Latest news with #Hop
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lil Wayne's ‘Tha Carter VI' album and tour mark a major return for the Hip Hop icon
Key Takeaways: Trending 13 BET Awards tribute performances that still give viewers chills 21 of the sexiest women alive, from Hip Hop to Hollywood 7 athletes whose style screams rap star energy Lil Wayne's new album, Tha Carter VI, blends multiple genres with features from Bono, Wyclef Jean and his own children. The 2025 'Carter VI Tour' spans 34 North American cities, kicking off with Weezy's first solo headlining show at Madison Square Garden. Despite skipping New Orleans, Wayne's team hints at a special Lil Weezyana Fest appearance to honor his hometown roots. After a seven-year wait, Lil Wayne has officially released Tha Carter VI, a 19-track project that both extends and redefines his legendary Carter series. The album arrived on Friday (June 6), the same day Wayne will take the stage at Madison Square Garden for his first-ever solo headlining performance at the iconic venue. Wayne's latest work blends old-school flair and forward-thinking experimentation. The album features an array of unexpected collaborators, including BigXthaPlug, Wyclef Jean, Andrea Bocelli, Kodak Black, 2 Chainz, MGK and two of Wayne's children. The project moves between trap, soul, rock, opera and gospel influences with confidence, reflecting a decades-long career marked by reinvention and range. 'This album is for the ones who've been riding with me through all Tha Carters. We takin' it further than ever before with this one,' Wayne said in a press release. 'C6 is here. I'm just bein' myself. Sorry for the wait.' Throughout Tha Carter VI, Lil Wayne leans into his status as a rap elder without losing the hunger that's kept him relevant. Standouts like 'Written History,' which closes the album with a powerful Muhammad Ali sample, and 'Bein Myself,' a collaboration with Mannie Fresh, reaffirm his lyrical sharpness and unshakable identity. Elsewhere, he showcases a willingness to evolve, pairing with U2's Bono and Jelly Roll on 'The Days' and 'Sharks,' respectively, or crossing into (familiar) rock territory on 'If I Played Guitar.' Wayne even reflects on his traumas, particularly on 'Maria,' where he raps about childhood abuse and his infamous self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 12. These moments provide rare glimpses behind the tattoos and shades. And despite the wide range of features, C6 remains centered on Wayne's voice, creativity and vulnerability. Much like the album, the 'Tha Carter VI Tour' looks to kick off with high energy (beginning with his aforementioned MSG show) and features over 30 dates across North America. Tyga, NoCap and Belly Gang Kushington will also provide support on select stops. Notably absent, however, is Wayne's hometown of New Orleans — something that's sparked social media speculation given his absence from the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show. Still, fans in the Crescent City may not be left out for long. Wayne's team has teased 'something special' for the next Lil Weezyana Fest, hinting that a more personal celebration is on the horizon. In the meantime, fans can get their fix through Wayne's online store, which features Tha Carter VI merch, vinyl bundles and more. You Might Also Like Every NBA Finals from 2015 to 2024 matched with the rap songs that defined them SiR says Drake pulled the plug on his 2024 concert just for being TDE
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Billionaires Stanley Druckenmiller and Stephen Mandel Both Exited Their Stakes in Nvidia and Have Piled Into This Leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Instead
Quarterly-filed Form 13Fs offer investors a way to track which stocks Wall Street's preeminent money managers are buying and selling. Over a 12-to-15-month span following June 2023, Duquesne Family Office's Stanley Druckenmiller and Lone Pine Capital's Stephen Mandel sent their respective Nvidia positions packing. However, these two billionaire asset managers can't stop buying a world-leading chip company that plays an indispensable role for the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › Data is Wall Street's currency, and there's an abundance of it to go around. Between earnings season -- the six-week stretch each quarter where most S&P 500 companies report their operating results -- and economic data releases, there's an almost overwhelming amount of information for investors to absorb. Occasionally, something important can fall through the cracks. For example, May 15 marked the deadline for institutional investors overseeing at least $100 million in assets under management to file Form 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission -- and you might have missed it. This filing, which is due no later than 45 calendar days following the end to a quarter, details which stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and (select) stock options Wall Street's brightest money managers purchased and sold in the latest quarter. It can offer big-time clues as to which influential stocks are garnering interest or falling out of favor. While Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett is the stock market's most-followed money manager, he's far from the only billionaire investor known to move markets. For instance, Duquesne Family Office's Stanley Druckenmiller and Lone Pine Capital's Stephen Mandel have exemplary investment track records of their own, along with billions of dollars in assets under management. What's particularly noteworthy about the first-quarter 13Fs from Druckenmiller's and Mandel's respective funds has been their approach to the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. Both billionaires have dumped the preeminent AI stock on Wall Street in favor of a company that's critical to enterprise AI data centers. With the analysts at PwC pegging the addressable market for artificial intelligence at $15.7 trillion by 2030, there's room for hundreds of businesses to get their piece of the pie. However, no company has been a more direct beneficiary of the evolution of AI than Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). It's also the stock billionaires Stanley Druckenmiller and Stephen Mandel sent packing. Accounting for Nvidia's 10-for-1 forward split in June 2024, Duquesne Family Office held 9,500,750 shares in the June-ended quarter of 2023. Meanwhile, Lone Pine Capital possessed 6,416,490 shares of Nvidia, also at the end of June 2023. But over the following 15 months for Druckenmiller and 12 months for Mandel, both billionaires would oversee the complete purge of their respective fund's Nvidia holdings. While there's no denying that Nvidia's Hopper (H100) graphics processing unit (GPU) and Blackwell GPU architecture are the preferred options in AI-accelerated data centers, and it's pretty clear that no other external competitors are particularly close to challenging Nvidia's hardware in terms of compute abilities, there are still viable reasons for Druckenmiller and Mandel to have cashed in their chips. One obvious reason to sell is simple profit-taking. Nvidia stock skyrocketed from early 2023 into late 2024, which increased its valuation by more than $3 trillion. We've never witnessed a megacap business add $3 trillion in market cap so quickly before, which may have encouraged these two billionaires to lock in their gains. But there might be more than just profit-taking behind this selling activity. For instance, it's only logical to expect competitive pressures to mount in the hardware arena. Even though Hopper and Blackwell hold most of the AI-GPU market share in high-compute data centers, external competitors are ramping up production of existing chips and bringing more energy-efficient hardware to market. What's more, many of Nvidia's top customers by net sales are developing AI-GPUs and AI solutions of their own. Even though these chips aren't going to be as fast as the Hopper or Blackwell, they're expected to be considerably cheaper and they won't be backlogged like Nvidia's hardware. This is a direct threat to the AI-GPU scarcity that's afforded Nvidia superior pricing power for its GPUs. History isn't exactly in Nvidia's corner, either. Despite AI supporting a lofty addressable market, every next-big-thing technology and innovation for more than three decades has endured an early stage bubble-bursting event. In short, investors have a historically strong tendency to overestimate how quickly a new innovation will gain utility and be adopted on a mainstream basis. With artificial intelligence likely needing time to mature as a technology, it's the most-direct beneficiary, Nvidia, which could feel the pain if a bubble forms and bursts. While Duquesne's and Lone Pine's billionaire chiefs pared down the number of stocks they're holding amid a volatile first quarter, there's one artificial intelligence stock both have been buying -- and it plays a vital role in the expansion of AI-accelerated data centers. The new AI apple of Druckenmiller's and Mandel's eye is none other than leading chip fabrication company Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM), which is more commonly known as "TSMC." Duquesne more than quintupled its existing stake by adding 491,265 shares of TSMC during the March-ended quarter, while Lone Pine's 13F shows that 104,937 shares of TSMC were purchased in the first quarter of 2025. Most AI-GPU companies rely on Taiwan Semi's fabrication services, including industry leader Nvidia and key rival Advanced Micro Devices. TSMC is in the process of rapidly expanding its monthly chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) capacity from approximately 35,000 units in 2024 to an estimated 135,000 units monthly by 2026. CoWoS is a technology used to package high-bandwidth memory, which is necessary for high-compute data centers where software and systems are making split-second decisions. With demand for AI-GPUs overwhelming their supply over the last two years, TSMC has enjoyed a significant backlog for its chip fabrication services and has seen more its net sales skew toward high-performance computing, which can yield higher margins for the company. On a year-over-year basis, TSMC's net sales from high-performance computing surged from 46% to 59%, as of the March-ended quarter. Although the possible bursting of an AI bubble would be a concern for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the company's order backlog and revenue diversification offers some semblance of protection. For instance, 28% of net sales in the first quarter derived from advanced chips used in smartphones. Apple prominently leans on TSMC for the chips used in the iPhone. The great thing about smartphones and wireless service access is they've both evolved into basic necessities for most Americans. Even though demand for smartphone chips isn't growing as quickly as it once did, the cash flow from this segment tends to be highly predictable for TSMC. Taiwan Semi has a long runway of opportunity in Internet of Things and automotive, as well. As homes and vehicles become more technology-dependent, companies like TSMC will be relied on to manufacture these advanced chips. Lastly, Druckenmiller and Mandel may have been encouraged by the dip in Taiwan Semiconductor's stock in the first quarter. Though TSMC stock isn't (currently) historically inexpensive, its shares did drop to a forward price-to-earnings ratio of nearly 15 during tail-end of the March quarter. This makes for an attractive multiple, when compared to Nvidia. Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $651,049!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $828,224!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 979% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 Sean Williams has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Billionaires Stanley Druckenmiller and Stephen Mandel Both Exited Their Stakes in Nvidia and Have Piled Into This Leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Instead was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Forbes
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Zac Brown Band's John Driskell Hopkins Battles ALS With Strength, Courage & Hope For A Cure
Singer, Songwriter and Multi-instrumentalist John Driskell Hopkins ("Hop") Three-time GRAMMY winner John Driskell Hopkins, who friends and family call 'Hop,' is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He's also a founding member of the Zac Brown Band. The close-knit Georgia-based group has been together a long time. 'I've been in the band 20 years, and we all come from Atlanta,' he says. 'We were grown when we started playing together but have continued to grow together over the past two decades and we are certainly family.' That sense of family has shined through as Hop battles ALS, an incurable, progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. (ALS is also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease after the famous major league baseball player who died from it in 1941.) Hop continues touring with Zac Brown, writing songs, playing multiple instruments, and singing harmony, but has slowed down some, as he works to keep pace with his changing body. The Zac Brown Band perform onstage during Zac Brown Band Special New Year's Eve Show at State Farm ... More Arena on December 31, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by) About five years ago, he began noticing small signs that something was 'off' physically. 'The first thing I noticed was my strum in 2019,' he recalls. 'But it took two-and-a-half years to figure out what was going on.' Doctors eventually got the answer and delivered the news to Hop and his wife on December 22, 2021. 'My wife started crying," Hop recalls. "And I didn't know much about ALS, but I knew it was bad. The doctor said ALS is a two-to-five-year diagnosis before you're gone.' He immediately began thinking about what it would mean for his young daughters. 'I spent the night trying to figure out what to say to the girls and how to plan for wrapping up the next 30 years in a moment. I started thinking, if I'm going to die in two years, what do my daughters need to hear from me? The only thing I could come up with that sums it all up was 'I Love You Forever.' The phrase would evolve into a song. 'It started slowly with those few words and turned into a forecasting of fatherly wisdom," he says. 'Hopefully it's a message that will transcend my passing.' Since learning he has ALS, Hop has focused on continuing to create music, spending time with family, and forming an organization to raise money for ALS research. His family and fellow Zac Brown Band members have rallied behind him. His wife, Jennifer, co-founded 'Hop For A Cure,' and his brother, David Hopkins, left his theater teaching job to run it. Logo for John Driskell Hopkin's "Hop On A Cure" Foundation In a little over three years, 'Hop For A Cure' has raised enough money to grant over 4.1 million dollars in ALS research grants. Hop's brother says the race is on to learn so much more about a disease that remains such a mystery. 'We are raising as much money as we can, as quickly as we can, because research for ALS is underfunded,' says David Hopkins. 'The reality is nobody really understands this disease. They don't realize people lose their motor neurons and become 'locked in.' The brain stops transmitting to the muscles, so people with ALS lose their ability to move, eat, speak, and ultimately breathe.' And yet, it has no effect on cognitive skills. Those who eventually feel their body shutting down around them remain mentally sharp throughout the progression of the disease. Recently, researchers have discovered 10-percent of ALS cases may be familial (have a genetic tie), but there is no clear reason for the other 90-percent of cases diagnosed. Hop's case falls into that broader category. The Recording Academy has been following Hop's journey for a segment in their video series Family Matters. Hop, his wife and brother, members of Zac Brown Band, and others were featured. It looks at the early days of the band, its evolving success, Hop's many contributions, then some of the changes in music, and in life, as his ALS has progressed. It's honest, emotional, but also has bits of humor - offering a little levity as everyone deals with the heavy challenges of Hop's disease. While there's no set date yet for when the Family Matters episode will be made available to the public, the Recording Academy held a special screening in Nashville last week to coincide with ALS Awareness Month. Many who appear in the film were on hand for a panel discussion afterward. Pictured L-R: Paul Maderia (Sr. Managing Director/Executive Producer, The Recording Academy), Matt ... More Mangano (Zac Brown Band Member), Jennifer Hopkins (Co-Founder of Hop On A Cure), John Driskell Hopkins, Dr. Richard Bedlack (Duke University ALS Clinic), David Hopkins (VP of Community Investments, Hop On A Cure), Alicia Warwick (Sr. Executive Director of The Recording Academy Nashville Chapter) ALS affects everyone differently and Hop is grateful his progression has been slow. 'I'm lucky,' he admits. 'I'm not in a wheelchair yet, but I do use a cane. I have no atrophy and my fingers all work. My voice is slowing, my range is slowing, and my breath control is suffering. Here he stops, smiles, then adds, 'But I'm still singing it, so I'm still bringing it.' John Driskell Hopkins "Hop" He's also continuing to write songs. He sees music as a big part of his legacy. 'So many people have fond memories of those that have passed and those that have taught them things or influenced them in some way. But hopefully, my music will live forever. Even after the lessons have been taught, the feelings shared, and the life spent, the music continues to be played.' His song for his daughters is one small part of that. He hopes it will not only comfort them in the years ahead but also touch the hearts of others. 'I want it to be as meaningful to everyone as it is to us. I feel like we don't say it enough.' John Driskell Hopkins with his wife and daughters. Hop says when they first got the diagnosis, he and his wife considered the possibility of pulling out of the spotlight and retiring, concerned at how difficult it might be for his daughters to have their family's difficult journey made public. But he says he wants them to know that whatever happens, he fought ALS to the end. 'I want them to know we've done everything we can and the only way to fix this is to use the platform we've been given to make our own impact and raise money for research to fix it. The only way any of us get out of this is finding a way to heal motor neurons. And when we do, we'll find a way to beat ALS, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and several others that fall into that motor neuron category.' To learn more about ALS and how you can help through his foundation, visit
IOL News
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
The Centenary of Afrikaans as an Official Language: From Beacon to Bludgeon
IOL EFF MP Carl Niehaus slams Afrikaans at 100, calling it a fallen language of exclusion—not celebration—and urges a radical reclaiming of its lost dignity. Image: File By Carl Niehaus This year, South Africa commemorates the centenary of Afrikaans as an official language, a milestone that ought to inspire pride but instead lays bare a troubling reality. What was once a language of profound literary and cultural potential has been vulgarized, stripped of its intellectual and artistic depth, and transformed into something far uglier: a cabal exclusionist sjambok, wielded to beat down, abuse, and insult other cultures. Far from being a beacon of cultural advancement and upliftment, Afrikaans has, in many contemporary contexts, devolved into a crude instrument of white supremacy, separatism, and exclusion—a language of the gutter, its once-vibrant legacy now akin to stinking sewer water seeping down the roads of our shared nation. The Afrikaans of yesteryear bore the hallmarks of greatness. Writers like N.P. van Wyk Louw, D.J. Opperman, Breyten Breytenbach, and André Brink crafted works of staggering depth, their poetry and prose wrestling with the complexities of identity, history, and humanity. Etienne Leroux's Magersfontein, O Magersfontein! stood as a literary monument, dissecting the Afrikaner psyche with wit and existential gravitas. This was a language that could transcend race and culture, its music and literature capable of stirring souls across divides. Afrikaans was once a vehicle for universal truths, a medium through which the human condition could be explored with elegance and empathy. Today, that legacy feels like a distant memory. The cultural output of modern Afrikaans has largely abandoned sophistication for banality, pandering to the most simplistic and base instincts of its audience. Popular music, exemplified by the likes of Kurt Darren's Hop, Hop, Spinnekop—with its repetitive three-word chorus and rudimentary rhyme—lacks the ambition to inspire or endure. Literature and art, too, have lost their intellectual rigor, replaced by creations that prioritize accessibility over depth, amusement over meaning. The Afrikaans cultural scene, once a crucible of creativity, now revels in its coarseness, its offerings devoid of the transcendence that once defined them. This vulgarization is not merely a cultural decline; it is a betrayal of what Afrikaans could have been. Worse still, the language has been weaponized, twisted into a tool of division and domination. Instead of fostering unity or advancing shared cultural ideals, Afrikaans has, in many instances, become a vulgar racist instrument, used to swear at, insult, and demean fellow South Africans. It is no longer the kombuistaal—the 'kitchen language' spoken by ordinary people, workers, and communities with a shared sense of humanity. Today, it often feels like a language of the gutter, its words dripping with the venom of exclusion, separatism, and white supremacist undertones. The sjambok of Afrikaans is brandished not to uplift but to lash out, to assert dominance over others, and to entrench division in a nation already scarred by its past. This transformation is deeply striking, a wound to the soul of what Afrikaans once represented. The language's potential to bridge divides has been squandered, replaced by a rhetoric of cultural self-determination that often masks a desire for isolation and superiority. Figures like Kallie Kriel and Ernst Roets advocate for the protection of Afrikaans and Afrikaner culture, but their vision seems to protect little more than a hollow shell. What is there to safeguard when the language's modern expressions are so often crude, divisive, and devoid of intellectual or moral substance? Dololo—nothing. The Afrikaans they defend feels like a relic, its vitality drained by a refusal to evolve, to embrace inclusivity, or to reclaim the universal aspirations of its literary giants. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ Where is the Afrikaner intelligentsia in this moment of crisis? Have they, too, abandoned their language, repelled by the rudeness and crudeness of its contemporary manifestations? One cannot blame them entirely. The Afrikaans of today, in its worst incarnations, is a far cry from the language that once produced works of global significance. Its descent into a tool of racial and cultural exclusion has alienated those who might have carried its torch forward. The intellectuals, the artists, the thinkers who could have revitalized Afrikaans seem to have retreated, leaving the language to be defined by its loudest, most divisive voices. The centenary of Afrikaans as an official language should have been an opportunity to celebrate a living, evolving culture—one that uplifts, unites, and inspires. Instead, it serves as a requiem for a language that has lost its way. Afrikaans could have been a beacon, illuminating paths toward mutual understanding and cultural richness in a diverse South Africa. Yet, in its current state, it often feels like a sewer, its potential drowned in the muck of prejudice and pettiness. To reclaim Afrikaans, to restore its dignity, requires a radical reimagining—a rejection of its role as a weapon of exclusion and a return to its roots as a language of humanity, creativity, and connection. Without such a reckoning, the centenary is not a celebration but a lament, a reminder of how far Afrikaans has fallen from its once-lofty heights. Carl Niehaus is an EFF Member of Parliament (MP) * The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.
NZ Herald
30-04-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Westpac online banking suffers glitch, apologises after customers left frustrated
'We apologise for the inconvenience, our tech teams are looking into this with urgency.' Westpac One was unavailable for both browser and app (iOS and Android) users. However, the bank said card services and ATMs were unaffected and scheduled payments were working as normal. The technical glitch left customers frustrated that they could not complete online transactions. At least one customer was unable to pay for petrol to get to work. 'A text would have been great so people aren't stressing. I was literally trying to do a transfer but couldn't get in,' one person said on Facebook. Another said their daughter was trying to top up a Hop card but couldn't. 'This happens at least once a week, I have bills to pay and can't access my account!!!!!,' another said. Others might be a little late for work: 'Sucks Much! Can't even transfer funds to Gas my Car this morning.' A peak of 581 people had reported an outage on Downdetector.
