By Leila Nunez
(SOUNDBITE OF “HALF.COOL” BY HEY THERE)
KADIE GURLEY, BYLINE: Hey, everyone, this is Kadie, and I’m here today to talk about some of the hottest topics in pop culture this week, in a show I like to call Son of a Beach. I spend money on clothes and food a lot and tend to lose money, but I can’t tell who lost more? Me or Kanye West?
Rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, has reportedly lost $2 billion in one week following recent anti-Semitic comments, not to mention the White Lives Matter shirt he wore at Paris Fashion Week. According to the Guardian, Adidas, Balenciaga, Gap and other companies have said they will no longer work with West. His Adidas partnership alone was worth nearly $250 million. His longtime talent agency also dropped him while a recently completed documentary about the musician has been shelved.
The loss of revenue will be a blow to Adidas, which recently warned its profit margins and sales were taking a hit as stock piled up in warehouses because of slowing consumer demand. On October 26, West’s Donda Academy, a non-accredited private school located in California, shared to parents via email that it would be closing down. Not even a full day after being dropped from Adidas, West made an unannounced visit to the L.A. corporate office of shoe brand Skechers. The Jewish owned company shared that West was escorted out and was uninvited in their statement following the occurrence.
“Skechers is not considering and has no intention of working with West. We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate anti-Semitism or any other form of hate speech. The company would like to again stress that West showed up unannounced and uninvited to Skechers corporate offices.”
In last week’s episode of Beach Weekly, I mentioned that the family of the late George Floyd were in the process of suing Kanye West in a $250 million lawsuit regarding his comments on the victim of police brutality. According to the Los Angeles Times, West attacked the family of George Floyd on Sunday shortly after saying he wanted to apologize for false statements he has made about Floyd’s death just prior to this.
West shared a video on social media and stated, “So when I said that and I questioned the death of George Floyd, it hurt my people. It hurt the black people. So I want to apologize to hurting them, because right now God has shown me by what Adidas is doing and by what the media is doing. I know how it feels to have a knee on my neck now.”
First off, do not compare what you’re feeling now to an actual death of a human being. This man was murdered by these police officers who put their knee on his neck. He literally said, “I can’t breathe.” So for calling to compare himself of how he’s feeling right now is unacceptable.
He has done many things over the years. I don’t know why people are barely dropping his sponsorships now. He should have been canceled back in 2020 when he said slavery was a choice. And remember last week on Beach Weekly, I said, mess around and you will find out.
Well, he messed around and now he’s finding out he lost over $1.5 billion. He’s now worth $400 million, which is still a lot, you know, obviously for a celebrity. But to lose that much and people have the audacity to blame it on his bipolar disorder. I get it. But I don’t at the same time. There’s many excuses you can blame for this. His actions. Yes, it can be because he’s bipolar. But to what extent are you going to use his health disorder? That’s no excuse for the way he’s acting.
And this is he’s very contradicting himself because actually in 2020, he donated $2 million to families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and offered to pay Floyd’s daughter’s college tuition. So I don’t understand what’s going on with Kanye, and I don’t think we ever will. He needs to be humbled badly. And I think it’s finally the start of that for the fact that wherever he goes, he’s not wanted. It just shows that he needs to reflect on himself.
Speaking of men who don’t need a platform, businessman Elon Musk officially bought Twitter on Thursday, October 27th, and he already plans to make changes. Elon Musk has reportedly fired some executives and employees of Twitter in a manner that saved the company millions of dollars in the process. Supposedly, multiple leading executives have been fired, including Twitter, CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial Officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust and safety. The Washington Examiner shared that Gadde reportedly played a central role in the decision to ban Trump. An effort to save money, the world’s richest man is saving before November 1st so that they will no longer receive stock grants as part of their compensation.
Per a report from The New York Times. Currently, Musk is in talks with Twitter’s staff to discuss a plan and permanent bans. Many Twitter users are concerned of a possibility of Donald Trump’s potential return to the platform. There’s also concerns on the free speech usage on Twitter following Musk’s take over. Among those concerned users, NBA superstar LeBron James quoted tweeted on Sunday and shared a link to a report that the use of the N-word had increased by nearly 500%, according to a social media research group via The Washington Post.
James also tweeted, “I don’t know Elon Musk, and to be honest, I could care less who owns Twitter. But I will say that if it’s true, I hope he and his people take this very seriously because this is scary. So many unfit people saying hate speech is free speech and that couldn’t be more. Well said. So many people confuse hate speech with free speech.”
I’ve also seen my fair share of the use of n-words recently on Twitter, and that’s totally not okay at all. Like the fact that people can get away with this stuff now is very concerning. I know Elon Musk said he’s not going to tolerate things like this, but as of what we’ve seen right now and his recent remarks regarding Nancy Pelosi’s husband, that’s another story of his own. But that’s ridiculous. He has deleted that tweet. But all these conspiracies, these false tweets, these defamation tweets, these are not free speech. This is a form of hate speech.
And this is going to be an ongoing issue as he is the reigning CEO of this company and who told him to fire all those executives like that. There must be a lawsuit going on because I don’t know how that even happened. But this is going to be an ongoing story and I’m for sure going to be covering it.
As cuff season approaches, I’m sad to announce that NFL star quarterback Tom Brady and fashion model Gisele Bundchen have called it quits after 13 years of marriage.
Brady himself announced on October 28 that he and Giselle have finalized a divorce. Brady posted on Instagram. “In recent days, my wife and I finalized our divorce from one another after 13 years of marriage. We arrived at this decision amicably and with gratitude for the time we spent together. We are blessed with beautiful and wonderful children who will continue to be the center of our world in every way. We will continue to work together as parents to always ensure they receive the love and attention they deserve.”
“We arrived at the decision to end our marriage after much consideration. Doing so is, of course, painful and difficult like it is for many people who go through the same thing every day around the world. However, we wish only the best for each other as we pursue whatever new chapters in our lives that yet to be written. And we ask kindly for privacy and respect as we navigate what is to come in the days and weeks ahead. Thank you.”
The news follows after rumors and speculation that the two were breaking up amid Brady’s decision to return to the NFL in his current team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The former couple share two children Benjamin, 12, and Vivienne, nine, who both have birthdays in December.
To be honest, it’s always heartbreaking when I see a couple that’s lasted over ten years split because it’s always deeply rooted. I believe they broke up because she’s unhappy with him returning to the NFL, which I totally understand, because this is a grown man, 45 years old, 45, guys. It’s not like he’s 35, 38, 45. That’s a whole man, almost at 50. And he’s still in the NFL playing? Like, how are you going to go on retirement and then just come back? So I get where she’s coming from because she probably wants him to be more at home with the kids.
That’s what I’m assuming. He does seem like a good dad, though, but to be more there for the kids as they grow up and, you know, just spend time with each other as a family, a full family. I believe that’s where she’s coming from. And on his end, he thinks he still has it which he does, even though the team, the Buccaneers are not doing great right now. But I mean, he’s one of the best to ever do it in the sport and in all sports, actually.
So I get where he’s coming from, but, you already have seven Super Bowl championships under your belt. Like, what more do you need? Like. Go home, spend some time with family. But this is very saddening to see. But, I mean, just Gisele’s well off. Homegirl has, like $400 million to her name. She has more than Tom Brady, actually. He is going to be expecting about $330 million to his name at the end of this season. But I mean, come on now, Gisele pays the bills.
Singer and businesswoman Rihanna came back in the biggest way. She released a new song on October 28th titled Lift Me Up, a Power Ballad, which is the title song for the upcoming Black Panther film Wakanda Forever, set to release in theaters on November 11th. This is the first music comeback the singer has made in almost seven years following her eighth studio album Anti. One of the best albums of all time.
And fans are excited to see the Barbadian singer return to the music scene. Rihanna is also set to headline the halftime show at the 2023 Super Bowl at the State Farm Stadium in Arizona on February 12, 2023. I am so happy for this. This is like the best news. This is better than Christmas. Christmas came early. Rihanna is back.
I feel like she planned this so well for years. Everyone was like, When’s the new album coming? Including me. But when’s the new song coming? When’s the album coming? And this was very well organized and planned by Rihanna and her team. Like her being a business woman, I feel like she has an upper hand of planning and organizing things like this. She’s so smart. Coming back in the most biggest ways possible because she’s an iconic queen. So she’s headlining the Super Bowl. Oh, my God. Just to think about it. Wow.
And not only that, but this is only one of two songs that’s going to be featured from her on the upcoming Black Panther film, which I will be up in there day one. I have already stated this. Wow, what a win. What a win for women and what a win for the black culture. One time. Yes, I’m excited. I hope she performs her biggest hits. I know she’s not together with Drake anymore, but it would be awesome to have him up there to return and collab. Oh yeah. If they were able to perform like Work, what else do they have? They have so many songs together. Too Good. “I’m too good for you.” Oh, my gosh. They have so many bops together, guys. But yeah, that would be awesome.
Wouldn’t it be weird, though, to see like Tom Brady there and now thinking about it. You know he’s a prior story, but who knows? But anyway, I’m excited to see Rihanna. I know those tickets are going to be sold out, but they’re also going to be scalped really high. I’m already imagining those tickets right now. I will be just watching from TV.
I just know she’s going to follow with an album. After all, this is going to be one of the best albums I’m going to be listening to. I already know. And I feel like she’s going to come out with like a tour or something. Is this overdue? We’ve been waiting for her to come back, like Rihanna is about to come save the music industry. This is awesome and I can’t wait.
But like I said, there’s so much music out. I promise to listen to Taylor Swift’s album as well and give a full review. That’s my homework, guys. So much homework to do. But before I go re-listen to the ANTI album, I want to show my gratitude to everyone at the Daily Forty-Niner for giving me the platform to share pop culture news and everything in between on a bigger scale. Lastly, I just want to say thank you for listening. This is me, Kadie here. See you next time on Son of a Beach.
(SOUNDBITE OF “HALF.COOL” BY HEY THERE)
