Tag: music

Jury Clears Afroman of Defamation for Mocking Cops Who Raided His House

An Ohio jury on Wednesday found the rapper Afroman not liable for defaming the sheriff’s deputies who raided his house nearly four years ago.

The verdict is a free speech victory for Joseph Foreman, a.k.a. Afroman, best known for his 2000 hit “Because I Got High.” Over the course of a three-day civil trial that captured social media attention, Afroman, who appeared in court dressed in an American flag-print suit, insisted that he had a First Amendment right to make fun of the deputies who kicked down his door and pawed through his belongings. Afroman released several music videos about the incident using surveillance footage of the raid.

“I got freedom of speech. After they run around my house with guns and kick down my door, I got the right to kick a can in my back yard, use my freedom of speech, and turn my bad times into a good time, yes I do,” Afroman told jurors on Tuesday. “And I think I’m a sport for doing so, because I don’t go to their house, kick down their doors [and] then try to play the victim and sue them.”

The sheriff’s deputies, meanwhile, were reduced in court to watching full-length music videos of Afroman mocking them and testifying about how the rapper had called them “dipshits” and made claims to sleeping with their wives.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio, which filed an amicus brief in support of Afroman, applauded the verdict.

“We’re very pleased with this outcome, and we think the jury got it right. Robust protection for free speech requires leaving room for speakers to give their opinions in strong, florid, or figurative terms without fear of criminal or civil consequences,” says David Carey, deputy legal director of the ACLU of Ohio. “All the more so with speech involving criticism of government officials and their actions. Juries exercising common sense and considering the full context and actual meaning of a speaker’s words are a critical part of that system.”

Adams County, Ohio, sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant on Afroman’s house in 2022. According to a search warrant, Afroman was suspected of drug possession, drug trafficking, and kidnapping. The deputies were searching for evidence of outlandish claims from a confidential informant that the house contained a basement dungeon. 

Body camera footage of the raid showed the deputies—after the initial excitement of busting down the front door—ambling through Afroman’s house, rifling through his clothes and CDs, and trying to find false walls and secret rooms. But the hourslong search turned up no evidence to corroborate the claim of a basement dungeon. Part of the problem may have been that, as Afroman’s record label told Vice, the house did not have a basement.

Afroman was never charged with a crime.

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‘Depressed’ Neil Young Working on Anti-Trump Protest Album

Rocker Neil Young says he’s “sad” and “depressed” by the news of the day under President Donald Trump and he needs to put out a new, Anti-Trump album to express his feeling about what he called the “worst president in the history of our country.”

The Canadian citizen who only became a U.S. citizen in 2020 so he could vote against Trump, claims he is “hurt for this country.”

“Folks, I am so hurt for this country,” Young wrote on his website. “Politics today is sad and depressing for me. I can’t do it anymore. I can go out and demonstrate my feelings about it. We have the worst president in the history of our country. Every day a bad TV show produced by DJT is what we get.”

“Now, thankfully, once again, I’m in the studio recording a new album with the Chrome Hearts,” he added. “I love the songs and the feelings of life and love. Music is. So far we have eight new songs. They make me feel.”

Young, whose biggest hit was “Heart of Gold” from 1972, has been railing about President Trump since the New York business man ran for president the first time.

In January, for instance, he demanded that Americans “rise up” to fight Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which he claims is “destroying America,” despite that ICE is not in any way affect the lives of most Americans.

“Wake up people! Today The USA is a disaster” the Canadian citizen wrote at the time.

He also attempted to make a strike against Trump by gifting his music catalog to Greenland, making his public declaration in response to Trump’s pressure on Greenland to work with his administration as it seeks to secure the vital geo-political asset from threats – now and in the future.

Despite Young’s claim to want peaceful resistance, though, last May he suggested that Trump should be assassinated by adding the line “86/47” in his overheated blog.

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Live Nation employees bragged about overcharging ‘stupid’ fans: ‘Robbing them blind, baby’

Two Live Nation employees bragged about slapping customers with exorbitant fees at the entertainment giant’s venues, saying “these people are so stupid” that “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them,” according to court documents released late Wednesday.

Live Nation – which owns Ticketmaster, the company accused of gouging ticket prices for Taylor Swift fans and other concertgoers – earlier this week reached a surprise settlement with the Justice Department, though several state attorneys general are still pursuing legal action.

In a series of Slack messages from 2021 through 2023, Ben Baker and Jeff Weinhold – then regional directors of ticketing – gloated about hiking “ancillary fees” for parking and VIP packages to sky-high levels, court exhibits showed.

Messages showed Weinhold boasting about charging $250 for VIP parking at a Virginia venue and Baker gleefully recounting charging “$50 to park in the grass” and “$60 for closer grass” at another venue.

“These people are so stupid,” Baker wrote. “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them.”

In a conversation from 2022, the pair discussed the annual growth of “premier parking” at an unspecified venue, which hit $660,000 in 2021, according to a financial table in the chat.

“Robbing them blind, baby,” Baker wrote. “That’s how we do.” 

Later in that same Slack channel, the pair discussed base prices for seats at shows, and Baker wrote, “I gouge them on ancil prices to make up for it.”

Live Nation sought to distance itself from the outrageous remarks.

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Fans Outraged by Massive Cost of Tickets for Lefty Bruce Springsteen’s ‘No Kings’ Tour

Trump hater Bruce Springsteen is doing a ‘No Kings’ tour this spring to celebrate his Trump Derangement Syndrome, but fans are quickly finding out that tickets for the shows come with a king sized price.

Springsteen has faced criticism over this same issue in the past. It doesn’t look like he has changed anything, despite the complaints.

At least rich liberals will be able to afford to see the shows, right?

The New York Post reports:

Springsteen fans outraged over pricey tickets for ‘No Kings’-themed tour; ‘a woke joke’

His “Glory Days” with some fans have passed him by.

Bruce Springsteen’s fans are furious over the legendary rocker’s astronomical ticket prices for his upcoming “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour, which critics argue are unaffordable for his “working class fanbase” and contradict his Man of the People image.

The woke New Jersey billionaire is pushing the anti-President Trump “No Kings” agenda in his advertising campaign for the 20-date tour with his E Street Band — but is ironically charging prices fit for royalty, at up to $3,000 a ticket.

“I couldn’t be more disappointed in the Boss … how do these outrageous ticket prices reflect the land of hopes and dreams? The hopes and dreams of poor people who can’t afford your tickets,” one outraged fan commented on Springsteen’s Instagram post announcing the tour.

“You are also catering to upper middle class and the rich. Isn’t that what we’re fighting?”

“No Kings tour, but priced for a king. What a dbag,” another pointed out.

Is anyone really surprised by this?

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Stockholm Politicians Call For Review Of SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL Concert Over Propaganda Concerns

Stockholm politicians have raised concerns over an upcoming concert by hard rock band Slaughter To Prevail, following accusations that the group has spread Russian propaganda.

According to the Nordic Ukraine Forum, the band has engaged in messaging aligned with Russian propaganda narratives. In response, representatives from both the Moderate Party (M) and the Social Democrats (S) have reacted ahead of the band’s scheduled performance in Stockholm on Friday, January 30.

Opposition city councilor Christofer Fjellner (M) said he believes it would be inappropriate for the band to perform under the current circumstances. “I think it’s quite inappropriate. I don’t think a band that lends itself to Russian propaganda should be playing in Stockholm right now,” Fjellner told SVT Kulturnyheterna.

Stockholm’s Finance City Councilor Karin Wanngård (S) also commented on the situation, stating in a written response that the City of Stockholm is currently in dialogue with the concert organizer. According to Wanngård, the aim is to ensure that anti-democratic messages are not conveyed during the event.

Slaughter To Prevail previously performed in Gothenburg on Tuesday. Concert promoter Live Nation, which is organizing the Stockholm show, has declined to comment on SVT’s inquiries regarding the allegations. At the time of publication, the concert remains scheduled to proceed as planned.

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A MASSIVE 97% of Listeners Fooled: Can YOU Tell If This Hit Song Is Human… or AI?

In an era where the boundaries between the synthetic and the sentient blur with alarming rapidity, a sobering revelation has emerged from the sonic realm: humanity’s capacity to discern the hand of the artist from the algorithm has all but evaporated. 

A recent survey commissioned by the French streaming platform Deezer, polling 9,000 individuals across eight nations, laid bare this disquieting truth. 

Respondents were tasked with listening to two clips of music wholly conjured by artificial intelligence and one crafted by human hands; astonishingly, 97 percent failed to differentiate between them. 

Deezer’s chief executive, Alexis Lanternier, observed, “The survey results clearly show that people care about music and want to know if they’re listening to AI or human made tracks or not.” 

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ChatGPT’s Use Of Song Lyrics Violates Copyright, Munich Court Finds

  • Judges found GEMA’s claims valid, ordering OpenAI to cease reproduction and provide damages and disclosure.
  • The court said GPT-4 and GPT-4o “memorized” lyrics, amounting to reproduction under EU copyright rules.
  • The decision, not yet final, could set a major European precedent on AI training data.

Germany’s national music rights organization secured a partial but decisive win against OpenAI after a Munich court ruled that ChatGPT’s underlying models unlawfully reproduced copyrighted German song lyrics.

The ruling orders OpenAI to cease reproduction, disclose relevant training details, and compensate rights holders.

It is not yet final, and OpenAI may appeal.

If upheld, the decision could reshape how AI companies source and license creative material in Europe, as regulators weigh broader obligations for model transparency and training-data provenance.

The case marks the first time a European court has found that a large language model violated copyright by memorizing protected works.

In its decision, the 42nd Civil Chamber of the Munich I Regional Court said that GPT-4 and GPT-4o contained “reproducible” lyrics from nine well-known songs, including Kristina Bach’s “Atemlos” and Rolf Zuckowski’s “Wie schön, dass du geboren bist.”

The court held that such memorization constitutes a “fixation” of the original works in the model’s parameters, satisfying the legal definition of reproduction under Article 2 of the EU InfoSoc Directive and Germany’s Copyright Act.

“At least in individual cases, when prompted accordingly, the model produces an output whose content is at least partially identical to content from the earlier training dataset,” a translated copy of the written judgement provided by the Munich court to Decrypt reads.

The model “generates a sequence of tokens that appears statistically plausible because, for example, it was contained in the training process in a particularly stable or frequently recurring form,” the court wrote, adding that because this “token sequence appeared on a large number of publicly accessible websites“ it meant that it was “included in the training dataset more than once.”

In the pleadings, GEMA argued that the model’s output lyrics were almost verbatim when prompted, proving that OpenAI’s systems had retained and reproduced the works.

OpenAI countered that its models do not store training data directly and that any output results from user prompts, not from deliberate copying.

The company also invoked text-and-data-mining exceptions, which allow temporary reproductions for analytical use.

“We disagree with the ruling and are considering next steps,” a spokesperson for OpenAI told Decrypt. “The decision is for a limited set of lyrics and does not impact the millions of people, businesses, and developers in Germany that use our technology every day.” 

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Billboard Country Chart Topper is Completely AI Generated for the First Time

An AI-generated country song has claimed the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart.

“Walk My Walk,” by Breaking Rust, rocketed to No. 1 last week, becoming the first fully AI-produced track to achieve such a feat in the country genre.

According to Billboard, Breaking Rust is an artificial intelligence creation that burst onto the scene via Instagram in mid-October, complete with an AI-generated cowboy avatar and folksy video clips.

The band’s AI slop, including the chart-topper, features bland, interchangeable lyrics that critics say scream “machine-made” hollow verses about walking life’s path without a shred of authentic twang or soul.

Breaking Rust debuted at No. 9 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart and racked up 1.6 million official U.S. streams. Songwriting credits go to Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor, but it is actually a faceless algorithm behind it all.

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Police raid nightclub in Ukraine over Russian song

A nightclub in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa was raided by police over the weekend after reports that a Russian-language song was played and that many of the guests were singing along, according to local media.

Since the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev, Ukraine has passed several laws restricting the use of Russian in public, revoking its official status, while politicians and activists have campaigned to completely phase it out.

A video of the performance – published by Strana.ua along with photos showing police inside the Palladium nightclub – shows a DJ playing the Russian-language track ‘Glamour’ by Belarusian rappers nkeeei, uniqe, ARTEM SHILOVETS, and Wipo in front of hundreds of guests. The song reportedly prompted the police raid.

Odessa Regional Governor Oleg Kiper denounced the incident, adding that the relevant departments of the Regional Military Administration were instructed to investigate and provide a legal assessment of the nightclub’s actions.

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Zohran Mamdani Brandished Handgun in Music Video—Then Called To Ban Them

As the rapper formerly known as Young Cardamom, Zohran Mamdani donned fatigues and brandished a handgun in a music video for a song glorifying militant violence. As a politician, the socialist has called for a ban on “all guns” to remedy the “scourge of gun violence.”

The video for the 2016 song “Wabula Naawe” is “set in the Luwero Triangle in 1981 during the days leading up to the Ugandan Bush War,” our Jon Levine reports. It “opens with a spray of gunfire” before depicting “armed militants shooting firearms from the back of a truck—to the words ‘let’s get together and settle this thing once and forever.’ It later portrays a man being shot in the head at point-blank range as Mamdani raps lyrics like, ‘I’ll finish you like food on a plate,’ ‘You are about to run like a chicken,’ and, ‘You’ll pray for death.’”

“Mamdani has taken a more critical stance on firearms since entering politics,” writes Levine. As a state assemblyman, he called to “ban all guns” and voted for a bill placing restrictions on firearms marketing. He has since pledged to spearhead a “nationwide ban on assault rifles.”

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