PARTYNEXTDOOR Gifts Drake a Bespoke Maison Raksha Chain
In a dazzling display of camaraderie and artistic connection,PARTYNEXTDOORhas giftedDrakea stunning, custom-designed chain crafted by renowned jewelerMaison Raksha. This opulent piece, named '0M0,' is far more than mere adornment; it represents a convergence of Toronto's most influential creative minds and a subtle nod to the city's interwoven musical landscape.
Maison Raksha, the Toronto-born jeweler, was enlisted by PARTYNEXTDOOR for this intricate creation. The front of the pendant proudly displays '0M0,' meticulously set with 25 carats of custom-cut baguette and carré-cut diamonds, accented by elegant green tourmaline ovals. At the core of the central 'M' lies a 'V,' a deliberate design choice signifying the powerful 'union of forces' between the OVO (October's Very Own, Drake's label) and 0M0 (PARTYNEXTDOOR's brand, stylized as the eyes emoji). The pendant hangs from a substantial 100-carat, 360-degree link chain, making it a truly monumental piece.
The reverse side of the pendant reveals an equally thoughtful detail: a 22-karat gold owl rests confidently within a diamond 'Tree Hollow,' creating a sharp, striking contrast against the cool 14k white gold. This owl motif, a long-standing emblem of Drake's OVO, deepens the symbolic connection between the artists. The inspiration behind this unique piece runs even deeper, reportedly drawn from the concept of AMO (Autonomous Money Organization), an idea notably championed by Oliver El-Khatib, a key figure in Drake's OVO empire. This layered inspiration infuses the piece with a philosophical underpinning, linking it to the innovative and independent spirit that defines their collective work.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Lollapalooza 2025: What to know for Day 1
Here's what to know as Lollapalooza kicks off in Grant Park. The gates are open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Main gates are located at Michigan Avenue and Ida B. Wells Drive and the North Entrance is located at Monroe Street and Columbus Drive. For more information about your wristband, travel and what to bring, check our top 10 tips for attending, as well as Lollapalooza's bag policy and wristband assistance and activation pages. Metra is adding extra trains with added railcars daily on most lines. For details on your CTA route, visit the CTA Lollapalooza page and consult their website for up-to-date information on delays and closures. Lollapalooza also has a travel guide. Tyler, the Creator (T-Mobile stage at 9 p.m.) and Luke Combs (Bud Light stage at 8:30 p.m.) are the opening day headliners. As for artists not to miss, Tribune music writer Britt Julious also recommends Durand Bernarr (T-Mobile stage at 3 p.m.) and Ratboys (Bud Light stage at 1:30 p.m.). Her music guide has critic's picks by day through Sunday. Luke Combs will be Lollapalooza's first-ever country music festival closer. Other artists playing Thursday include Gracie Abrams, Dom Dolla, Cage the Elephant, Role Model and Mau P. Official Lollapalooza aftershows Thursday night include Gigi Perez at Bottom Lounge, Still Woozy at House of Blues, Bleachers at Metro, Djo at Salt Shed and Amaarae at Thalia Hall. Lollapalooza has a full list of official aftershows. Fans on social media are eager to bust through the gates and officially commence Lollapalooza 2025. TikTok users are sharing their top tips, favorite footage from previous years, weather predictions and outfits. A trending overall festival topic is the strong female lineup this year, with performances by Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams. Today specifically though, Tyler, the Creator's headlining set has been a big topic of conversation, with fans saying his performance should have been scheduled for Saturday or Sunday. Rain is not predicted during festival hours and overall the weather outlook is pleasant, with a high of 74 and a low of 65 degrees. Humidity will be moderate and depending on early morning precipitation, there's a possibility for a frequent staple of Lollapalooza: mud. With North Carolina-born Luke Combs performing Thursday night, there's likely to be no shortage of country-inspired outfits: cowboy hats, denim and cowboy boots. Gracie Abrams (7 p.m. on T-Mobile) and Cage the Elephant (6:45 p.m. on Bud Light) have overlapping sets this afternoon, so be sure to plan accordingly. Other bands such as Glass Beams (5:15 p.m. Grove) clash times with higher-profile artists, so plenty of traffic should be anticipated across those stages. Reddit users have expressed frustration about other clashing sets on Saturday, including Doechii and Clairo and Rüfüs Du Sol and Festivalgoers will be choosing between country music and hip hop Thursday night. Exits, surrounding streets and the CTA will be packed when those performances end at 10 musicians are coming for Lollapalooza, Riot Fest and North Coast. Here are their favorite Chicago restaurants.
New York Post
7 hours ago
- New York Post
Eugenie Bouchard fights back tears after last tennis match of career
Eugenie Bouchard couldn't contain her emotions on Wednesday night as the tennis star said goodbye to the sport she loves for one final time after falling in the National Bank Open in Montreal. Bouchard, 31, addressed the crowd after she fell to No. 17 seed Belinda Bencic, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in the final singles match of her professional tennis career. She confirmed earlier in July that she planned to play her final tournament in her hometown and struggled to compose herself as she spoke to the crowd. 'Tennis has given me so much. I am filled with so much gratitude for this sport and the people that helped me along the way,' she said before pausing momentarily to collect herself. 'I want to thank my mom, dad, sisters, & brother for their sacrifice and support. I want you to know, when this crowd cheers for me, they're cheering for you too. I wouldn't be here without you. 'Also to all the coaches, physios, trainers, everyone I've worked with. You all know who you are. Because of your hard work I was able to live out my dreams, thank you!' Bouchard had a memorable career, becoming the first Canadian-born player representing Canada to reach a Grand Slam singles final and the first Canadian to rank in the WTA's top 5. She reached the semifinals in the 2014 Australian Open and the French Open and made it to the final at Wimbledon that year, where she lost to Petra Kvitova. 'With her standout achievements on court and engagement with fans, Genie has inspired a generation of young Canadians and helped grow the popularity of tennis around the world. On behalf of the WTA, I wish her every happiness and success as she sets out to conquer fresh challenges,' WTA CEO Portia Archer said in a statement on Wednesday night. An emotional Eugenie Bouchard waves to the crowd during her retirement ceremony after she fell in the final singles match of her professional tennis career on July 30, 2025. David Kirouac-Imagn Images Before her final match on Wednesday, actor and star of the hit CBS sitcom 'Big Bang Theory' Jim Parsons wrote a heartfelt tribute to Bouchard, recalling the wild ride he experienced following her run at Wimbledon in 2014. Parsons recalled how he and his husband, Todd Spiewak, were invited to watch Bouchard play after they were introduced to each other by their managers. After schedules were sorted, Parsons and Spiewak flew to London to watch the Canadian star make it all the way to the final round. Eugenie Bouchard gets emotional during her retirement ceremony on July 30, 2025. Getty Images 'I will be rooting for her, this time on TV again… Whatever the result of the match and this tournament, if Genie is really hanging up the racket, at least as a professional, I wanted to write this congratulations/thank you/ode to her, in case,' he wrote. 'Genie, I will never forget the steely focus and icy resolve you had as a player, something I may not have understood had you not invited me into your world to witness up close… 'Congratulations on all you've accomplished. Thank you — and your whole family—for being so inclusive to us groupies for two weeks in Wimbledon.'
Boston Globe
15 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Thomas Sayers Ellis, poet of ‘percussive prosody,' dies at 61
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Mr. Ellis's high school nickname was Sticks, not just because he deployed them on the drums but also because he was skinny. In a poem with that title, he used the language of percussion to connect the violence he saw in his father, whose strength he revered as a child, with his own development as a writer: Advertisement I discovered writing, How words are parts of speech With beats and breaths of their own. Interjections like flams. Wham! Bam! He went on: My first attempts were filled with noise, Wild solos, violent uncontrollable blows. The page tightened like a drum Resisting the clockwise twisting Advertisement Of a handheld chrome key Poet and composer Janice Lowe, another Dark Room founder, said in an interview that Mr. Ellis's work was 'very much rooted in musicality, in all kinds of Black musical and linguistic traditions and in the way people play with language.' She added, 'It can fly you into the surreal, into jazz or film, or root you in something familial -- whatever he was dialoguing with -- but it never rests, never stays in the familiar. It always travels and transforms and transgresses.' Mr. Ellis was prone to linguistic pyrotechnics, both on and off the page. He was an omnivorous reader of the literary canon and an avid book collector, particularly of those writers not yet in the canon, notably people of color. He was also a film, poetry, and music buff whose interests ranged from Gertrude Stein and French New Wave films to Bootsy Collins and George Clinton. In 1986, he was living in a Victorian house in Cambridge, with poet Sharan Strange and others when he and Strange began putting together a library of works by Black authors of the diaspora. They housed it in a former darkroom on the third floor, and they called the collection 'The Dark Room,' a name they liked as a pun for a room full of 'Black books,' as Strange wrote in an essay for the literary magazine Mosaic in 2006. When James Baldwin died the next year, Mr. Ellis, Strange and their housemates made a pilgrimage to his funeral in New York City. It was a heady literary event -- Toni Morrison, William Styron, Maya Angelou, and Amiri Baraka all delivered eulogies -- and it galvanized them to create a collective that would honor and support writers of color. They already had a name, the Dark Room, and, with Lowe, they began to host readings in their living room. Advertisement They were electric events, with music and art installations, and everyone wanted in. Alice Walker called and asked to read. Derek Walcott, the Caribbean-born Nobel Prize winner, read, and so did Michael S. Harper, the poet laureate of Rhode Island. The collective grew to include, among many others, Kevin Young, now the poetry editor of The New Yorker, and Pulitzer Prize winners Tracy K. Smith and Natasha Trethewey, the country's poet laureate from 2012 to 2014. Jeff Gordinier, writing in The New York Times in 2014, called the Dark Room 'a flash of literary lightning' akin to the Beat poets and the Black Arts Movement. The collective lasted, in various forms, until 1998, and the members held reunions in subsequent years. 'You need other people who think like you, maybe, who read like you, maybe, who walk and breathe like you, maybe,' Mr. Ellis told an audience in Santa Fe in 2013 during one reunion tour. 'You think you're adding something that's needed, that you don't see. There's something about that, that never ends, no matter who you are and where you are.' In a poem that Mr. Ellis titled 'T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. (The Awesome Power of a Fully-Operational Memory),' he wrote: Memory, Walcott says, moves backwards. If this is true, your memory is a mothership minus the disco-sadistic silver all stars need to shine. Tell the world. A positive nuisance. Da bomb. When that poem was included in 'The Best American Poetry 2001,' he had this to say about it, in an author's note: Advertisement 'In the poem, I am working on my own brand of literary activism, which I call Genuine Negro Heroism. Genuine Negro Heroism (GNH) is the opposite of HNIC (Head Negro In Charge), and incorporates pee-pure modes of black freak, black folk, and black soul behavior.' Thomas Sayers Ellis was born Oct. 5, 1963, in Washington. His mother, Jeannette (Forbes) Ellis, managed a restaurant; his father, Thomas Ellis, was a pipe mechanic. Thomas Ellis attended Dunbar High School but spent much of his time at the city's block parties and go-go clubs. His girlfriend at the time, Sandra Andrews, gave birth to his son, Finn, when he was 17 and she was 19. Mr. Ellis attended Alabama State University on a scholarship and then moved to Cambridge, where he took classes at Harvard with poet Seamus Heaney. 'In a city where everybody acts like they've read everything,' poet and publisher Askold Melnyczuk said of Cambridge, 'he actually had.' Melnyczuk was an early booster of Mr. Ellis's; he included his work in 'Take Three: Agni New Poets Series' (1996), which he edited. In addition to 'The Maverick Room,' Mr. Ellis was the author of the chapbook 'The Genuine Negro Hero' (2001), 'Skin Inc.: Identity Repair Poems' (2010), and 'Crank Shaped Notes' (2021), a collection of poems, essays and photos about the go-go music he loved. Mr. Ellis, who had taken photos since his go-go days, was a sharp street and portrait photographer. He earned a master of fine arts from Brown University in 1995. He taught at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., among other institutions, and earned numerous awards and fellowships, including a Guggenheim. Advertisement In 2014, he and jazz saxophonist James Brandon Lewis formed a band they called Heroes Are Gang Leaders, after a chapter in Amiri Baraka's 1967 collection of short fiction, 'Tales.' Playing an enticing mashup of poetry, jazz, funk and more, the group swelled to 12 members and performed with such guests as Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, singer and poet Lydia Lunch, and jazz bassist William Parker. Mr. Ellis and Lewis often squabbled during rehearsals. Mr. Ellis had a habit of recording jam sessions and then memorizing the music, and he was annoyed when they weren't later reproduced, down to the note. 'His memory was phenomenal, and he'd get so irritated,' Lewis said in an interview. 'I'd say: 'Thomas, we're improvising. We're not supposed to be memorizing.'' In addition to his son, Andrews, Mr. Ellis leaves a brother, James; four grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter. In early 2016, a year before the #MeToo movement took off, Mr. Ellis was a visiting professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop when a women's literary group known as Vida published, online, a collection of anonymous accounts of what it said was sexual misconduct by Mr. Ellis. His classes were canceled, and Jia Tolentino, writing in Jezebel, reported on the Vida post and its ethics in an article headlined 'Is This the End of the Era of the Important, Inappropriate Literary Man?' The New Republic picked up the story, as fodder for a piece about the workshop's reputation for the bad behavior of its male professors. For his part, Mr. Ellis made no public comment about the incident. Soon after, he moved to St. Petersburg, and he was named the city's first photo laureate in 2023. Advertisement 'Language is always changing,' Mr. Ellis told The Missoula Independent, a weekly independent newspaper in Montana, in 2009. 'Language is not finished. Language is the thing that if you stay connected to it like I do, eat it enough, carry it with you enough, it will rejuvenate you. 'I don't mean 'save you' in a religious sense, but it will save you from a certain kind of dogma or mundane, boring existence.' This article originally appeared in
