score a goal. The video for the song was filmed in Raleigh, and it’s likely the only hip-hop song that namechecks North Carolina towns like Tarboro, Goldsboro, Halifax and Statesville.
Petey Pablo’s second album, 2004’s “Still Writing in My Diary: 2nd Entry,” was also certified gold and featured the hit single “Freek-a-Leek,” which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard charts. The rapper spent time in prison again after pleading guilty in 2011 to possession of a stolen firearm.
In 2016, he released a single called “Carolina Colors” that has been used as a hype-up anthem for the Carolina Panthers. Petey Pablo has also acted a bit, appearing in shows such as “The Shield” and “Empire.”
Petey Pablo is widely regarded as a pioneer in North Carolina hip-hop, an icon in the southern rap scene, and one of the original voices of crunk music. On Instagram, he wrote of his induction into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, “Words can’t really express the true feeling and gratitude for such an honorable recognition.”
Lissa Gotwals
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Other inductees include the late music executive Clarence Avant, the late musician and teacher Mary Cardwell Dawson, the late country singer and songwriter Tommy Faile, and Grammy-award-winning bluegrass artist and fiddler Bobby Hicks.
Also being honored is Merge Records, which was founded in 1989 in Durham by Mac McCaughan and Laura Balance — who are also members of the band Superchunk. The influential independent record label has produced and released years of music, including from Arcade Fire, Caribou, She & Him, and Hiss Golden Messenger.
A ceremony to honor the inductees will be held on Oct. 17.
(WLOS) — In a tragic update, one of the baby barn owls being monitored by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has died after a great horned owl entered the barn and killed the owlet. The barn owlets had attracted worldwide attention through the wildlife commission’s ongoing observation efforts.
Officials with N.C. Wildlife said it is not yet clear which owlet was killed, but confirmed it was one of the three youngest.
The wildlife commission said it captured a photo of the great horned owl and the adult female barn owl fighting on top of the box, calling it an “extremely rare encounter to capture on camera.”
PHOTOS: OWLETS ‘HOO’ GAINED WORLDWIDE FAME ARE GROWING QUICKLY INTO YOUNG ADULTS
The wildlife commission said that while this loss is tragic, it is a common encounter because great horned owls are a top predator of barn owls. Officials also said this will likely not be the last encounter.
Over the next few weeks, the commission said viewers will likely see the remaining owlets start exploring, leaving the barn and learning to hunt. The fledglings may leave the barn as early as July to start hunting on their own, according to the commission.
You’ve got to feel terrible for former North Carolina standout Henri Veesaar right now. When he announced that he was leaving Chapel Hill to take his game to the NBA, plenty of eyebrows were raised. However, he was getting first-round grades, which made the decision a bit easy for him. That call has come back to backfire on him.
The first round of the NBA Draft has wrapped up, and the star big man never heard his name called. You’ve got to be kidding. There was always a bit of a worry that Veesaar would fall to the second round, but the recent buzz calmed worries there. Now, though, this setback has surely proverbially slapped him in the face a bit:
UNC’s Henri Veesaar does not get selected in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft. He slips into the second round.
Turned down between $3-4 million to return to UNC? Maybe more?
— Ross Martin (@RossMartinNC) June 24, 2026
Henri Veesaar falling to the second round of the NBA Draft is a bit of a stunner
It’s no secret that Michael Malone and his new UNC staff were quite aggressive in their pursuits of bringing him back to Chapel Hill, as he would have easily had the Tar Heels in the Top 15-20 conversation. At first, with mock drafts popping up with him as a second-rounder, it felt like a return to the ACC was going to be in the works. The narrative changed there not long after, though.
He indeed bolted for the NBA Draft, with the assumption that he was going to be a first-rounder. Veesaar took a bit of a chance there, and things just did not go to plan for him. Let’s make one thing clear here too: we’re not happy in any way. With Veesaar leaving, Carolina fans were wishing him the best, the same way they were for Caleb Wilson.
Wilson ended up getting his life-changing news early during draft night, with the Chicago Bulls taking him off the board at No. 4 overall. Things were only made better for Wilson and North Carolina as a whole with Hubert Davis on hand for the former 5-star freshman’s big moment. It was a surprise not many of us were ready for.
On the flip side of things, Veesaar was left waiting for his special moment, but it never arrived. Is it possible that he’s having some serious regrets over things? We don’t want to speak for Veesaar or make any assumptions, but this just sucks as a whole for him. After averaging 17 points and eight rebounds per game, while taking home all-conference honors, it’s a bit of a stunner that his draft slide has taken place like this.
Had Veesaar returned to school, North Carolina’s 2026-27 outlook would have been looking much stronger. Instead, Malone went overseas to bring in Sayon Keita and Alexandros Samodurov to help carry the load near the glass. That helps, but replacing Veesaar was always going to be a difficult task, as he’s a dominant force. We can play the ‘what if’ game all we want had he stayed in Chapel Hill for one more season, but that’s pointless. Still, it’s now feeling like Veesaar got some bad advice, and that playing for Malone would have been the best thing for him next campaign.
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This spring, more than 62,000 people from North Carolina and
around the world watched as six barn owl eggs hatched live on the North Carolina Wild Life Resource Commission’s “Owl Cam.”
“We have folks who have watched from almost every
state, as well as Canada, Switzerland, Germany, the UK, France, the
Netherlands, Portugal, New Zealand, Italy, Estonia, Ireland, Argentina, Sweden,
Spain and more,” said Wildlife Conservation Engagement Coordinator Austin
Hill.
When asked what he thinks people connect with most while
watching the owls, Hill said the camera offers a rare look into the lives of
barn owls.
“We don’t see them too often at all, and it’s giving
people a glimpse into the life of a barn owl,” Hill said. “It’s very
rare that we’re able to see inside the nest of any creature that’s hidden in a
cavity.”
Hill said viewers enjoyed watching the owlets hatch, grow,
learn to fly and experience all the clumsy moments in between.
At this time all the owls have fledged, meaning they have all learned how to
fly.
“The oldest three owls fledged on the (June)
15th, they’re all females and then the male, the youngest, fledged on
the (June) 20th and you’ll start to see them popping around the
barn,” Hill said.
The webcam will continue to show the adult owls delivering
food to the nest as the owls prepare to leave the barn and learn to hunt.
The
young owls will learn by watching the behaviors of their parents. Depending on their development, the owls could
leave as early as July or as late as September or October.
NCWRC installed the owl nest box in 2011.
It was installed in an undisclosed remote location in Western North Carolina
and used for agency monitoring.
The idea of having a live webcam was a recent idea
created during and Educational Division
meeting.
“It allows us to see what happens in the nest of an
elusive raptor and behaviors we wouldn’t be able to observe from outside the
box,” Hill said. “We’re building out some K-12 curriculum to go along
with the camera so it can extend into the classroom.”
Once the young owls leave, the camera will go offline sometime this fall.
Hill
said staff will perform maintenance on the barn, relocate one of the cameras
and then put the system back in place in hopes that the same owl pair returns
this winter to begin its courtship and mating season. If that happens, the
process can start all over again.
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